Originally published at: Enjoy a psychedelic lunch from Sambo's (video) | Boing Boing
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This has got to be Peter Max, right?
Also: Hard to imagine that during my lifetime “Sambo’s” was considered an acceptable name for a restaurant.
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Not at all hard to imagine on my part, but best believe I’d never eat there…
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There was a Sambo’s down the street from my Grandma’s apartment. My mom would drop my sister off at Grandma’s and we’d spend the day with her. She didn’t drive, so we’d walk down the street and the choices were pretty much just Bob’s Big Boy or Sambo’s. I have nothing but good memories about Sambo’s. If I could go back there with my grandma, I would.
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I think there’s still a Sambo’s in Santa Barbara. Nice breakfasts. They give you a little basket of mini muffins on the table.
I recall that when I was quite young (1950s) we used to go to a Sambo’s for pancakes. It was decorated with cute cartoon murals telling the story of–you guessed it–Little Black Sambo. I knew the story because it was considered just another kiddie story. However I remember the restaurant Sambo being light-skinned and wearing a turban. This article on The Daily Beast says that was a retcon of the Sambo originally featured by the restaurant. Racism in any form. The story of the chain’s rise and fall is interesting:
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if that’s not Peter Max, i’ll eat my hat.
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And a healthy heaping of racism with your whole meal.
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in related news, the founder of Popeye’s Chicken didn’t name it after the cartoon sailor, he named it after Popeye Doyle, played by Gene Hackman in The French Connection.
why on earth? well, he doesn’t say, but there is a memorable scene in the movie where Doyle raids a fried chicken joint in a black neighborhood because it’s a front for heroin dealers where he enters yelling “POPEYE’S HERE!”
which would make this thriving fastfood chain’s name quite overtly racist in comparison to Sambo’s catchy portmanteau of the owners’ names that presented a convenient marking tie-in to a then-popular-but-racist kids story.
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Yikes, that sounded callous as fuck.
I really hope that’s because you miss your grandma, and not because the casual racism doesn’t bother you.
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I was 8. I see things differently now. I’d go to Bob’s Big Boy if I could too. And the little store down the street where my sister and I were allowed to choose one candy. And the Knott’s Berry Farm shops where we’d sometimes get to pick out a toy. I’d go to any of those places. I’d like to walk down the street with her where she told me that a gentleman always walks on the outside of the sidewalk. Certainly. I miss her, fer godsake. I don’t miss the institution. I miss the occasion.
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I think that’s the clarity that @Melizmatic was asking of you. Plenty of people indeed do miss such institutions that very much perpetuated white supremacy and promoted minority inferiority. Given what’s going on in this country right now, I think it’s more than fair for POC to challenge such statements and ask for clarity. It’s helpful to know who pines for a more racist time, and who doesn’t.
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Yes, I’m sure.
I was referring to how you chose to phrase your comment now, today, as a grown person.
Frankly speaking, it sounded fucked up, and there was probably a better way to express your sentiment.
And I say this as someone who also misses her beloved grandma.
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I’m sorry, what is that meant to show? That it’s NBD because Charles Schultz referenced it? It doesn’t make it less racist just because people we have warm fuzzies about did that.
It really does you no harm to acknowledge the racism in this restaurant, and that you were not aware of it at a young age. It was always racist, it was not just racism more recently…
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People excused racism more easily in 1958.
Great. Well done. Getting the feeling you miss the Good Ol’ Days as much as grandma did.
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How bout at least blur that shit, if you really must share it?
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Oh, goody.
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Fair call, deleted.
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