SJWs Melt Down Over New York Times Chopsticks Photo

One of the nice things about being a writer in 2018 is that SJWs will continue to find new and absurd ways to get their feelings hurt. Even if nothing else is happening, I can always count on a group of SJWs providing me with something to write about. This time, a horde of them provided me a gift by taking to Twitter to express their dismay at a photo of chopsticks accompanying a New York Times story about a new Japanese restaurant.

The restaurant, called Jade Sixty, will be opening in NYC soon. The Times article reports that “a  good portion of the menu at this new restaurant is pure New York steakhouse: nine cuts of beef, surf & turf, whole chicken and seafood platters. But the rest of the menu looks to Asia for inspiration, offering soup dumplings, chicken won tons, rock shrimp tempura, chicken yakitori, crispy spring rolls and a deep list of sushi specialties.”

Sounds delicious. And since my wife has an office in NYC, I look forward to sampling the menu.

In an attempt to help the soon-to-open restaurant spread the word, the New York Times included a photo of food accompanied by chopsticks. Apparently, the Times didn’t realize how important it is to get the chopsticks placement correct. They found out the hard way that the incorrect placement of chopsticks is racist. To be fair to the Times, I would bet that over 99.9 percent of the population wouldn’t have thought about it, either.

was that chopsticks placement also 'inspired by asia' 👀 pic.twitter.com/xG4ixOsOd3

— wilfred chan (@wilfredchan) December 27, 2017

So, who died? Or was your menu inspired by a part of Asia that uses wooden sticks as decor? #chopsticksetiquette #jadesixty https://t.co/VXGgHEoty1

— 🇿🇦🇹🇼 Like ‘chow’ (@mingcheau) December 28, 2017

Predictably, HuffPost joined in the whining and smugly pointed out that “the chopstick photo is a reminder that the Times has been occasionally tone deaf towards Asian food and culture despite their ubiquity in New York City.”

At the top of their article, HuffPost declared, “A photo for the online edition attempted to showcase [the menu], but did so in a very strange manner, mainly through the bizarre placement of chopsticks.”

I’m not a big fan of the phrase “First-World problems,” but I feel compelled to point out that people being upset at how chopsticks are placed in a photo qualifies for the pejorative “First-World problems” if anything does. I also feel compelled to point out that as a Southerner (a true Southerner from the Deep South), I never rarely say a word when Yankees refer to their fruit tea (or whatever it is) as sweet tea. Maybe if I throw a Twitter fit I can get Antifa to march in protest about Yankees culturally appropriating Southern culture. I’m pretty sure that sweet tea is as important to a Southerner as chopsticks are to an Asian.

A part of me is hoping that the brouhaha created by the now edited NYT article will send droves of curious diners to Jade Sixty and make it difficult for me to get a table. It will amuse me knowing that the crybaby actions of the anti-capitalist, anti-marketing SJWs spurred people to spend their money on a luxury.