Darryl Pinckney, Busted
in New York and Other Essays (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019),
112. From an essay called “Deep in the Bowl,” originally published in Harper’s magazine, September, 2011. “New
Orleans had an old family restaurant on the river, near the convention center,
that, it was rumored, would give a ham to any police officer who killed a black
person in the line of duty. The practice stopped sometime in the 1980s when a
black policeman came in to claim his ham.”
This rumor featured in the lead paragraph of a New York Times review of Pinckney’s
book. “According to a rumor in New
Orleans, an old family restaurant used to give a free ham to any police officer
who killed a black person in the line of duty. The restaurant stopped doing
this only in the 1980s, the story goes, when a black police officer came in to
claim his ham. The lesson: In white America, a black man in a uniform is still
just a black man.” (Lauretta Charlton, “Darryl Pinckney on Race, Class and
Being ‘Busted in New York’”, New York
Times, 12 November 2019).
The rumor subsequently appeared on social media,
leading the restaurant in question to issue a strong denial on 21 November.
“Mother’s abhors and forcefully rejects any form of
racism. The rumor being shared on social media about the alleged practices of
prior ownership is revolting. Mother's does not discriminate— period. We are concerned that this story is a myth;
it is reprehensible.”
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