“Look, you either support the idea of micro-aggression or you don’t. Of microagression complains are allowed to one ethnicity/race, they should be allowed to all. If Muslims protest against references to pigs in textbooks, then I see why Indians have every right to protest against beef.”
Sigh. You judge based in the complaint itself, not the group who complains.
Anyway, I said already that if the food is being mislabeled as vegetarian, then it’s a valid complaint. If it’s clearly labeled as a beef dish, then anyone who is vegetarian for whatever reason - religious or otherwise - is free to skip it. There is no “offense” in food being available for others that you personally can’t eat, unless it’s an actual physical allergy (eg a peanut free cafeteria). My gluten free daughter is not “offended” by the presence of pasta.
Cobrat, did you ever get an explanation from your numerous Jewish friends and acquaintances why a non Jew eating ham on a piece of matzoh was sooooo more offensive than a non Jew eating a cheeseburger or shrimp cocktail? Because there’s no difference. None. Matzoh is not sacred nor is there any problem whatsoever with a non Jew eating it if they so choose. Either you misinterpreted what was going on or the O-Jew kid was nuts.
Kids go to Oberlin with their eyes wide open, I hope. Leftist views are the orthodoxy there. But this new emphasis on microaggressions has opened up a Pandora’s box of hurt feelings, misunderstandings, and narcissism.
Some kid who got worked up about another eating ham is no role model or standard for how one should react. It’s barely germane to say, “Well I know someone who (exploded.)” It begs a “so what?”
Similar, when one keeps relying on second and third hand experiences and tales of what someone else says he/she experienced, thought or admonished.
Too many people expect too much ‘perfect knowledge’ and deference and forget not everyone lives by the same rules or expectations or share the same knowledge.
That’s not micro-aggression.
Not all Hindus are strict vegetarian. We can respect those who are. We can ask foods not be mis-labeled.
And from a legal viewpoint, issues which can be resolved other than by conflict are usually recommended to be resolved without all this hyperbole. I keep hoping posters can distinguish realities from frenzy.
I think those of us who ate mystery meat and looked forward to chicken nugget night at a time when the vegetarian options were overcooked spaghetti with insipid ketchupy tomato sauce, 3 day old greens at the salad bar, or a PB&J are having a hard time summoning much righteous indignation over a menu that includes items like “fermented beetroot, apple and star anise relish”, “savory porridge with cheddar and dandelion greens”, “wild Alaskan salmon with arugula and avocado-corn relish” and "spring frittata with asparagus, leeks, and chèvre.
Your post about crashing weddings of “people you didn’t like” is not the Robin Hood equivalent. Stuffing YOURSELF with other peoples’ food and drink is also not the equivalent of giving to the poor.
“Some kid who got worked up about another eating ham is no role model or standard for how one should react. It’s barely germane to say, “Well I know someone who (exploded.)” It begs a “so what?””
Right. The proper response to a Jewish student who gets worked up about someone else eating ham isn’t “Oh, gosh, I’d best be more sensitive to people’s dietary restrictions.” The proper response is “what a loser - what other people eat or don’t eat is of zero concern to him, and he doesn’t even understand his own dietary laws if he thinks that a non-Jew eating ham is breaking them.”
Let’s just imagine–and there is some support for this idea–that you have been complaining for several years about Oberlin’s unsatisfactory efforts to make ethnic food available in the dining hall, and you haven’t gotten any response, and the food hasn’t improved. You’re paying a lot of money for that food. What do you do? How do you escalate your complaints so they get some attention? What sort of complaints seem to get attention and action at other colleges?
The addition of arugula and avacado-corn relish would make it “too elitist” for Palin and her political base judging by their referencing this against President Obama in the 2008 election:
“wild Alaskan salmon with arugula and avocado-corn relish”
That’s about the only thing I would eat among the items Sue22 listed. That other stuff sounds like bad hospital food served on an airplane that’s been circling above Minneapolis for 3 hours.
Doing ethnographies for the purpose of facilitating more effective corporate marketing tactics for your consulting clients is a far cry from what my academic friends who have been doing fieldwork in rural parts of India for months/years at a stretch…including parts few upper-middle class professionals like yourself would likely dare go.
Unless one isn’t phased by working in areas where there’s been a decades long armed insurrections or religious violence where getting caught in the midst of crossfires between police/military/paramilitary units and religious rioters/insurrectionist groups is just one of the daily routine hazards of doing fieldwork there. Especially if one does it sustained for several months/a few years at a stretch…not a week or few here or there while staying in some nice hotels which caters to upper-middle class western tourists.
“Doing ethnographies for the purpose of facilitating more effective corporate marketing tactics by your clients is a far cry from what my academic friends who have been doing fieldwork in rural parts of India for months/years at a stretch…including parts few upper-middle class professionals like yourself would likely dare go.”
You’re going to have to trust that I went to places that “normal upper middle class professionals” go, instead of making assumptions like you always do that I was carted around on a gilded carpet ride.
Anyway, it’s just amusing that you allegedly discussed the meat-eating practices in rural India with all your academic friends who went there – just on the off chance that you might one day be engaged in an internet debate about it. This is why no one believes your tall tales and your claims that you are an expert in every topic because you have “friends” or “high school classmates” or “college classmates” or “pointy-headed bosses” that you’ve discussed everything with.
@cobrat You are stereotyping the people of one of the world’s most populous countries based on something some people you know told you. It’s tiresome.
I have Indian friends too. None of them gets irate when I eat beef in their presence. Just like I don’t get irate when non-Christians do things that I don’t do. It’s called tolerance and it works both ways.
Actually, the beef part came up because it has been a source of religious based tension and violence by some in the Hindu majority against non-Hindus in many parts of India especially rural areas.
And the recent election wins by the Hindu Nationalist BJP party and its PM Modi has only aggravated the situation as shown in the recent newsmedia link I posted earlier.
Its been confirmed by recent news reports of religious violence as shown here:
What’s more sad is that this wouldn’t come as a major surprise to the academic friends doing fieldwork in rural India as they’ve mentioned that all these issues have been building up for years in the areas they’ve been doing fieldwork in.