i’m so glad someone posted this. my roommates and i were utterly nauseated a few months back when we watched this episode. i also highly recommend the segment from episode 7 that they describe as “a young man’s struggle for independence from his mother.” ira glass, thank you.
in other, somewhat related news of unbearable discrimination, nik’s parents took him (my genderqueer boif) out for cheesesteaks in philly a few months back at a joint that is proud to hang signs that say “This is America— (when ordering) speak english”. Fox news was (surprise) quick to come to the owner’s defense when the media picked up on this, and ruled the signs “not discriminatory”. Sure— except that there are also signs that are openly anti-gay and otherwise racist hanging along side the “English Only” signs. This is not a case of, ‘out of curtosy for others, please expedite your order’— more like, “no Irish need apply”. But, like this Chicago joint, Gino’s Steaks has only gotten more business thanks to the press coverage, inciting bigoted glee from like-minded now-customers.
maybe time for a pilgrimage with some “steaks for bigots only” signs in hand?
This American Life did a segment last year for their Showtime show on the Wiener Circle here in Chicago. I’m glad they don’t gloss over the obvious racist dynamic at work there. I think that’s why i’ve never gone there. That and the fact that i don’t like Chicago style hot dogs.I guess I’m naive enough to be rather shocked by this. Maybe I think too highly of people. But between this and some of the things that Britt has written on her blog, I guess I just don’t see this stuff happening at all. It’s so funny how I’m from a part of the country that a majority of Americans consider a wasteland of racism and intolerance, and yet this happens in a northern metropolitan city, in the state of our first successful black president candidate. The irony is astounding, but I can tell you this much: this would never happen where I come from.
