He clicks at the waitress

She comes reluctantly; obviously.
‘I want my coffee black,’ he demands, ‘like your skin,’ he added.
My godparents were up from Melbourne. As godparents, I view as paragons of religious morality following in the teachings of our Lord and saviour, Jesus Christ. It had been years since I had seen them. It was decided to show off our favourite restaurant to somewhat flex our foodie fanaticism. That evening, we talked politics and the oldies (my parents were there too) reminisced about of the yesteryears playing in the San Diego Band. Everyone was excited to order the traditional favourites – all things lamb and seafood. Except for me, I decided to risk the special – a Greek restaurant serving a Thai dish – but I do try not judge a chef by their cuisine. Everyone enjoyed their meals; the service, fantastic; the food, sensational. Except for mine; the Greeko-Thai curry. Hate is a strong word, but I hate coriander and I did mention this: “no coriander, please”. Perhaps they had merely forgotten. I always try to be respectful to the servers and understanding of mistakes. We are, after all, human. Years ago, I was far more sensitive to the strong flavour and couldn’t understand why it was even an ingredient in Mexican and Southeast Asian cuisine. There are even social media groups dedicated to the shared hatred of coriander. And in my youth, a simpler me would have judged people quite harshly for their partiality towards the controversial herb. Albeit, somwhat jovially. There is a sense of irony in how we choose our restaurants. The head chef is Greek, and the owners are Greek and logically speaking, they should know Greek food better than anyone else. Logically speaking indeed. The waitress, on the other hand, was Ethiopian. By my same applied logic, her coffees should be fantastic. Yet when my godfather’s coffee came out, as black as her skin, his face twisted at the first sip.

Allow me to put a pause on this story – I am a proud Italian-Australian. You would think I cook a mean eyetie dish. Let’s just say that my contribution to cooking is putting the water on for the pasta.

I want my coffee black, like your skin.

I never would call my godfather; my religious mentor of morality and ethics, who would use the term black in that context, racist. But is it? Surely it is. Indeed, it is! He did not judge her by her skin, but he did compare her to a cup of coffee. Someone making a simple observation, it can be argued, cannot be called a racist. Her skin was black, our family’s skin has an olive tinge. In fact, my godfather’s complexion was closer to hers than it is to ours. I searched for justification relentlessly in my head as to how it could be a mere case of poor manners rather than overt racism. My godfather, traditional bastion of religious ethics and morality, was a man I had looked up to my entire life.

Google, ever the racist search engine

Google was under fire for a technical blip where facial recognition accidently and incorrectly labelled two African-Americans as gorillas. Concluding her article, Zheng (2015) declared that these companies with facial recognition technology ‘have no malicious intent behind their facial recognition software. The software will continue to be far from perfect for the foreseeable future’. Frank, too, is far from perfect and there was no malicious intent on his part either. He grew up in a different time. I can understand that. His innate [r]acial recognition app in his brain had taken sixty-plus years to develop. Any re-education may face stubborn programming. [I believe] he harbours no hate towards the waitress nor her ethnicity nor the colour of her skin. But he didn’t consider her feelings, I’m sure, when he made his controversial coffee order.

Planet of the apes

Maderspacher (2015) puts forward that ‘Despite their remarkable social cognitive skills becoming more and more appreciated, apes still seem to lack the level of sophistication even young humans display at ‘mind reading’’. In Maderspacher’s article, Planet of the Apes, he endeavours to answer the question: what makes humans special? A common theory emphasised here is our ability to empathise with others. To truly care for others by understanding what our neighbour thinks. Frank’s comment, while not coming from some Frasier-Anning-supporting white supremacist, did come from a man who completely disregarded another soul’s feelings – like he was some kind of… ape.
Consider exploring the realities of race and racism in the realm of speculative fiction. Science fiction specifically takes what we know and tests our imagination; can we handle it if we challenge ourselves to let this concept exist in the metaphor of the genre? In the 1968 film, Planet of the Apes, the dominant apes possess the ability to feel empathy on the same level as human’s despite regarding humans as inferior creatures. If this facial recognition technology accidently identified a human to be a gorilla, would Dr Zaius find it as offensive? The time travelling, George Taylor would find it inexcusably offensive. Ala, ‘Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!’ (Jacobs & Schaffner, 1968). Comparing humans and apes means taking away what makes us humans, or in this context, what makes them apes. Yet this was just a machine making an observation. Dr Zaius was a respected academic who viewed humans as unevolved and unworthy of acceptance in ape society. He even advocated loudly for the need to exterminate them. A human making this same claim, would certainly be considered racist and the individual could be held accountable – or are voted head of a nation. Similarly, a human claiming that a black man and an ape looked similar could too hold unrelenting repercussions. Mill (1859) insists that no one has the right to cause pain and by doing so, they are liable to lose certain liberties (p. 7). He also drew a distinction between emotional and physical pain advocating that the latter is far more serious than the former. Yet, I would argue that Mill was never a vicious man. Like Frank, he never set out to intentionally insult others. He was no Milo Yiannopoulus.

Rats in the kitchen

While exploring the concept of race in Planet of the Apes, the Disney/Pixar film, Ratatouille, inadvertently explores the exploitation of a sentient species. I sat watching this film unable to shake the fact that rats, quite literally, should not be in a kitchen. Even in this animation aimed for children, where rats are anthropomorphised, and more precisely cooking in an industrial kitchen, all the while foiling the efforts of a sanctioned health inspector, me and my then five-year-old son still cheered for the rodent underdogs. These factors played havoc on my moral compass. Animals should not be allowed in the kitchen. This is wrong. Yet, it was just a cartoon. Ratatouille, the protagonist, had used his human friend, Linguine, to achieve his dream. How often are we faced in our everyday lives with hiding who we are underneath for fear that we too could be kicked out of the proverbial kitchen? The humans living in a planet ruled by apes were subjected to such prejudices, oppressed by societal norms that they could never be considered worthy of, let alone equal to the ape race. Rats in a kitchen are killed mercilessly so humans can eat without fear of food contamination. One single rat can be enough to close a restaurant for good. But in this film, we are encouraged to not only give them a chance but to cheer them on to a happy ending.

Lessons of a happy ending

We would be kidding ourselves to believe these endings are happy. The rats in Ratatouille never achieve equality. They never earn the right to vote, run for parliament, or earn a liveable wage. Linguine was the true profiter in the film. He not only got the girl, he was the legal owner and thus received all the financial benefits that came with it. Ratatouille the rat merely got the right to cook. Many a minority understands the continuous struggles for equality; the right to marry and divorce, and to earn the same wage as male counterparts. Usually because dominant parties view them as unworthy of such inalienable rights. Even the ending of the Planet of the Apes overtly insinuates a warning that we should be wary of such minorities or they may take over the world and turn against the current dominant group. As I sit at our table in our favourite restaurant, I cannot help but picture myself thumping my fist, yelling out ‘You Maniacs! You blew it! God damn you. Damn you all to hell!’ because the coriander was just too strong, and they should have stayed in their lane.

As I sat and considered the extent of racism that had just occurred, I endured the second attempt at my Thai curry. Still too much coriander. I couldn’t help myself – I spoke with the owner about the excessive use of coriander. I tried to refrain from insulting the chef, but I may have mentioned that Thai dishes belong in a Thai restaurant. Like the rat, Ratatouille, while the concept may have been romantic and entertaining, it was not practical. Thai curry just didn’t belong on their specials board.
The owner smiled and turned the EFTPOS machine towards me. I tapped my savings away. ‘The special was not prepared by the head chef this evening, sir,’ he said, ‘It was the sous chef, who is Thai, and he informed me that he did not use coriander the second time but used parsley instead.’

References:
Jacobs, A, P. (Producer), & Schaffner, F,J. (Director). (1968). Planet of the Apes [Motion Picture]. United States: APJAC Productions. Retrieved https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmpJxC3hUGg
Lewis, B. (Producer), & Bird, B. (Director). (2007). Ratatouille [Motion Picture]. United States: Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar Animation Studios. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p1wa0B0G3A
Maderspacher, F. (2005). Planet of the Apes. Current Biology, 15(5), pp. 146-150. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2005.02.034
Mill, J.S. (1859) On Liberty. Retrieved 6/10 from http://www.philosophy.uw.edu.pl/wp-content/uploads/J.S.Mill-On-Liberty-Ch.12.pdf
Zhang, M. (2015). Google photo tags two African-Americans as gorillas through facial recognition software. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/mzhang/2015/07/01/google-photos-tags-two-african-americans-as-gorillas-through-facial-recognition-software/#1ba36940713d