A Word on Anti-Oppression

While recovering from COVID last week, I watched Mason Hereford challenge Curtis Stone on the first episode of the new Iron Chef. Hereford is a chef from New Orleans with three restaurants. He was a blast to watch – funny, drinking a beer while he cooked, tattooed, stellar mullet, and putting lamb tartar on a salt and vinegar pringle! Stay with me; I promise I’m going somewhere even if you have already zoned out.

If you’re new here, there are few things I love more than New Orleans and food. The first thing I research before I travel somewhere new is the restaurants. Anyways, I am no stranger to Hereford’s restaurants. Turkey and the Wolf is his sandwich shop, winning Best New Restaurant in America in 2017. While I watched the episode, I pulled up the website to read the menu to Dave. Does anyone else get pleasure out of reading a restaurant menu?

Anyways, his website, the real reason for this post, and the update you will see to mine. As his website loads, the first image you see has a significant and beautifully written statement – a mission statement of sorts. It reads:

At Turkey and the Wolf,

BLACK LIVES MATTER. THE HARM COMMITTED AGAINST ASIAN AMERICANS AND PACIFIC ISLANDERS, BLACK AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLE, PEOPLE OF COLOR, TRANSGENDER COMMUNITIES, AND OTHERS EXPERIENCING UNIQUE OR OVERLAPPING SYSTEMS OF OPPRESSION IS VERY REAL, AND WE HAVEN’T DONE ENOUGH TO FIGHT IT.

Our past go-with-the-flow mentality was lazy, defensive, and dangerous. It’s a problem that it took such visible expressions of pain in oppressed communities for us to raise our voices and choose to transform ourselves. The only path forward is to interrupt the racist systems from which we continue to benefit and understand their historical context. To examine the harm embedded in our communication, thoughts, impulses, and speech. To learn where our community is in need and how we can sustainably participate in serving those needs, to support mutual aid solutions, community organizing, and expanding access to opportunity. To treat the mission of understanding our own racism as the matter of life and death that it is.

Thank you for continuing to grow with us. Thank you for holding us accountable. Please keep in mind that if you have any uncertainty regarding whether you align with the Black Lives Matter movement or the collective pursuit to dismantle patriarchal white supremacy, this is not the restaurant for you. 

Bold, no nonsense, intentional, and to the point.  With Hereford’s permission you will see an acupuncture applicable version on the website. 

PS.  He didn’t win but he was so much fun to watch.