You Go, I Go, Dago

[samhexum]

https://nypost.com/2018/01/04/offensive-food-truck-plans-to-return-after-court-victory/

By Gabrielle Fonrouge January 4, 2018 | 4:46pm

 

 

‘Offensive’ food truck plans to return after court victory

 

The Wandering Dago could be headed back to the Capitol in Albany.

 

The provocatively named Italian food truck plans to return to Empire State Plaza after an appeals court reversed a decision banning them from the premises, owner Andrea Loguidice told The Post.

 

“We are definitely going to apply if they offer the program next year,” Loguidice, 38, said by phone Thursday after the Wednesday appeal.

 

“We just feel satisfied and we feel like the court did the right thing. We hope that it helps other businesses going forward.”

 

The catering company and food truck business sued the state back in 2013 after an application for a permit to sell food at the Empire State Plaza, which sits on Capitol grounds, was denied because the state found the word “dago” to be offensive and derogatory due to its history as a slur for Italians, the lead attorney on the case George Carpinello explained.

 

“An employee, who was Italian-American, saw the application. It was presented to him and he said,‘I find this offensive and I’m not going to allow you to be on the plaza,’ so we filed a federal lawsuit,” Carpinello said.

 

“The food truck is run by Andrea and she’s Italian. She used the name ‘Wandering Dago’ in kind of a playful way but also as a reaffirmation of her Italian heritage… it’s our understanding that everyone that applied got accepted except for our client.”

 

There’s mixed opinions on where the word “Dago” comes from and what it means exactly but Carpinello said the state claims it was derived from the name “Diego” and used as a derogatory term to refer to people of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese descent, where the name Diego is popular.

 

Carpinello said Loguidice believed it had to do with the type of work Italians did when they first immigrated to America.

 

“When my client chose the name she always understood… that the term derived from the fact that many Italians, when they came to the country, were day laborers and got paid ’as the day goes’ and that’s where she thought the term came from.”

 

Loguidice lost her first suit against the state in district court when a judge ruled the state was within its right to ban the truck because the name was derogatory and offensive, Carpinello said. She was forced to reorganize her business into a catering company after getting banned from the plaza proved to be “quite a financial hit,” Carpinello said.

 

The company took the case to the second court of appeals in New York where they unanimously agreed to reverse the decision due to its violation of first amendment rights.

 

“We’re very pleased, we feel vindicated because the court adopted our reasoning, which we had been arguing since the very first day we brought the case,” Carpinello said.

 

“[Andrea] is very happy of course, it’s been a long haul for her.”

 

The Wandering Dago also sued the New York Racing Association after being banned from Saratoga Race Course. The association reached a $68,500 settlement with the truck’s owners in January 2015.

 

https://nypost.com/2018/01/04/offensive-food-truck-plans-to-return-after-court-victory/

By Gabrielle Fonrouge January 4, 2018 | 4:46pm

Edited January 4, 2018 by samhexum

[TruthBTold]

Although I agree with the Court of Appeals decision that an offensive phrase or word is protected to a certain extent, I find it very offensive. As we are well aware there are certain terms and phrases that are simply not allowed because they are affronts to assorted races and nationalities. The fact that one Italian American thinks that the term is not offensive and is a "reaffirmation of her heritage" should not be the only reason for the court's decision when many would not.

[+ quoththeraven]

This result was dictated by the Supreme Court decision in the case of the rock group The Slants (Matal v. Tam).

 

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/06/19/533514196/the-slants-win-supreme-court-battle-over-bands-name-in-trademark-dispute

 

I agree with the outcome of The Slants' case but not with the wholesale invalidation of the disparagement provisions on First Amendment grounds.

[mike carey]

The Oxford lists the Diego version of the etymology of the word. It dates it from the mid-nineteenth century which probably predates the day labour version.

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/dago

 

And this from the Online Etymology Dictionary:

dago (n.)

1823, from Spanish Diego "James." Originally used of Spanish or Portuguese sailors on English or American ships; by 1900 it had broadened to include non-sailors and shifted to mean chiefly "Italian."

[rvwnsd]

Although I wouldn't refrain from eating there myself, the public will decide whether the food truck name is offensive by either eating there or not eating there. That said, I wouldn't open a restaurant called "The Wandering Polack" or "Kraut's - Food for Your Inner Nazi" as a way of playing with derogatory terms for my Polish and German heritage.

[mike carey]

That said, I wouldn't open a restaurant called "The Wandering Polack" or "Kraut's - Food for Your Inner Nazi" as a way of playing with derogatory terms for my Polish and German heritage.

Maybe, but would you patronise a food truck called Sour Krauts?

[rvwnsd]

Maybe, but would you patronise a food truck called Sour Krauts?

Well, as I said in the part of the post you didn't quote I'd patronize "The Wandering Dago," so yes I would patronize "Sour Krauts." I do want to add the caveat that I'd only patronize the food trucks if the food was good.

[+ PapaTony]

Maybe, but would you patronise a food truck called Sour Krauts?

.

Now that’s funny!