A woman cleans collard greens in the bathtub with soap in a now-viral video. (Photo: Screenshot from Twitter @Phil_Lewis_) / Screenshots of tweets. / Collard Greens Stock Photo.
As families across America prepare to eat, drink and be merry this holiday season, one viral video of a woman cleaning collard greens in the bathtub has some in Black America scratching their heads.
A video reposted by journalist Philip Lewis shows a woman washing her collard greens in a bathtub with what appears to be dish soap. In the background, a man, who seems to be the one recording, can be heard praising the technique.
“This how you make sure you got the good, good eating. Look at that. If you don’t clean your greens like this or your chitlins, then don’t eat ’em,” the man says as the woman swishes the collard greens around in sudsy water in the tub.
“They got to be cleaned thoroughly. All the bus and mud and dirt that be in farms. Look at all that. Look at all that she cleaning,” the man continues. “Thank you Mama for putting in work, Chile. Thanksgiving finna be off the heee!”
The woman cleaning the greens smiled and laughed in the video, but many viewers did not.
Lewis wrote, “Greens gonna taste like Garneir Fructis” in his tweet of the video. Many shared his sentiments with being disgusted.
“There is mold on the tiles and bubbles on the greens. This is pure madness,” @SheaChe305 responded.
“It’s the mold, mildew and dirty grout being visible that has me,” author George M. Johnson tweeted, accentuated by a vomiting emoji.
“But why in the bathtub? And the bathtub looks dirty. So was the dirt from the greens or from the tub and honey why are their so may soap suds? No ma’am. This is not the way,” @crys_nicole wrote.
“I can’t stand people adding dish soap to greens but I hate even more they are cleaning the greens in the tub, in the fukking bathroom. Yuck,” @blewis823 tweeted.
One user posted a clip and hashtag of a TikTok video that went viral in which the creator sang, “You can’t eat at everybody’s house!”
There were a few users who defended the woman, however.
“U can actually look at the rub is clean and greens (raw greens) are dirty. If you are a person who actually cooks and cleans their food instead of getting sh*t prepackaged all the time then you’d know that,” @FreaakyySh1t wrote.
When someone responded and said he must be trolling, @FreaakyySh1t doubled down.
“Sweetie who raised you? Where are you from? Where yo ppl from? My babymother’s grandmother use soap and she wash hers in the sink,” @FreaakyySh1t continued adding, “they do it cuz they say it cleans the pesticides and other chemicals they spray on the food off. Idk how true it is but that’s what they do,”
One woman said the practice was standard when she was growing up with chitterlings, not collard greens.
“We never cleaned greens like this but definitely cleaned chitterlings in the bath tub in Chicago. It happened y’all,” @imvaltaylor wrote.
Another user tweeted a screenshot of guidance they said was “straight from the FDA” that advised against washing produce in soap.
It’s not the first time someone has been criticized for washing collard greens with soap. In 2019, an Instagram user with the handle @majorsexappeal also went viral after The Shade Room reposted a video of her washing greens in soap and saying it was the right way to clean them. She added that no one should argue with her.
That didn’t stop people from doing so.
“Water, salt and or vinegar. Not no damn soap. What’s wrong with folks?” @vg982 commented. “This is def the new generation…vinegar and water girl,” @officialmelaninsunflower added.
There have also been reports of people cleaning their collard greens in washing machines, which some said is just as bad.
“Uh, yuck. My washer has one of those “sanitary” cycles where the water is extra hot and the cycle runs twice as long. Even after I ran one of those, I still woudn’t eat any food that went into the washer afterwards,” user @m2mom wrote on a forum. “Not the same washer where my family’s dirty underwear and towels go…yuck.”
PHOTOS: A woman cleans collard greens in the bathtub with soap in a now-viral video. (Photo: Screenshot from Twitter @Phil_Lewis_) / Screenshots of tweets. / Collard Greens Stock Photo.
