It never crosses my mind that there could be racism in food. The reason I just realize that is because I figured food it was the last thing people would make it racist. I LOVE food as you can see by the majority of the articles that I wrote, but it caught my attention about this perspective of food can be racist. The way how it came to me this idea because I have been listening to this podcast called “Racist Sandwich.”
Listening to the first episode make me think that people can sometimes suck even when you eat something that you like. At the same time, it opens a new discussion for people to talk about this topic. Talks were the abuse of stereotypes from each group, the lack of representation or the lack of research about a culture. Each of those conversations is about food.
“Food media is predominantly generated by white people for white people, so when the subject veers toward anything outside of the Western canon, it is not uncommon to see things generalized, exotified, or misrepresented,” said Celeste Noche.
Noche is a Filipino-American who is a food and travel photographer who shared her thoughts in the podcast. Noche also talked to the BBC and told them “I think microaggressions in social media are reflective of food media as a whole in that appropriation.” She also said, “these microaggressions can be as simple as a lack of research.”
An example would be these microaggressions would be the video (Currently is not available) from Bon Appetit food site claiming “Pho is the new Ramen” which receive many criticisms in the comments. People’s comments pointed out that the video made it a “simplification of Asian culture” and also they comment that “pho is from Vietnam and ramen from Japan.”
Another case occurred in Pembroke College of Cambridge University have to change the menu of the cafeteria because they were taking complaints from students. Two dishes on the menu the “Jamaica stew” and the “Tunisian rice” were the primary source of the claims.
The student who commented said “Dear Pembroke catering staff, stop mixing mango and beef and calling it ‘Jamaican stew,'” posted on the college’s Facebook page. “I am actually half Jamaican, pls show me where in the Caribbean they mix fruit and meat.”
The other student who commented about “Tunisian rice” who recipes do not exist actually in Tunisia.
So the question about to this conversation ethic groups are poorly represented in the media or are we been crying babies about this?
The Guy with Food 