“What! Your school serves fried chicken and cornbread on MLK day! Isn’t that racist?” asked my out of school friend as I explained to him our MLK festivities.

Every year, usually on the second day of our Martin Luther King Jr. celebration, the dining hall staff serves a buffet with food such as fried chicken, mac and cheese, blackened catfish, mashed potatoes, and cornbread. The dining hall usually calls this ‘southern food’. But this year people were skeptical it would happen because it was not on the dining hall’s online menu and has been a somewhat controversial topic at Masters.

Many students refer to the lunch as ‘racist lunch’. But is the serving of fried chicken and cornbread racist or just southern food?

Jack Murray, Sophomore, said, “I think the concept of having southern food on MLK day is the same as having Chinese food on Chinese New Year. Stereotypical black food is fried chicken, watermelon etc. but fried chicken and cornbread are very southern foods, not just black foods. Its only racist if you think its racist.”

When I visited Georgia a few years ago a large part of the culture was grits, mashed potatoes, cornbread, and chicken. It was commonplace to see it being served at diners like you would see burgers being served up in the north. Martin Luther King Jr. grew up in Atlanta, Georgia in the same culture I visited and it is less of a race thing there and more of a cultural thing.

Oliver Clayton, Sophomore and treasurer and secretary of ONYX, the diversity club at Masters said, “to be honest I think the serving of fried chicken and cornbread on MLK is not racist because it’s not only for one race and having that type of food on MLK day is a great way to express our appreciation for African-American culture.”

I went around to many other students and the consensus seemed to be the same. MLK lunch is not racist food, it is just southern food and we shouldn’t make such a big deal out of a lunch to honor one of the last century’s greatest thinkers but admire his work and his culture.