06/06/2017
The Racist Sandwich Podcast
Some capital-T Truth about cultural appropriation, capitalism, and the racial wealth gap via Dakota Kim at Paste Magazine.
"Okay, food media, chefs, restaurant owners and home cooks. I get it. Many of you keep saying you want to be able to cook whatever food you want, regardless of cultural appropriation. Set me free, you scream. I am in food chains! No one is realistically going to be able to stop you from cooking whatever you want. No Cultural Appropriation Fairy is standing in your private kitchen, ready to bonk you over the head with her wand every time you cook from a cuisine you were not raised in.
But because of your emphasis on 'having the right,' we keep having the wrong food and cultural appropriation conversation, over and over and over again, and to be honest, I’m tired of it. (And yes, I’m going to say 'wrong,' because a lot of these attempts at cultural sensitivity are just really misguided.) The problem here is that people are trying to have this conversation in a vacuum, without a larger understanding or acknowledgement of the racial, ethnic and cultural capitalist power structure in America. Until you acknowledge that power and privilege structure, this conversation stays about cultural appropriation, and not food justice or food equal opportunity."
[Pictured: A family standing around a dinner table, folding their hands in reverence.]
