It's been over a month since Greenwich Village baker Ted Kefalinos sparked outrage over his so-called "Drunken Negro Face" cookies, and the controversy will still not go away, despite his fumbling attempts to apologize. The New Black Panthers have been protesting on Saturdays outside his bakery, and the Secret Service paid him a visit because of his alleged remarks that "Obama will get he deserves, just like Lincoln." In a Villager article that can only be described as pure gold, Kefalinos says, "I get both sides. I get people who praise me and call me genius. I even got one guy who wanted to send 100 drunk Negroes to beat me into submission — and he was going to video it...There’s one guy who calls himself Denzel Washington. He wanted me to personally apologize for the cookie. I hung up on him. "
Naturally, My Fox NY's Arnold Diaz, who broke the story with in one of his classic "Shame" segments, has been following up, and reports that State Senator Thomas Duane pressured Kefalinos to take a racial sensitivity training session. But Duane says, "He really needs to undergo much more sensitivity training because I'm not sure that he's completely got the message yet. If he doesn't... the marketplace will put him out of business." (Watch the video below.)
Kefalinos insists business is back to normal after a brief backlash, although neighboring retailers are tired of the Saturday Panther protests. At their urging, he posted a long apology on the bakery window, which reads, in part, "To the people who perceived our product was offensive... I apologize for the error in judgment... What I saw as a flower, you saw as a thorn, based on cross cultural differences."
That's not going to cut it with New Black Panther leader Shaka Shakur, who tells the Villager, "We want to get this pushed all the way to being a hate crime." During a recent protest, Shakur noticed an Asian sushi chef outside Funayama restaurant next door, and warned, "He made a cookie about me — he’ll make one about you." Shakur says he'll call off the protest if Kefalinos makes a donation to the Harlem school he founded, Gyenyama University. When a reporter explained the proposal to Kefalinos, he replied, "Pay him off? You mean extortion? I already apologized. ... To get on my knees? I’ll never get on my knees."
Despite the fact that Kefalinos attended the elite Bronx High School of Science, there's a general consensus among customers that he's a little off. One neighbor says, "He’s not very smart. He thinks he’s funny. He’ll make a green St. Patrick’s Day cookie and say, ‘Have a cookie with your beer!’ But you can’t joke with everyone. I know he’s not prejudiced. He’s like a failed comedian. He’s dumb. He’s dumb, that’s all." As if eager to live up to his reputation, Kefalinos recently reminisced about his controversial cookie: "To me, I liked it. I thought it was cute. But you can’t say that — it winds it all up again." Ha, you know what also "winds it all up again"? Kefalinos opening his mouth!
