Goodfella
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I read this article on the Washington Post this morning: How it feels when white people shame your culture’s food — then make it trendy
The gist of it is that the Asian-American author feels annoyed if not offended that the same white people who mocked her culture's cuisine in her childhood now consume that cuisine because it's trendy. At the same time, she feels that the way many white people consume Asian cuisine verges on appropriation. White people go to Asian restaurants because they think its exotic (she calls this "discount tourism") and they want to participate in a fad but don't actually care about the cultures the cuisine belongs to.
Do you agree with her? If so, what are some ways we can eat food from other cultures without appropriating and commodifying those cultures? Is what she describes inevitable? Do you think any of this is necessarily bad?
I think she's mostly right but it's a difficult situation. The white people who made fun of her when she was a child didn't realize how good Asian food was. But now in every major American city, young white adults love to eat Asian food. I'm not sure what the situation in Europe or Australia is, but half the time I eat out, I'm either at an Indian, Thai, Chinese, or Middle Eastern/Central Asian restaurant. I even eat sushi now despite historically hating fish.
Another thing is, this seems to have already been happening for ages with every culture that's arrived in America. Think of all the pizza, pasta, tacos, hot dogs, and hamburgers which are now the basis of mainstream American cuisine. It almost seems that with the acceptance of foreign cultures comes the assignment of those culture's cuisines to traditional, fast-food, and fusion forms. We already see this with Panda Express which in all likelihood will soon be as ubiquitous as Taco Bell.
I don't how to feel about all this so discuss.
The gist of it is that the Asian-American author feels annoyed if not offended that the same white people who mocked her culture's cuisine in her childhood now consume that cuisine because it's trendy. At the same time, she feels that the way many white people consume Asian cuisine verges on appropriation. White people go to Asian restaurants because they think its exotic (she calls this "discount tourism") and they want to participate in a fad but don't actually care about the cultures the cuisine belongs to.
Do you agree with her? If so, what are some ways we can eat food from other cultures without appropriating and commodifying those cultures? Is what she describes inevitable? Do you think any of this is necessarily bad?
I think she's mostly right but it's a difficult situation. The white people who made fun of her when she was a child didn't realize how good Asian food was. But now in every major American city, young white adults love to eat Asian food. I'm not sure what the situation in Europe or Australia is, but half the time I eat out, I'm either at an Indian, Thai, Chinese, or Middle Eastern/Central Asian restaurant. I even eat sushi now despite historically hating fish.
Another thing is, this seems to have already been happening for ages with every culture that's arrived in America. Think of all the pizza, pasta, tacos, hot dogs, and hamburgers which are now the basis of mainstream American cuisine. It almost seems that with the acceptance of foreign cultures comes the assignment of those culture's cuisines to traditional, fast-food, and fusion forms. We already see this with Panda Express which in all likelihood will soon be as ubiquitous as Taco Bell.
I don't how to feel about all this so discuss.
