The post Showdown: PC Culture Takes on “Racist Food Blogging” appeared first on Christopher James Clark.
It was inevitable. PC culture, outrage culture, and getting offended about anything and everything has finally spilled over in the world of food blogging.
Today, the BBC published an article with the following headline:
Are food bloggers fueling racist stereotypes?
Is food racist? Apparently, the world of food blogging is a place where cultural appropriation and micro-aggressions ferment and marinate, eventually making their way into racially insensitive Instagram posts and online recipes.
“Food media is predominantly generated by white people for white people, so when the subject veers toward anything outside of the Western canon, it’s not uncommon to see things generalized, exotified, or misrepresented,” says food critic Celeste Noche.
She went on to explain, “I think micro-aggressions in social media are reflective of food media as a whole.”
Here are some naughty examples…
Chopstick Innuendo
Food blogger Andrew Zimmern made a Filipino Short Rib recipe. Sounds delicious, and it certainly could have been if not for his racist photo of the finished dish. Yes, Zimmern actually stylized and photographed the Filipino Short Ribs with chopsticks!
This is bad because Filipinos eat with forks and spoons or their hands. Noche adds, “Chopsticks sticking straight up into rice or noodles can be seen as offensive in some Asian cultures.”
Huge Mistake
Another faux pas was committed by the popular food website Bon Appétit when they proclaimed, “Pho is the new Ramen.” Apparently this was inappropriate because “pho is from Vietnam and ramen from Japan” and because the video was fronted by a white American chef who described the “correct way to eat pho.”
Bon Appétit bowed to the social justice warrior pressure by removing the article and video less than 24 hours after it went online.
Cafeteria Gaffe
Pembroke College of Cambridge University is also taking heat for applying names like “Jamaican Stew” and “Tunisian Rice” to the dishes sold in its cafeteria.
We will be “going through the dishes on the menu to see if any are ones that are not very well named,” representatives of the school remarked.
Conclusions
Are they right? Is food racist? Should the PC language police monitor and control the culinary and food blogging worlds? Should restaurants and food bloggers make revisions or retractions whenever someone gets offended? While it’s true that getting offended is so hot right now, I’m gonna go with no — let people cook what they want, photograph food they want to photograph it, and name their recipes however they choose. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this matter.
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The post Showdown: PC Culture Takes on “Racist Food Blogging” appeared first on Christopher James Clark.
