Yes, it takes a certain melanin percentage to truly appreciate such exotic and ethnic flavors of fried chicken, greens sauteed in fat, and cheesy pasta. Surprised Pete was able to keep it down, as white as he is. Probably never seen such wonders before.

"Soul food" is literally just the cuisine of the American South.

It's not appealing to a black audience, it's just ordering what looks good.

@3: That is the stuff I and everyone I lived around ate when I was growing up. It was what everyone ate in the south who was poor, skin color never mattered. It is extremely basic food, cheap and very easy to cook. Not very good for you though, to be honest. We ate cracklins and chitterlings, trotters and jowl. The whole nine yards.

Only when I moved north I realized people convinced themselves it was some racial cuisine, and for some bizarre reason not part of "my" culture. Not that I care, culture is to be shared and evolve amongst all peoples.

No one used the term "soul food" until the civil rights movement when everything that was part of black culture became "soul" something or other.

But please teach me more about southern culture, internet guy who has never left his majority white, PNW city.

Not a big fan of black jelly beans licorice or black chicken (yes, there is black chicken meat).

@4 And he's not trying to appeal to a black audience.

He's trying to appeal to the white audience that are so in deep with identitarianism that they won't vote for a candidate without the Blackman Seal of Approval. Not that it'll matter, he'll need to re-up his black approval license every time a new twitter voice speaks out on his whiteness.

What's that have to do with policy or the presidency? Nothing. But of course, no one cares about that, because those same folks are "privileged" enough that they can live with 4 more years of Donald Trump and thus the consequences of their actions are basically zero (for them - which is all that matters)

I think 7’s incredulity is on the mark. Looks like wheat bread to me.

I wonder what focus group came up with this idea.

Moderator: Ok, panel.... what does a white candidate have to do to get Black votes?

Lily-White Panelists ( including white Cuban-American Roberto Gonzales, the token ethnic minority: Have lunch at a soul food restaurant with Al Sharpton!

This is kind of like how both Axl Rose and Eminem decided to make up for past homophobia by singing a duet with Elton John, who is apparently the gay Pope, capable of blessing and forgiving all past transgressions against the gay.

I suppose this is the price we paid for equality before the law. Twenty years ago, gay pride was a raucous event, sexualized and a hell of a lot more political. Now it’s like gay St Patrick’s Day. Twenty years ago, drag shows were crude and hilariously transgressive. Now, they’re fashion pageants with jokes. Twenty years ago, gay bars were places where I went to get groped by beautiful men I had never met before. Now, it’s where I go to have debutantes use me as a prop for their bachelorette party, showing each other how open minded they are. The few gay bars that still exist, anyway.

To get suburbanites to vote in favor of equality, we’ve had to trade in the crude jokes and gropes for Mayor Pete. Wanna win? Gotta be dull. So goddamn boring that the only thing an opponent can say about you is that you’re gay. There’s no drugs, no booze, no regretful YouTube videos, no sexts or ribald tales of that wild night when you took your shirt off at a bar. There’s just.... Creampuff Casper Milquetoast. The whitest man alive.

And Al Sharpton, to give Black voters permission to vote for him.

If I was filmed while having a dinner conversation at a sushi restaurant and I ordered a hotdog I wouldn't expect anyone to vote for me either. Let's just appreciate that food brings people together, that's a power some presidents don't even possess.

We have arrived at the intersection of Virtue Signalling Boulevard and Gatekeeping Avenue! This is the last stop for Tumblr's daily active users. Please deboard on the left. ding ding

We have arrived at the intersection of Virtue Signalling Boulevard and Gatekeeping Avenue! This is the last stop for Tumblr's daily active users. Please deboard on the left. ding ding

@12, is the most cogent hot take to ever be taken.

9: “I don’t think the issue is that he is feigning appreciation for fried chicken but the transparent and shallow pandering...”

Perhaps, but what would be the reaction of the meals were switched? Or this was an Applebee’s?

If this were m Applebee’s, Al Sharpton would be drunk on Appletinis, doing his impression of Robby Mook before launching into a karaoke rendition of Hotel California while standing on the bar.

16: Touché!

This has got to be one of the dumbest comment threads in the history of Slog.

Al Sharpton lost more than one hundred pounds because he was afraid for his health. He now eats a mostly vegetarian diet and exercises faithfully.

If you’re at Sylvia’s, what else are you supposed to eat? I have t been there in twenty years, but at least back then they didn’t have anything that wasn’t “southern” (or if you prefer, “Soul”) food. In any event, their chicken (which is a staple in the Midwest as well) was amazing.

And maybe the question about whether he could eat with his hands was just good manners?

Mayor Pete, the white man that will ruin the election. Its as if the collective racism of the progressive left solidified into a lovable candidate, sorry, excuse to not vote dems when he isnt respected enough by "your own" side.

@7 She's condescendingly denigrating all of the white midwest. Was that not obvious? Because bigoted generalizations are totes cool if they are about white people.

@19 Dumb comments usually show up after dumb writing. Thanks for the background on Al's diet. I just assumed he wasn't hungry. Not everyone eats a full meal every time they have a meeting.

@19: Now that he got that weight off, he should prove his reverence for virtue and Godliness by paying off his back taxes.

So when you're a guest in someone's house (or neighborhood, or country), and they offer you their food, you should reject it?

No wonder people think intersectional feminists are rude cunts.

Flied chickens hanging from the hooks in the front of my chinese grandma's old storefront. Always 3 dollahs. Always 3 dollahs!
Accept no sale when the blacks come. Not for sale today my Chinese grandma said to them.
Funny, I dont look Asian in the slightest. Probably the mulatto in my dad's unknown parentage drowns it out. RIP racist Chinese grandma.

Everything about this -- the post, the responses -- is kind of crazy and assumptive. Maybe it was pandering, maybe chicken and greens and mac 'n' cheese sounded good that day.

But everyone calling Jasmyne "he" or "him" seems to be of the kneejerk "everything-the-stranger-does-is-horrible-so-I-don't-have-to-actually-read-it-before-I-respond" mold. Or am I missing something?

Sometimes I wonder where The Stranger finds these "churnalists" who write these idiotic opinion pieces. And then I realise that is how all of The Stranger's "churnalism" is (maybe except Herzog on occasion). That is why I read it, for a good laugh? :). And a comment section of leftie conspiracy theorists.

You could write about the politics of having lunch with Al Sharpton, but you can avoid any discomfort that might entail by writing about the food instead.

Your audience will be all too willing to play along.