Woke Food Fights

I just finished reading today's NYT article, "Food Is Identity. For Korean Chefs Who Were Adopted, It’s Complicated. Koreans raised by American families are exploring a heritage they didn’t grow up with through restaurant cooking — and finding both fulfillment and criticism." Here is an excerpt:

As Korean food continues to influence American dining, with Korean fried chicken and bibimbap appearing on all types of menus, a variation on that interplay is unfolding in the kitchens of chefs with backgrounds like Mrs. Hong — Korean adoptees who came to the United States in the 1970s and ’80s. These chefs are coming to terms with a heritage they didn’t grow up with. And they are enthusiastically expressing it through the very public, and sometimes precarious, act of cooking for others.

In the process, they’re finding fulfillment — and sometimes attracting criticism from other Korean Americans that their cooking isn’t Korean enough.

An estimated 200,000 Koreans have been adopted globally since 1953, roughly three-quarters of them by parents in the United States, said Eleana J. Kim, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of California, Irvine, and the author of “Adopted Territory: Transnational Korean Adoptees and the Politics of Belonging.”

Yes, let's keep dividing people against each other and publishing articles pretending that this finger-wagging attitude is worth discussing at the NYT (or anywhere). How about this alternative? We should honor people who cook well, regardless of their immutable characteristics or upbringing. How incredibly stupid and destructive have some of us become regarding this idea of cultural appropriation? Check out this article by Jonathan Turley: "White Owners Of Mexican Food Truck Shut Down After Being Accused of Cultural Appropriation." Here's an excerpt:

Kali Wilgus and Liz “LC” Connelly thought that they had realized their dream when they opened Kooks Burritos in Portland Oregon. They were even more excited when the local newspaper Williamette Week decided to do a feature article on their new business. The two women recounted how they watched Mexican women making tortillas on a trip to Baja California and adopted what they saw. That admission however led to furious accusations that the two white women were guilty of “cultural appropriation.” They eventually shutdown their food truck.

And, of course, let's keep dividing people into two--count'em--two "colors." After all, it has been such an incredibly successful strategy for the U.S. so far. If you think I'm exaggerating, take a look at the "anti-racist" teaching materials common in many of our schools. They are all over the internet, though most legacy media outlets won't give you links to these poisonous materials. Those who embrace these newish "anti-racist" teaching materials apparently forgot who Martin Luther King was.

As Matt Taibbi pointed out in his book, "Hate,Inc., "[W]hat most people think of as 'the news' is, in fact, a twisted wing of the entertainment business."

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Kemi Badenoch Targets the Racist idea that there is a “Black” Way of Thinking

Is there one legitimate "Black Point of View"? One would think so if one follows progressive politics. Kemi Badenoch (who until recently was vying for Tori Leadership in the U.K.) points out that there is no such thing as the "Black" way of thinking. In fact, it is a deeply racist idea.

Continue ReadingKemi Badenoch Targets the Racist idea that there is a “Black” Way of Thinking

Glenn Loury and John McWhorter React to School District Dumbs Down the Math Curriculum in the name of “Equity.”

Glenn Loury and John McWhorter react to a recent decision of the Princeton School District to dumb down the math curriculum in the name of "equity." John McWhorter sums up the problem: In the view of some school administrators, "It is not authentically black to be nerdy."

Here is an article describing the problem: "Opinion: Princeton Public School parents express concerns about school district’s ‘new direction’"

Continue ReadingGlenn Loury and John McWhorter React to School District Dumbs Down the Math Curriculum in the name of “Equity.”

Transcend Race to Weaken White Supremacists

Thomas Chatterton Williams authored the book Losing My Cool and Self-Portrait in Black and White and is a contributing writer at The Atlantic.. He holds that "Racism and race are two separate things," meaning that racism is the father of race, and not the other way around. What that means is that there are no distinct races within the species homo sapiens."

Here is an excerpt of an interview Chatterton-Williams gave, published at Aspen Ideas:

Q: "What does a world in which we have transcended race look like? What promise does it hold for people whose racial identity creates a sense of belonging that would be hard to want to let go of?"

A: [Thomas Chatterton Williams]: "I think a world in which we have transcended race would be one in which we fundamentally learn to interact with other people, and think of ourselves, first and foremost as individuals. We live in extraordinarily mixed societies already. I want to live in a world where we accept that a person’s physical characteristics and ostensible color category cannot adequately tell us how they will think or act, what kind of character they possess, or to which class they belong. Many of us profess to believe this already, but we don’t really behave like we do. And part of not behaving like we do is not putting too much stock in that sense of belonging based on abstract notions of “race.” I would just caution any non-white people who find it difficult to imagine giving up the solidarity and sense of empowerment they derive from membership in their racial group that this is also how white supremacists feel. Now, most well-meaning people can immediately understand the problem with a sense of meaning and pride based in belonging to a “race” when they think about “white” people professing this. We just need to be consistent now. Too often the “anti-racists” on the left start from the same limiting premises—that the racial category is impossible to transcend and therefore real, if not biologically real then so socially constructed that it amounts to the same thing—that the genuine racists hold to be true. In so doing they actually end up reproducing the very same flawed and dehumanizing ideas they wish to counteract."

I have categorized this article under the category of ""Race" and Racism" a term I use in scare quotes because I don't believe in "race" even though (like Chatterton-Williams) I acknowledge the existence of racism, which is caused by the false belief in "race." I have written several articles on this topic (e.g., here). Most recently, I have been impressed with Thomas Chatterton Williams, Kmele Foster and Sheena Williams, author of the brand new book, Theory of Racelessness: A Case for Antirace(ism).

Continue ReadingTranscend Race to Weaken White Supremacists