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John’s Mexican Restaurant (56-03 Fifth Ave between 56th and 57th Sts, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn; 718-567-9444)
“The snoozing guy is a classic stereotypical image,” says Lisa Navarrete, a spokesperson for the National Council of La Raza, a Latino advocacy group. “We know from studies and polls that despite having the highest labor-force participation of any group of people in the country, there’s still this lingering idea of Latinos as being lazy. This seems to be a Latino-owned and -run business resorting to stereotypes to appeal to people. It’s incumbent upon us to help educate Latino restaurant owners—to say, ‘We understand you aren’t trying to disparage the community, but this perpetuates things that should have died out a long time ago.’” The owner, John, who declined to give his last name, responds, “It’s only a logo, it doesn’t mean anything. The hardest-working people in this country are Mexican. I have nothing to tell the people that don’t see that.”
Mama’s Food Shop (200 E 3rd St between Aves A and B, 212-777-4425)
“The drawing itself is not quite as emblematic as an Aunt Jemima image—this woman is not ugly, she’s not asexual,” comments Marilyn Kern-Foxworth, author of the book Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben, and Rastus: Blacks in Advertising, Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow. “They put the fruit there, rather than the stereotypical chignon. It reminds me of Carmen Miranda [a Portuguese songstress who was often criticized for her depiction of Latin culture], which tells me there’s a blending of cultures here. The language—cookin’— is what I find primarily offensive, the stereotypical reference to Ebonics. I think it’s a tremendous disservice to the African-American community. This takes me back to an era when we would criticize Aunt Jemima because of the way she talked—it made her a vile image within the community.” Owner Michael Rosenfeld defends the mural. “When I first opened in 1994, I would have people come into the store and say, ‘How dare you.’ There was never any intent to manipulate the image; it really just represents kindness, comfort and good food. I don’t know how it could be interpreted any other way.”
Fu Ying Chinese Restaurant (97-09 Queens Blvd between 63rd Ave and 63rd Dr, Rego Park, Queens; 718-897-5038)
“This image isn’t necessarily offensive,” says Cynthia Lee, vice president of exhibitions, programs and collections at the Museum of Chinese in the Americas. “It would be nice if the landscape weren’t such that [restaurants] needed these characters to sell us food, but I think in some ways they do. It’s interesting that he is wearing a French chef’s hat, playing into the Western notion of a chef, expressing culinary expertise. I would be more offended if it were a Chinese character in a traditional robe. I think one of the major stereotypes of Chinese culture is that it’s frozen in time—the notion of the ‘ancient Chinese secret.’ It’s a globalized culture. We’re not all walking around in cheongsam [traditional Chinese dress].” The owners at Fu Ying could not be reached for comment.
Portobello Pizzeria (6016 Fifth Ave between 60th and 61st Sts, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn; 718-439-5828)
“Since [the civil-rights movement], Americans have become very conscious of not trying to stereotype, but Italian-Americans seem to be the last holdout,” says Stella Grillo, New York state president of the Commission for Social Justice for the Order Sons of Italy in America (OSIA), a national cultural network for Italian-Americans. “This is a caricature of the American concept of what Italian pizza chefs should look like.… It’s stereotyping Italian-Americans as being fat, having big noses—buffoons who are loud and uncouth.” JoAnn Robertozzi, who heads a Manhattan branch of OSIA, thinks the image is benign. She cites the Mafia reference at chain restaurant Goodfella’s Old World Brick Oven Pizza, with locations in Brooklyn and Staten Island, as more disturbing. “A gangster—anything that represents violence would cross the line.” Portobello’s owners declined to comment.
