The 10-Minute, Super-Amazing, Magical Cure-All

Ahh yes….I was walking the other day with my 4 year old and I told her to wait at the end of the sidewalk for the walking guy and someone passed by me and corrected me to say walking person. Umm okay.

Must everyone be be policed at every turn? By all means, don’t say “guys” if it offends you. I feel it is inclusive and gender-neutral and learned a few things from the article, but I read the comments on a kale salad post to learn more great ideas about kale salad and this sort of chiding is too much, too picky, too much censorship.

@Sarah Levy yes even as a very liberal person I am exhausted by this

I’m sad that the pendulum seems to be swinging back the other way, where being considerate and ‘woke’ is an eyeroll offense. My opinion is – if you’re tired of changing what you say to be *eyeroll* CONSIDERATE – it probably means you’ve lived a life of cultural privilege and have needed to change to be more inclusive (if that is your goal). Of course you don’t have to choose inclusivity, so Anna Maria is not saying CHANGE OR ELSE, but she is linking to a different perspective than I had considered so I’m willing to read it and see if it’s reasonable. To see if my discomfort at changing my “you guys” language is more important to me than the people who may draw issue with it. It’s discussion, it’s knowledge and shifting culture, I think we would be foolish to shut that down.

T, et al:
Yes, clearly we should all be working towards a more inclusive world. A few things I’ve done in that respect is to leave the deeply patriarchal religion of my upbringing even though it meant years of emotional struggle and negatively impacted some close relationships, speak out publicly for women’s ordination in said religion, donate 10% of my (and my husband’s) current income to environmental and social justice causes/organizations, consistently donate to my kids’ Title I school, and I currently work in a very low-paying job as an educator for teens from low socioeconomic backgrounds. So yes, I do understand inclusivity just a bit though I am eyes wide open on the fact that as a white, middle class person I was born with certain social and economic “advantages” that many people in this country do not have.

In spite of this, I still maintain that liberals (myself included) are doing a long-term disservice to “the brand” when every single article on dresses, salad, gifts is dissected ad nauseam for optimal gender inclusion, environmental impact, political correctness, etc. Sometimes a kale salad is just a kale salad. And this kale salad looks amazing.

Since you’re worried about being “CONSIDERATE” (your emphasis), know that being aggressively nit picky at every turn is also inconsiderate. I was simply my experience that this comments section was formerly a general pleasant place (been reading for over a decade), and it feels more antagonistic in the last few weeks and months.

President Obama says it well in the first 1:30.

Ihttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cA3D_GkNcc

Excellent! Since they were young (about 10 years now!) I’ve been reminding my kiddos that I am not, in fact, a guy, and that we do not need to defer to “male” pronouns. I’m not sure why this would upset anyone. It seems like simple noticing. We use words like: folks, friends, girls, boys, they, you all, etc.
I love that it brings awareness. Taking a moment to notice is always going to be a good thing And it only takes a moment.

English doesn’t have a plural of ‘you’ like French has ‘vous’. It’s you singular and you plural! However in Scotland and other parts of the UK the plural of you is ‘yous’.

However this article could have said ‘yous guys’. The lack of a you plural isn’t the issue ;)

‘y’all’ sounds like an incredibly American phrase. ‘you all’ sounds quite dismissive and not colloquial to me. I’m sure ‘you guys’ was chosen to sound friendly and inclusive rather than the opposite. But good to know that other people find it offensive as we can be aware if it’s appropriate to use.

We have to be mindful that language is continually evolving and we have to balance the need to express ourselves and least offence to other people with an evolving language that doesn’t always fit the culture we now have. This kale salad article’s use of ‘you guys’ doesn’t mean that we are all men. Just like the phrase ‘kill two birds with one stone’ doesn’t mean we’re literally going to do that, it means we can get two things done at once. Yet should we have such cruel, violent language showing birds as something to hurt? Some would say there’s better ways to express it: ‘Feed two birds with one scone’!

We do need to be conscious of whether our inherited language suits our current culture or causes division, while being conscious that our phrases and expressions allow us a shorthand of communication. I’m sure are at this blog rather than reading a dry text book cookery book for a reason!

My intention was not to be “nit-picky” or “too much” with my comment but simply offer an alternative. This is a public forum with many readers and CoJ prides itself on inclusivity (and grammar!) which is why I hoped it would be well-received feedback.

I am a physician and assistant professor of medicine and recently received this feedback during a conference presentation where I used the term “you guys” as a catch-all for everyone in the audience. While initially a bit defensive because it was not my intention to be exclusive, I came to realize that I am not the one who gets to decide. Rather, it is my role as an educator and a person who wields a lot of power (as a white, cis-gender female) to foster an environment where all people feel safe, respected and included which is far beyond “being pc”. I would hope this blog would be the same way.

I totally agree about seeds but OMG stems in kale salads are my #1 pet peeve. Haha, sorry, not even minced. But seeds all the way!

I buy Tuscan or dinosaur kale, shred it. massage it (my favorite is toasted sesame oil) and keep a giant batch of that waiting in the fridge all week. It gets a little softer as the week goes on but never wilts!

The trick to not hating and (dare I say it) making kale your favorite salad green is twofold:
1) Never use the bags of kale that include the stems – I’m looking at you TJs – stems are tough, no one likes chewing them & they taste sad.
2) Always buy kale by the bunch, tear the leaves off of the stems and then massage them. Not just one or two squeezes, you’ll want to rub those puppies until they start to break down a bit and become softer. That’s when kale starts to resemble the salad you eat in restaurants and begrudgingly pay $14 for while thinking to yourself, “I could make this at home”. Which brings me to my warning: Once you start at-home kale massaging, everything changes. You’ll be eating leafy greens on the reg that actually taste good which means it will make it even harder to pay $14 for said restaurant salad but now you REALLY love kale and so the cycle continues…

I’m all about the baby kale! I buy it from TJ’s and then finely chop it. It goes so well in a kale and wild rice salad (I use the recipe from Iowa Girl Eats and it’s amazing)

A sprinkle of salt with a squeeze of lemon juice, briefly massage it in – it’ll soften up in a minute or two.

I try and buy whole bunches of lacitino kale, bc otherwise I’m stuck pulling the stems out of tiny pre-cut pieces (as mentioned below). I just massage mine with salt and then let it hang while I make a dressing or something.

Agreed 100000%!! Even in a joking way, I find assigning morality to food unpleasant an unnecessary. Lets evolve past that, please!

Thank you! I completely agree. We need to move away from this language. As a teacher and a mama of a young one, it’s really important that we’re mindful of our language around food. Food is food.

I should add– I loved getting all this kale salad inspiration, though!

Hey! So I just got the book and have basically only made the kale ? but I have my eye on the beet citrus salad for this weekend. I have been looking at the gratin bc we live the a mountain state and all that cheese sounds good to me! But I’ll def keep that in mind.