Reading the Oberlin College complaints about the food, I note that what they are actually complaining about is that the ethnic food is not prepared in an authentic fashion. The rice is steamed instead of fried, or whatever.
So it's not about appropriation, it's about snobbery. There have always been people who like showing off that they know oh-so-much-more than you about a culture and its customs. Screwtape notes that men in particular are prone to demonstrating that they know the only place in town where they prepare steaks properly, and this seems related. Students are trying desperately to tie this in to some prejudice that you just don't care about Vietnamese/Mexican/Caribbean people as much as they do, and are hence some sort of bigot, but it's all just old-fashioned snobbery. They know which fork to use and you don't.
Thinking back on the other recent controversies about prejudice on college campuses, I find that this framing does indeed fit. We don't really wear sombreros, you ignorant bastards. Well, lots of you used to, some of you still do, and it's actually a pretty good hat design for intense heat with no AC. It's not me rejecting your culture, it's you. Now that your family is upper middle class - I'm sorry, you did notice that it's not those other Mexicans who are getting the benefit of affirmative action, didn't you? - and doesn't work in the sun, you want us to recognise that by removing all sombreros from our consciousness. Frankly, it sounds a bit like my social-climbing grandmother, a 2nd generation Swede who looked down on French Canadians, Greeks, and certainly anyone dark.
And you white people who want to show that you really "get it" about the food of other cultures? Yeah, we used to see that when Junior Year Abroad was the main vector for learning about other countries.
Let me state it again: liberalism at this intensity is not in the least about any intellectual arguments. Which is a pity, because liberals actually do have some pretty good arguments, they just don't use them. It is a social acceptability phenomenon. It is fair to say that a certain type of conservative does the same thing about being a really true American/Republican/Conservative. They have their filters, and you pass through them or you don't.
Hey, here's a fun one on the conservative side: the best-sounding defense of support for Donald Trump is that he really gets it about immigration, while the GOP elites just don't. Except...Mitt Romney was the person who actually got it right, vetoing illegal immigrants getting Medicaid, free college tuition, and housing subsidies. No one cared, no one noticed. Did you guys care then? No, you called him a RINO. My charge is that you decided he didn't "feel" like one of you because he's a rich hedge fund guy from the Northeast. No more, no less.
Romney was right on immigration but totally wrong on Obamacare. And like McCaine, he wouldn't go after Obama personally. He did a lousy job of selling himself and his immigration plan. In short, he was a lousy candidate and even though Ann Coulter supported him vociferously as the party's candidate, she had been warning since the primaries that the Republicans would lose if Romney was the nominee.
ReplyDeleteRomney was right on immigration but totally wrong on Obamacare. And like McCaine, he wouldn't go after Obama personally. He did a lousy job of selling himself and his immigration plan. In short, he was a lousy candidate and even though Ann Coulter supported him vociferously as the party's candidate, she had been warning since the primaries that the Republicans would lose if Romney was the nominee.
ReplyDeleteYes, and at the time, people thought that Obamacare was the big issue. Which is fine. But the Trump supporters are now claiming that not only is the big issue immigration (which has actually subsided a bit), but has been for two decades but has been ignored. Can't have that both ways.
ReplyDeleteI find myself tolerating Trump a bit, but more because he'll openly discuss issues I consider to be important than because I actually agree with him. I'm nowhere near as anti-immigration as he is, but I am exasperated by the difficulty of finding public officials or candidates who will quit making meaningless soothing noises about its real costs. Where I part ways with Trump is that he's more of a RINO than Romney ever was. Nevertheless, in a contest between him and Hillary Clinton, you'd better believe I'd vote for him. I'd be happier voting for Cruz. I would have been happier still voting for Walker, but you can't have everything.
ReplyDeleteSometimes being a RINO isn't necessarily about having the wrong position on various issues, as about being willing to cave on issues concerning which one's position on first impression is pretty sound. For me, a RINO is a conservative who folds every time someone accuses him of being unkind or divisive, because he doesn't really get in his gut why the conservative position is what it is and why it's not a greater kindness to adopt the progressive position.
Snobbery and social acceptability "clicks" with me as a viable explanation for much of what I'm seeing and hearing about cultural appropriation. I'm guilty of it myself in noticing that you obviously don't know much about rice or how to cook or serve it. Your "whatever" made me laugh because I've been an observer of the arguments among my offsprings' various in-laws on the "right" way to do it. I consider myself lucky that I've learned several different ways to cook and enjoy rice and now know the differences among some varieties of rice. My life and palate have been enriched and improved.
ReplyDeleteI think you might be slightly off the mark concerning sombreros. Those highly stylized and elaborately decorated hats were not those worn by workers in the fields under a hot sun -- they were dress hats worn on special occasions or by the elite. I don't think it's an insult, but it's not exactly as you describe. Though "sombrero" just means "hat", it's become a symbol of more. It's more along the line of an urban cowboy wearing a hat that's never shielded him from the sun or any other weather... right along with his alligator boots that have never encountered any actual bovine excrement. Worthy of laughter, but not an insult.
Yesterday being Christmas dinner, there was a lot of talk, mostly jocular, about what food was "right." That kind of "right" makes complete sense to me--it's traditional, it's what makes one or more of us feel that the proper homage is being paid to an important occasion, it's exactly what we have a craving for at that time. It's a feast, which means there's plenty of room for someone to bring in something new as well. (Bless the niece who brought a dish of perfectly prepared brussels sprouts, so that there was one filling thing on the table that wasn't the savory equivalent of dining on chocolate truffles!)
ReplyDeleteI was thinking about chow mein this morning. I understand that nothing like it ever appeared in China; it's an American dish. On the other hand, it never would have existed if Asian cuisine hadn't collided with American tables. What's more, it was my father's signature dish when I was a kid, and I want just like he made it. That's as "authentic" as it needs to be: true to my personal memory and expectations. If that's cultural appropriation, make the most of it! I don't imagine for an instant that it's the same thing as experiencing the glorious multifaceted thing that is real Asian cuisine, but I'm not interested in getting a political argument about it, either.
I remain free to laugh uproariously at what appears in the guide of "Mexican food" in many parts of this country that shall remain unnamed, while at the same time understanding perfectly that the Tex-Mex I grew up with and love has very little to do with Mexican culture. There's a lot of bad cooking in the world; I'm the first to decry it, but the problem isn't "authenticity" or cultural sensitivity.
Texan99 -- I've had "Mexican food" in Michigan. Interestingly tasteless is the best I can say about it. Tex-Mex is it's own separate cuisine and I love it, but it took some getting used to when I moved east from New Mexico. What I realize now is that what I was used to as "Mexican" food had a lot of Navajo, Pueblo, and other tribal influences. I'm sure Tex-Mex has similar influences, just different tribes perhaps?
ReplyDeleteThe fact that I actively participated in helping illegals from Mexico and Central American countries avoid immigration authorities while trying to help them become citizens for several years should make clear that I'm not anti-immigrant. Bulk immigration in the form of refugees is an entirely different thing and I haven't quite worked out how I feel about that. I dealt with individuals and their families.
It's possible to be pro-immigration and anti-refugee. I'm still trying to work this out.
I love Mexican food in New Mexico and Arizona, very different from what we get here.
ReplyDeleteThe Mexican food I've gotten in places like Tennessee is just . . . odd. It's as if someone had heard of Mexican food but never tasted it. Sometimes it looks a little like Mexican food.
AVI
ReplyDeleteLet me state it again: liberalism at this intensity is not in the least about any intellectual arguments. Which is a pity, because liberals actually do have some pretty good arguments, they just don't use them. It is a social acceptability phenomenon.
I learned early on that political stances often had more to do with signaling what group one belonged to than with expressing one's political philosophy. A high school peer related how his father was a signer of a petition against the Vietnam War published in a famous newspaper that featured ALL THE RIGHT PEOPLE signing the petition.
Texan99, I learned the hard way to run the other way whenever I saw a "Mexican" restaurant in New England. Agreed that it isn't an issue of being "authentic." Poorly prepared food is poorly prepared food.
Regarding cultural "appropriation" and such, I am reminded of Tejano music. Tejano music features a lot of polkas and accordions, which Hispanic Texans freely borrowed from the German and Slavic immigrants to 19th century Texas. This music appropriated from Germans and Slavs has crossed the border. What is known in Northern Mexico as Norteña [northern] music has the same polkas and accordions that Tejano music has. Appropriators, all of them.
Donna B, I have worked with refugees from many places, and of course my 3rd and 4th sons (as well as many other friends) are immigrants. I also have thought quite abit about what is happening now. Not so much for America at present - the numbers we are talking about taking in are small - but specifically in regards to Europe, and perhaps for America in the future. Plus I want to be clear in my mind what the moral and practical aspects actually are, just because I like things to be neat and tidy.
ReplyDeleteImmigrants and refugees are not just variations on a theme of people-from-else-where. They are conceptually different at a deep level, however much individuals and groups might combine and overlap those categories. Therefore, there are some reasons to prefer either over the other depending on what the goal is. I will be posting on it soon, but you might want to start that yourself, dividing them from each other more thoroughly as you think about them.