06/12/2020
To understand racism, you MUST understand food.
Food is political.
Food is racist, food is classist, food is conflict, food is solidarity. Hell, food is everything and a bag of ellusive (and expensive) Korean honey butter chips.
Food is the smell of leftover massaman curry on your fingertips that your white coworker notices and says, "Ewww, what did you eat?"
Food is the struggle to find an ethnic grocery store in town so you settle for the ethnic aisle at Walmart instead, knowing damn well they ain't gonna have your chicharones, chingkiang vinegar or frozen chicken patties.
Food is a Sushi restaurant owned by Korean-American immigrants selling Japanese-American sushi for white-American customers with bland-American taste buds.
"WHOOOOOOO'S READY for sake bombs and California rolls?!"
Food is a walk out the door to catch the bus to work when your mom rushes out and says, "Hey! You forgot the lunch I packed you!" Great... it's massaman curry.
Food is a LOUD slurp of noodles in an "authentic" white-owned Japanese ramen shop in a gentrified neighborhood which attracts dirty stares from white people. "Does he even know how to eat that thing?"
Food is a gaggle of white frat bros who gawk at the Mexican man selling elotes from his food cart on the basis of "that food is probably super dirty and unsanitary, " even though they eat at Chipotle twice a week.
Food is a bowl of beautifully made, slow-simmered, spicy, hearty, and meaty soul food that your mom prepared in her restaurant that a white hipster refused to pay for because it's too spicy.
"You'll be hearing from me on Y E L P! Ya' ever heard of it, hmmm?"
For people of color, food is complex. It's heartbreaking and it holds our family stories like a book holds family recipes. It's more than a trend on Instagram and it goes beyond calories and nutrition. Do white people feel proud about their Food®? Of course. But many have never felt embarrassed about their food. They've never been pushed aside because of their taste in food or how their food smells or looks. They've never had deep, troubling, racist stereotypes formed because of their food.
They don't understand food like we do.
For people of color...
Food.
Is.
Food is EVERYTHING.
