Colonialism and racism and gentrification and waffles

Reader Amy Y. has been following a little spat being played out on the facade of Linea Caffe (which houses the waffle shop Lt. Waffle). It started with a little promotional signage featuring the visage of some Belgian guy from history, which begat an angry flyer:

Here’s the rant up close:

And the response from the Lt. Waffle crew:

Gotta love that Anthony Myint. (And daaaaaaaaamn, those waffles.)

(Thanks, Amy!)

25 Responses to “Colonialism and racism and gentrification and waffles”

  1. Hooded Apologist says:

    Oh man, I can’t wait for the scathing screed this anonymous flyer aficionado conjures up and wheatpastes when he or she discovers the white-centric and clearly racially named KK Café on Divisadero.

  2. Jay Beaman says:

    Anthony is a goddamned SF hero and you should never fuck with him. Remember this?

    http://www.missionmission.org/2012/03/17/anthony-myint-speaks-his-mind-on-15-burgers-at-mission-bowl/

  3. Pito says:

    Pointless note. Hipsters embrace ignorance.

  4. whiff says:

    I bet this dumbass drinks coffee produced by exploited people while wearing in designer clothes made in China while tweeting on a smart-phone made with conflict minerals. Busting someone’s ass over a historical reference while her dollars support countless atrocities. BITCH NEEDS TO SHUT THE FUCK UP and look in the mirror.

    • Troll says:

      Wow, you sound way pettier than the poster. Also, why are you assuming a woman posted that? Hmm, I think we know more about you now than the original poster…

  5. Greg says:

    Whiny fucking cunts, thanks for the laugh.

  6. Tuffy says:

    I think it’s a fair criticism… it’s not any different than the Hitler Chic trend in Thailand that got everyone so outraged: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2356705/Fried-chicken-takeaway-called-Hitler-opens-Thailand-comes-complete-logo-Nazi-leader-bow-tie.html

    Or even the cultural misappropriation of basic bitches wearing Indian headdresses and war paint at Coachella that pretty much every fucking blog in the world had to point out last week.

  7. umm says:

    the irony of the person who posted this note calling someone else a ‘hipster’ . . .

  8. BabaBooey says:

    She seems like a real gem. Imagine having to wake up next to that self righteous c in the morning….ugh.

  9. Brillo says:

    And don’t even get me started about the Soup Plantation.

  10. Glasshole says:

    It seems appropriate. Myint is a colonizer.

  11. Jeremy says:

    This is the most white-privilege way to complain about something. “I’ll show them with this well-written, neatly posted, non-confrontational note!”

  12. Leary says:

    I’d post about this on my social justice tumblr, but I’m entirely too triggered right now.

  13. anadromy says:

    I actually enjoyed this exchange, and I took the first flier poster’s advice about reading up on the topics in question and, as usual, the real history is fascinating and way more complicated than what the first flier poster presented. While de Wiart was born in Belgium–and there is no doubt that Belgium’s colonial behavior was about as repugnant as it gets–he left the country as a kid and wound up fighting for the British Army. Moreover, his first campaigns were in the Boer War, which was fought against other European colonialists who were pissed off about the British abolishing slavery in South Africa, among other things. (not that the British were clear “good guys” or anything, but probably more so than their enemies.) Also, de Wiart’s mother was Irish, which makes the fact that he wound up being a British (ie: colonialist) war hero even more interesting (and complicated) given that his mother’s own country was brutally colonized and oppressed by the country he wound up fighting so valiantly for.

    In other words: the random person who posted a vituperative screed about “hipsters” is–surprise–kind of full of shit.

    • of course says:

      You barely scratched the surface with your “research.” There were no “good guys” in the Boer Wars. Britain had concentration camps where they purposefully starved the wives and children of the guerrilla fighters to try and weaken their morale.

      de Wiart may have been the illegitimate son of the King of Belgium at the time and was born into aristocracy. While his mother was Irish, she was aristocratic Irish, long since having sided with the British in Ireland. de Wiart was in charge of the British army unit stationed in Northern Ireland for a time and there is nothing complicated about his role in that piece of Britain’s colonial history. Seems like you’re not any less full of shit than the original poster.

      In the end, I’d want to ask the owner why they felt it necessary to sell their shit with something like this. Why use a reference to the military? Why use a white, aristocratic, turn of the century general? Why are people so bothered when that behavior is rightly called out?

      • Valenchia says:

        Why get all upset about this? Really, this is just self-righteous silliness.

  14. Whatever says:

    “Hipster” is a loaded word used by lazy people to describe persons, places or things that are/ or are not hip or unique. Is someone “dressy? HIPSTER! Is a coffee shop or bar frequented sometimes by someone who looks like they are imaginative or unique? HIPSTER! It’s the most uncreative and useless word to describe anything. The only thing it illuminates is that the user of the word is bitter about something and doesn’t take the cognitive steps to articulate what it is they are actually bitching about. If it’s non-off-the-rack cultural signifier, that doesn’t make it “Hipster” whatever that empty word means.

    And no, I’m not a hipster. I’m the most uncool, bald, slightly doughy, 35 year old guy you’ll ever meet.

    • Pacific Standard Simon says:

      “Hipster” does have an actual meaning, you know (not that it’s understood by most people who use the term). A hipster is someone who is unhealthily concerned with what other people regard as “hip”. So you could be a hipster — doesn’t have anything to do with age or physique — though I doubt it.

    • dangerismycat says:

      The word ‘hipster’ has been used to mean so many different things that it’s now lost all meaning…so my friends and I started substituting the word ‘smurf’ instead. It conveys the same amount of information (none), but is a lot more fun to say, especially as an adjective. =)