As this article discusses, the white owners of a burrito cart were shamed into closing their doors here in Portland because of accusations of cultural appropriation.
For me, this is carrying sensitivities way too far. Why should anyone pass up a good meal to eat shit food just because it’s prepared by someone of a particular culture? Does this mean that the excellent Italian place down the street should close its doors because the owner is Chicago Polish and his chef is Asian? Portland is a great place to live, but this sort of nonsense really annoys me.
Yes it should. And cultural appropriation is a great thing that should be celebrated. Bullshit like this is why the racist assholes are taking control of the country.
Having read all the coverage, it’s pretty clear that this didn’t happen just because they were white people selling burritos. White people sell burritos all the time.
First, I think there was definitely some sexism involved in the reaction to these women.
But mainly I believe the outrage was because in promoting their business, they gave interviews in which they talked about harassing and hounding impoverished Mexican women and spying on them to steal their cooking secrets and they told their story like it was some big adventure.
Wherever you live, look at a local recipe book from 70-100 years ago. Most of those are dishes whoch are unknown and even known dishes have different styles and ingredients.
It’s what they were accused of. There are other local chefs who have had the same sorts of accusations directed at them, including the James Beard Award winner Rick Bayless, who serves Mexican food, and Andy Ricker, whose Thai restaurant has been featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, and whose chicken wings draw customers from all over the country. This city would be a foodie wasteland if non-ethnic owned restaurants were to shut down over some notion that cuisine is proprietary. That said, if the women in question were being underhanded and bragging about it, I can understand some outrage.
No, it should not, it’s ridiculous, and society has gotten too uptight and much too overly sensitive. What about dance? What about all the other wonderful aspects of different cultures? Should each culture just bottle them up? One of the amazing things about different cultures is being able to share those aspects with others and letting them learn from and enjoy them imo.
There are certain things that I think are genuinely off limits. Fashion models wearing feathers in their hair Indian style as part of the wardrobe comes to mind (which I’ve seen). There are aspects of Alaska Native arts that are actually legally off limits to any non-Native, such as selling ivory of any kind.
Well, but that last is entirely different. The reason certain uses of whale ivory are off limits to non-natives, isn’t to prevent “cultural appropriation,” it’s because modern people wanted to make it off limits to EVERYONE, as a part of defending the Whales, and the native peoples objected on historic/cultural grounds, and won an exception for themselves.
For absolutely ANY “wrong thing” you can think of, there are exceptions to be dealt with. Exceptions to real concerns, do NOT invalidate ALL cases of claimed wrongs, but the vile people who want to continue to commit wrongful acts, will try to say the opposite.
All I know is I’m making bangers and mash for dinner, and there are about two dozen guys with bowler hats and umbrellas picketing in front of my house.
Society is just starting to recognize that being sensitive to impacts on people with less societal power is a good thing. It’s nowhere near being “overly” sensitive.
