I have a daughter who for medical reasons needs to eat gluten-free. I certainly expect that her college appropriately label things that are gluten-free and not accordingly (which they did, since they’re not monsters or anything). So tell me again why I think it would be funny-ha-ha to sneak a mislabeled food onto someone’s plate?
@Troyus, my son just got home from Oberlin, too. He was also unaware of the food controversy, but is very aware of the black student union’s demands and the racism accusations leveled at certain professors. I imagine most of the students there are like your daughter and my son, just trying to get an education, fueled by whatever food the dining halls choose to serve.
This story just hit my facebook feed from Refinery29. The comments were not flattering.
New article from Conor Friedersdorf in the Atlantic:
Lots of good thoughts and questions raised in this article. Also he invites Oberlin students to email him with their take on what is going on. http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/12/the-food-fight-at-oberlin-college/421401/
From the New York Times, which has picked up the story:
“Real Murikans”
That is terribly elitist and offensive. Sorry. It just is. Middle America is not full of hayseeds. No matter what a bunch of children think.
Solution: Just rename the dish. So it’s not General Tso’s chicken. It’s chicken with a nice sauce.
Hah! That’s a serious understatement based on what I witnessed of many well-off American college classmates in the Chinese university we were studying in. And this was despite the fact we were housed in a separate “international student dormitory” with more amenities than available to the local Chinese student population and yes, better food than what’s available to local students and comparable to better offerings at some mid-level Chinese restaurants I’ve eaten at in NYC/California.
I can just imagine the howls of protests from those classmates AND their parents if they were subjected to what my father ate every day for all 4 years in the college dining hall as a full-ride on everything student…soybeans cooked so poorly that the food he was served in the army while doing his 2 years of mandated service was a dramatic improvement in the culinary department.
Not sure he’s going to be trusted to listen to their concerns honestly considering how he was mostly dismissive in the article along with the fact the author admits to holding right-leaning libertarian beliefs in a separate interview.
This is just like someone from the dominant majority who assumes marginalized racial minorities will confide in them even after being open about assuming their concerns/issues are “all made up” or “not a big deal” and then makes an open request for them to tell him/her their stories.
In so doing, he/she doesn’t understand one reason why few/any marginalized racial minorities would be willing to confide on such issues like this to him/her is precisely because he/she has already effectively telegraphed by prior public comments that he/she views them as lying/exaggerating and holds dismissive views about them and their concerns.
Why would someone…especially one from a marginalized group feel inclined to make themselves more vulnerable and possibly provide more ammunition for such a judgmental individual to use to be subjected to further dismissive attitudes or accusations that they’re exaggerating/lying about the issues? To those who experienced this before or knew friends or fellow marginalized group members/allies who had similar encounters, this can be viewed as a baiting tactic similar to ones used by conservative activist James O’Keefe III:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/27/us/politics/27orleans.html?_r=0
https://www.fbi.gov/neworleans/press-releases/2010/no052610b.htm
It’s really amazing that you manage to get anything done in life, cobrat, with the amount of story time and eavesdropping you have with random strangers all over the world.
Actually, it’s a term use by many Americans across the country to denote conservative White Americans who feel anyone who isn’t like them racially and/or ideologically isn’t a “real American”.
It was popularly used during the 2008 elections to satirize Sarah Palin’s "Real America speech* and also those who accused then Presidential Candidate Obama of being a “Kenyan Muslim” and refused to accept the documented fact he is an American citizen born in Hawaii.
Since when were bánh mì expensive? They are known around here as one of the less expensive choices for restaurant food.
The point is that you are not “entitled” to have your particular cuisine represented. As long as health and religious options are available (kosher, halal, vegetarian, gluten free etc) that’s enough.
We enjoyed a Xmas-themed dinner last night.
We culturally re-appropriated the Japanese’s Christmas cultural mis-appropriation of American food: we had take-out KFC fried chicken for dinner. No reservation needed.
[guilty admission] I didn’t feel like cooking.
@cobrat. I’ve heard the term, I’m not stupid. Just bc a derogatory term is popular does not mean it is not offensive.
In response to #144 I just want to say how glad I am that my college dining halls (in New England) did not attemp gumbo or jambalaya: It would surely have been disappointing.
It wouldn’t have become so popularized if politicians like Sarah Palin and those of her ilk hadn’t saw fit to continue a longstanding American faux populist tradition with some xenophobic overtones of portraying small-town rural America and its residents as more “pro-American” and thus, “better” than large urban cities…especially those on the West Coast and the NE.
And it isn’t a coincidence that this faux populist tradition favors areas of the US which tend to be majority or completely White and Conservative and anyone who doesn’t fit that mode isn’t a “real American” as aptly illustrated by their attempts to label then Presidential Candidate Obama a “Kenyan Muslim”.
In other words, a stereotype?
It seems it’s ok to stereotype and belittle some people, but not others. I try not to do that to anyone lest I be called a hypocrit. Plus, it’s just the right thing to do.
Yeah, but think of how different your expectations would be if the dining hall called them “soup w okra & meat chunks” and “rice w sausage chunks”.
I have lived abroad, in China, although for a semester, not a year. I was with 16 Americans and we ate in the regular student cafeteria at the Beijing Normal University. The food was simple, and primarily vegetarian, but it was good and the only problem any of the kids I was there with every had with the food was the heavy use of MSG, to which one of my classmates was allergic, and which gave many of us weird dreams. This was in the mid 80’s.
I knew even before we had kids that we would be traveling with them early on in their little lives. And, as such a ‘food’ plan was put in place from the get-go. You ate what was on the table. What was on the table varied by season and mood of the cook. You were not allowed to default to chicken nuggets or spaghetti with ketchup. You were never forced to eat something which still didn’t appeal to you after a several tries. Yup, you had to at least try it.
You learn to eat Oma’s liver dumpling soup. Don’t like the dumplings, eat the broth. Don’t like either, wait until the main meal and then pick something. You learned that in almost all cases you could find something that was being offered which you could eat.
Then before you went off to College you learned to cook a number of meals which you liked and which were healthy. That way, after the first year you could manage on your own and not have to eat at the cafeteria. If the food offered was that bad get a can opener, pick a few ingredients and make your own danged dinner. If someone had the nerve to serve a dish called Oma’s liver dumpling Soup and it wasn’t what you expected…skip it…or again…make it yourself. Invite a few friends. Lighten UP for gosh sake.
Honestly, with the viral ability of social media it is best to not make an Arse of yourself. Think before you speak. These ‘children’ look like fools. If your bored and have to much free time…go volunteer at a soup kitchen!