Your Lunch is Cultural Appropriation

How your dietary choices can help stop world-wide oppression

Ask anyone in social justice warrior / activism circles. They'll tell you that the appropriation of an oppressed people's culture is one of the ways that the powerful have used to keep people down. 

The choices you make when it comes to clothes you wear, the hairstyle you choose, the music you decide to play or the physical activity you practice, can contribute to the oppression caused by cultural appropriation.

Some of the best examples of appropriation can be found in the food you eat. Here are some examples of seemingly common foods that you should steer clear of to avoid the sin of cultural appropriation.

Pasta with tomato sauce

This is probably one of the most iconic of Italian dishes. Except that if you really look at the ingredients, you'll see that this dish is really a combination of noodles taken from China with a sauce using tomatoes that are only native to South America.

So really, if you want to be oppression-free when eating any form of pasta with a tomato-based sauce, the only way would be to eat a dish made by a Chinese person assisted by a Colombian or a Peruvian saucier. Otherwise, you're just encouraging the continued cultural theft perpetrated by white Italians who have the gall to call this and other pasta variations as "authentic Italian food".

Banh Mi Sandwiches

These delicious Vietnamese sandwiches are seriously problematic. For one, many non-Vietnamese have been selling these with the wrong kind of bread (ciabatta instead of baguettes) and passing them off as "authentic".

But more problematically, the authentic Vietnamese sandwich makers have appropriated French bread. Now we can argue that it's not really cultural appropriation because the French were actually the colonial oppressors in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and the surrounding regions.  So you'd think that an oppressed people taking over a part of an oppressor's culture would be positive, right?

Think again.

The fact that the Vietnamese has adopted the French baguette is not positive at all. This is a sign of cultural self-hatred caused by colonialism.  The colonial influence has made Vietnamese chefs think that their local breads aren't good enough and they have to use a modified version of French bread to make their food better.

By buying and eating a banh mi sandwich, you are not only encouraging Vietnamese people's appropriation of French culture. Your purchase also helps Vietnamese people to proliferate their hatred of their own culture.

Poutine

Wait a minute, this is a dish made by white people in Canada. How can it be cultural appropriation for other white people to sell and eat this amazing combination of french fries, cheese curds and gravy?

Invented in 1950s rural Quebec (the popular consensus is that it's from Drummondville, though other towns will dispute it), the dish had a very working class origin. It was created by mixing ingredients that are easily found in a diner (fries and gravy) with a by-product of cheddar cheese production (cheese curds).

The problem is that for the longest time, French Canadian culture in Quebec has always been under the oppression of the rest of English-speaking Canada. The "weirdness" of poutine was actually mocked as being the example of why Quebec culture is supposedly inferior to that of the rest of Canada.

As the popularity of poutine has skyrocketed, many restaurants in Toronto and other large cities in English Canada have been profiting off the invention of French-speaking Quebec and passing it off as a Canadian dish.  Never mind that Quebec is part of Canada.  Quebec society considers its culture as distinct from the rest of Canada.  So buying poutine outside of Quebec or from a restaurant that isn't owned by French-speaking Quebecois is definitely problematic.  Let's not even talk about American restaurants starting to add poutine in their menus.

What makes it worse are the variations of poutine that have started popping up.  It started out with "Italian poutine" where tomato sauce is used instead of gravy.  I've already explained the problematic nature of tomato sauce above.  Now you're also seeing the additions of chicken tikka masala or feta and tzatziki sauce on poutine.  Some have even substituted the cheese curds with brie or other more expensive cheeses.  Other restaurants have put lobster on poutine.

The biggest offender is of course the famous "Au Pied de Cochon" restaurant in Montreal who puts foie gras in their poutine.  Yes, the chef and owner is a French-speaking Quebecois.  The issue is that while he technically is allowed to make and sell poutine, the chef has committed social class appropriation. He essentially gentrified poutine by making it "fancy" and pricing it beyond the means of the working class who invented the dish and intended to make it accessible for everyone.

General Tso's / General Tao Chicken

This staple of North American Chinese restaurants was actually invented by a Chinese chef who fled to Taiwan when Mao's Communist Party took over. The chef then brought it to the United States.  Seems harmless enough, right?

Not so fast.

Yes the creator of the dish was originally Chinese.  However, because he created that dish in Taiwan and then brought it to the USA, General Tso's chicken (or General Tao chicken in some places) is virtually unknown in China.  But the dish itself was and still is being passed off as "Chinese food" in North America, giving consumers the wrong impression of what food in China is actually like.

What's the big deal?  Taiwan is basically China, right?  Wrong!

The government of Taiwan (not to mention the people) will be quick to say that they are an independent state with their own distinct culture.  So in this case, calling General Tso's chicken a Chinese dish is indeed cultural appropriation by Taiwanese and of course North American restaurateurs.

So if you truly want to show respect to Chinese culture, you would do well to avoid this dish when going into a Chinese restaurant (which, of course should be Chinese-owned and operated).  If you do eat this, you're encouraging Taiwanese rebels who are both appropriating and profiting off authentic Chinese cuisine.

There are many other examples of such perpetuation of injustice and oppression, but it would make this particular blog post a bit too long.  Perhaps a part 2 blog post will be needed in the future to discuss why the following foods are also problematic:

• Chinese egg tarts
• Jerk chicken
• Empanadas
• Menudo
• Curry

The quality of the food is irrelevant.  This is about ending the oppression to stop these neo-colonizers and culture thieves who serve food that they have no business selling.  So let's all use our platforms.  Make videos, post photos and be outraged on social media when you get an example of this type of appropriation.

With social media, it's very easy to do this with minimal effort.  You can easily call out restaurants perpetuating cultural appropriation and colonialism by serving problematic dishes. If you don't have much to do and you have some free time, you can even incite your social media followers to boycott said restaurants.

While it's incredibly difficult to effect real social change, especially when you live in a free, democratic society, there are ways to make yourself feel like you're doing something to end oppression.  Being publicly anti cultural or social class appropriation is one way to do that.