(Image: CHS)
KNDD, Seattle’s Entercom-backed “alternative rock” station, is once again sponsoring the Taco Truck Challenge and “¡Fiesta 5K Olé!” in Volunteer Park but the station’s management is distancing itself from any controversy related to the fourth year of the event.
With increased awareness of negative stereotypes sometimes reinforced by Cinco de Mayo promotions and events, organizers hope Saturday’s KNDD fiesta mixing taco trucks, booze, and runners won’t represent some of the worst elements of cultural misappropriation.
“Our intention has never been to offend, but to provide a fun event involving food trucks, running, and live music,” KNDD event director Ryan Schroeder told CHS last month. “Following last year’s event we received feedback and are taking it all into consideration as we continue in the planning stages of this year’s event.”
But there’s nothing in the event’s 2015 promotional material, web sites, or social media feeds explicitly discouraging runners in serapes and sombreros with fake mustaches and maracas (or worse).
Garett Michaels, program director at KNDD, chose only to clarify with CHS that the taco truck portion of the event is managed by KNDD while the run is organized a separate production company. Michaels did not respond to our follow-up question about addressing sensitivity issues around the race.
In the big scheme of things, there are, indeed, worse displays of racism in Seattle than dressing as a bullfighter for a fun run. But the run and taco truck gathering with a Cinco de Mayo party theme seems fully out of step with its host neighborhood… sigh, well, not completely out of step…
But you get the idea.
Fortunately for anybody offended by the party, this could be the final year for the Fiesta 5K and Taco Truck Challenge in Volunteer Park. Organizers have told the city’s special events planning committee that they’re considering a move to Gas Works.
Give me a break…. we are getting way to politically correct about everything.
so when you are in Mexico and you see a Mexican national wearing a trucker cap and tee shirt is he a raciest?
I’m not sure if he’s a raciest or racist, but is he at an event intended to celebrate US culture? Is he wearing it ironically, or because he likes hats and t-shirts?
You can whine about political correctness like it’s the 1990s (seriously, that term is sorta worn out), but it’s pretty disingenuous pretend it’s not about stereotyping. Whether or not you or I should be outraged (or the degree of our outrage) is more of a personal matter. I can say it doesn’t bother me (I’m white; why would it?), while still understanding that it bothers others.
And to those who think it’s perfectly cool to celebrate Mexican culture by dressing up in a sombrero and a fake mustache: would you show up at an event celebrating Black History month (or whatever) in blackface and an afro? If not, is that political correctness run amok too?
Also, I grew up in a majority Hispanic area of Los Angeles, and you can be pretty sure that us white kids wouldn’t have even thought to dress up like a cholo for fun.
Though we did have parties with pinatas, because CANDY.
Thanks herpaderpa (hehe) – I am Mexican-American and you are right this isn’t about “political correctness” – it’s about watching my culture turn into mustaches and sombreros, a fun little theme. Only the unaffected call it out as PC. I go no where near that event and I think it is in poor taste.
Also: pinatas are for everybody! You get the idea- candy, the catharsis of hitting a paper mache cartoon character….oh, childhood.
It’s great that you have been able to live your life with so few demeaning assumptions made about you because of the way you were born (brown, female, poor, or in any other way deviating from the ideal, standard, white, male, straight human) that you haven’t reached the point where you are just sick of it. But why can’t you believe that other reasonable, intelligent people with experiences different than yours find this, on top of everything else they have experienced in their lives, annoying, racist, and just too much?
I am a brown person who finds this race stupid and insensitive the way most institutions and cultural assumptions in this country are, and I have had enough of it all, including this.
It’s fun to have a taco truck challenge that features exactly one truck that serves tacos, or anything resembling Mexican food.
Give me a break! Comparing a sombrero with black face is ridiculous don’t even go there.
So if you are not from the country of origin of a style of clothing you cant wear it ?
If you want to complain about something….Cargo shorts ….now that is offensive! !
“Comparing a sombrero with black face is ridiculous don’t even go there.”
Blackface was regularly worn by white people, and it wasn’t intended to make fun of black people, nor was considered offensive; it was just a way for light-skinned people to “be” black… it was “just a sombrero” used to allow others to appropriate another culture without the need to actually, I dunno, know anything about said culture or actually employ a person of color.
Are sombreros regularly worn by white people for any other purpose? Are they even commonly worn nowadays by anyone? Nope, they’re just a cultural stand-in for “Mexican,” as if everyone south of the border is the “we don’t need no stinkin’ badges” guy from Blazing Saddles.
Like I said, you don’t have to find it offensive in order to understand why others might find it offensive, and wish (or even demand) that official events and its participants didn’t go there.
OMG people! As a mexican american myself I find wearing sombreros and serapes not ofensive at all. It’s a piece of mexican culture sure, clothing, and nothing else. Some Mexicans like having mustaches, so what? Anybody can grow one. Al contraire, I get a kick out of others wearing it for fun, they’re just celebrating our culture in a funny way. Hispanics do that too. We don’t go around wearing sombreros and serapes all the time, but when we have a gathering, call in the mariachis, slap on some sombreros and have fun! Lighten up everybody!
A heartfelt “thank you” Carlos. I’ve never been sensitive about the manner in which my ancestors have been depicted and when I went to Volunteer Park earlier today, there were a lot of people and families and kids just having a good time and having fun.
Remember when Speedy Gonzales was removed from television for being ‘racist’ only for the US latino community to go into an uproar over the removal because they all thought he was awesome?
The only people who seem to think wearing sombreros is racist are ‘educated’ white people trying to make themselves sound intelligent by claiming white people can’t have an opinion on any matter when it comes to other cultures or race. Their sociology professors from college would be so proud. I however am not.
Some light reading for you social justice heroes!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/03/speedy-gonzales-hispanic_n_4039787.html
So much straw, man. Once again, you don’t have to find something racist or be personally offended to at least show some empathy for those who do find something offensive.
If you don’t care about people wearing sombreros, awesome! In the grand scheme of things, it’s pretty inoffensive. But there will probably be a line you will draw at some point–how about all Mexicans are lazy? (Possibly the most hilarious stereotype, particularly for ex-Angelino, as they do all of the actual work in the city.) They’re all into machismo? They’re all drug runners? They’re all stealing our jobs? They’re all exploiting our healthcare? They’re all just crossing the border to have babies? There’s some vile stereotypes out there, and you will sorta lose some credibility (and confuse a lot of people) when you’re all like, “Well, this stereotype is bad, but this one is OK.”
And seriously, people are all like, ‘oh, the PC police’ blah blah blah. How about simple manners and respect for others? If you go over to someone’s house and spend all evening calling them “dickhead,” is your immediate response to, “Hey, can you not call me dickhead?” to say, “LIGHTEN UP, QUIT BEING SO SENSITIVE, YOU’RE JUST AN EDUCATED PATRIARCHAL CIS-GENDERED WHITE PERSON” blah blah blah? (Love how “educated” is now a pejorative for some people. America, let’s be dumb.) Everyone can tone down the rhetoric and just be nice and respectful for a change.
For what it’s worth, I loved Speedy too: “¡Ándale! ¡Ándale! ¡Arriba! ¡Arriba! ¡Epa! ¡Epa! ¡Epa!” and hate that those amazing Warner Brothers cartoons are chopped up. But maybe the real reason the US Latino community was upset over Speedy Gonzalez being removed from TV was because he was the only representation they had in cartoons?
Comparing calling someone a dickhead to wearing a sombrero. Nice. It appears using textbook punctuation and an above average vernacular doesn’t automatically mean the person sounding so ‘intelligent’ is logical. You are very convincing with your arguments, and may have swayed the opinions of some weaker minded individuals. Alas, any logical person would sit there and realize ‘It’s just a sombrero’. Keep fighting the good fight buddy. College kids and sociology professors everywhere are fist pumping and head butting each other in agreeance after reading your prodigious comments.
“Alas, any logical person would sit there and realize ‘It’s just a sombrero’. ”
Well, yeah. That’s what all of the “you don’t have to find it offensive to sympathize with those who do find it offensive” comments come in.
I don’t personally find it offensive; it is, to me, just a sombrero. It’s not my culture, and I can respect that some people who are part of that culture also don’t find it offensive.
But unlike yourself, I don’t feel particularly comfortable telling them they’re illogical for finding it offensive. I can also understand why celebrations of their badass and advanced and historically significant culture being reduced to a sombrero and a margarita seems a wee-bit reductive. Sometimes it’s just a sombrero; other times, it’s polite not to wear the sombrero.
And I apologize for using complete sentences and punctuation. Also, congratulations! Your mind is super strong! Your logic is super sound. “If I don’t find something offensive, it isn’t, hurduhurduhur.”