food for thought
Courtney's latest entry got me thinking about my Tuesday night class this week.
The class is Ethnic Arts/Intercultural Communication, and we were talking about food. Most of the students, despite our varied age, enjoy eating different ethnic foods. I like Japanese, Thai, Korean, and Chinese, Indian, Greek, Italian, Mexican, Polish... you name it, I'll probably give it a try, and like it.
One girl, an admitted freshman, grates on my nerves. She's always professing to know exactly the way things are, and every day I try to see her beliefs shot down. Her generalizations about gays or Blacks or Jews alone make me want to puke. It's not prejudice or bigotry, but professing to know anything about any one group of people is just idiocy.
Well, Tuesday, she declared that some people are genetically predisposed to eating ONLY foods from their own culture. Despite EVERYone else in the class telling her otherwise ("food bigot") she claimed that she could only "stomach" American food. Everything else, either by look, smell, or taste made her want to vomit.
She described, in detail, her ignorance when it came to food. She had gone with friends to Bento GoGo (nobody gets the name right because the signage also includes the tagline "Asian Yum Yum" -- that's what she called it). It's a nouveau Asian place run by the same people who run Haiku, which is one of our favorite places to go when we have cash.
At "Asian Yum Yum", she had ordered one of the bento lunches. I believe, from her description, she had the veggie bento. She didnt like the "weed wrapper" around all the sushi. She didnt like the rice dessert ("like little testicles"). Etc etc etc... It wasn't that she didnt LIKE it, but the fact that she kept saying over and over that she, as an American, wasn't "meant to eat food from other cultures" because she was "genetically different."
Whatever, bitch. The whole class thought you were very closed-minded and we even told you so. I should bring in some tako su and force it down your throat. Or maybe kielbasa (not your Ekrich crap) or golobki. Or god forbid she taste pierogies.
Comments
can you slap her for me? please?
Posted by: courtney | May 8, 2003 12:29 PM
My mom wants me to come back to Ohio, Bowling Green no less, to finally finish out my long awaited BA. Every time I complain about working full time while in school, or about how I can't afford to live in the city I love without working while in school, she says; "you could always come home and finish at Bowling Green."
Can you imagine?! I really get a laugh just thinking about it. I seriously think I would be killed up there.
This story is exactly how I imagine a bunch of under 20 farm kids would make me feel.
While I admit that when I started at bowling green, I was an under 20 farm kid that went to school with all white people, AND that I’ve come along way from those days, I just don't think I could back track and argue with people about stuff like that.
I'd want to ask her, what's her definition of American? Chinese are Americans, Japanese, Korean...you get it, yo.
Sounds like she's predisposed to not liking brown people food, and that she's an undercover racist. Problem is that she doesn't identify herself as a racist because she's not a part of the KKK. Subtle racism is the still the plague of America. Please remind her that "the ethnics" have been apart of and contributing to "american" culture for hundreds of years...and that ethnic food is american food.
So, I admire you kids who are a little older, and have had some time to think out the ideas that we were all raced with in regards to race, class, etc....it's a constant struggle to retrain yourself and see some prejudices for what they really are. I still struggle at times too. Sorry for my horrible grammar and spelling Matt..I know you hate that.
Peace out!
Posted by: christine | May 8, 2003 1:23 PM
I still struggle, too. And, really, she's not mean spirited, she's just "ignant". Really. But damn, I want to punch her sometimes.
Posted by: Gigamatt | May 8, 2003 2:03 PM
That's just so sad... some people are just so ignorant. I'd hate to see how she'd survive if she visited any other country and couldn't find a McDonalds (if that's even possible *chuckle*).
Posted by: Icarus | May 19, 2003 3:35 PM