While it would be nice to blame NBC's Black History Month Menu-tastrophe on Jeff Zucker, the dishes offered yesterday (fried chicken, collard greens and black-eyed peas) were actually chosen by Leslie Calhoun... NBC's black chef.
Calhoun defended herself to the NY Post, saying, "All I wanted to do was make a meal that everyone would enjoy—and that I eat myself." But when ?uestlove showed up in the lunch line, he quickly Twittered the menu hanging up with the words, "Hmm, HR?"—a transmission that quickly spread via his 1MM+ followers. The chef says that yesterday the Roots drummer "requested the neck bone [cooked in] the black-eyed peas and fried chicken." But then she says he "got off the line, saying, 'This is racist.' The next thing you know, people were taking pictures of the sign and asking all the other black people in the cafeteria if this was racist. They said that it wasn't."
In the end the menu was removed, ?uestlove took some time off Twitter saying "now I must put out fire," and next week Calhoun plans to try again (her plan was to serve one special meal every Thursday during February). Meanwhile, last night Wanda Sykes addressed the menu on the Jay Leno Show, saying, "Jay, what is happening at NBC? Is the whole damn network on medical marijuana? What the hell is going on over here?"
