The Bigotry Of Convenience!
In the latest invented horror, Momofuku chef David Chang claims "ethnic" food aisles in supermarkets are "racist."
Tim Carman writes in the WaPo:
"If you go to the ethnic food aisle, that is sort of the last bastion of racism that you can see in full daylight in retail America," David Chang, the man at the helm of the Momofuku empire, said on his podcast this summer. "It is something that's got to go."
Supposedly, other people care about this, too:
To millions of shoppers, the supermarket is just a place to stock up on produce and pantry staples to keep the family fed. But to others, especially children of immigrants who may already feel pushed to the margins of the American mainstream, the supermarket can be just another place to experience the sting of their outsider status.The sting occurs whenever they walk down the "ethnic" food aisle, the section of the supermarket that, to some, plays out like a remnant of the Jim Crow era, when laws established separate facilities for African Americans in the post-Reconstruction South. Sometimes known as the "international" food aisle, or even "Asian" and "Latino" aisles, these rows can come across to the shoppers they seemingly target as de facto segregation, another kind of "separate but equal" policy that marginalized African Americans for generations.
Oh, please.
They also put all the Passover food in one place, because people who buy gefilte fish will probably go for the matzo and horseradish sauce, too.
"All the foods in the ethnic food aisle are already accepted. So why do we even have them?" Chang asks. The aisles, he adds, are an echo of "1950s America, which was not a particularly good place to be, especially if you were Asian."To Chang's way of thinking, these aisles continue to exist because nobody wants to talk about them, which was certainly true about the publicists I contacted for this story. Representatives of Whole Foods Market, Giant Food, Kroger, Albertsons (which includes Safeway stores) and Harris Teeter either declined to comment or did not return multiple phone calls for comment.
WaPo: "We want to talk about your shelf-stocking bigotry."
Yeah, they'll get right on that. (Right after they stop choking over how fucking far people can stretch to deem every possible thing ever racist.)
OMG. What's next, leaves grow in racist patterns? Cracks in the sidewalk are racist?
Jay Rosengarten, co-founder of the Food Emporium chain, the first grocery stores to mix regular and specialty items on the same shelves, says that supermarkets in predominantly white neighborhoods operate more efficiently when they offer international products all in the same area. The rationale is simple, he notes: Customers don't want to search all over the supermarket -- a massive space that can hold upward of 42,000 items -- just for the handful of ingredients they might need to prepare, for example, Mexican enchiladas. They can pick up the tortillas, the seasoning blend and the salsa all in the same aisle.These aisles don't have "anything to do with racism," Rosengarten says. "It has everything to do with the way people buy food. That's the way stores are organized."
Plus, as Goya's Perez points out, absorbing international foods into the larger supermarket ecosystem can hurt the sales of those products. A few years ago, when William Rodriguez was building a new Billy's Market Place in Ridgewood, N.Y., he considered ditching the international food aisle and integrating the Latino, Chinese, Indian and other products into the standard supermarket shelves. But he was discouraged from doing so -- by some of the very companies that supply these foods. In the past, supermarkets that attempted such integration saw their sales drop on international products, says Rodriguez, who is also president of the National Supermarket Association. Shoppers apparently buy more of the same foods when they are lumped together, which is good for both supermarket and supplier.
International aisles are "extremely profitable," adds Perez. "It generates more dollars per food [product] by having it consolidated."
So, yes, it's a color thing. The color green.
I mean, I guess you could just put sushi rice with the rice and pickled ginger with the jam and tomato sauce in a separate aisle from the pasta, but it does seem like a PITA for those of us trying to throw a meal together.
NicoleK at October 5, 2019 11:34 PM
Step 1 is to integrate the ethnic foods. Step 2 will be to get rid of the stuff whites like.
dee nile at October 6, 2019 3:47 AM
Here's the thing - those that claim something is racist, or Jim Crow or whatever nasty thing (at least he didn't call it Nazi) seem to trivialize what Jim Crow or whatever actually was like.
This silly claim reminds me of Chris (or should I call him "Fredo") Cuomo in that video clip complaining that calling someone Fredo was like "The N word for Italians."
Hogwash! Fredo is an actual name, I cannot imagine any black American naming their children the N word as that isn't someone's name. Therefore, the two cannot possibly be the same.
The same is true here, Jim Crow FORCED blacks into certain places and away from others (forced into the back of the bus and out of certain neighborhoods). No one is forced into or away from any of the aisles of the supermarket. Therefore the two are not the same.
This is nothing but virtue signally by David Chang whose main clientele are in liberal enclaves where Momufuku restaurants are located. Many of those clientele are quite possibly reading what he said and nodding their collective liberals heads in agreement because they believe that they are so much more sophisticated than those Trump-supporting, basket of deplorables, that all live in the Stepford wives suburbs and shop in the international aisle of their supermarkets.
charles at October 6, 2019 4:39 AM
For Pete's sake, the "ethnic" aisle is shopped by whites cooking recipes that give a nod to an ethnic taste. Hispanics looking to cook mama's arroz con pollo or guisada shop in Hispanic groceries. Asians shop in Asian groceries when wanting to cook a taste of home. Heck, my Hispanic hubby shops Asian groceries when he wants to make yum nur or pad Thai.
So I guess it's racist that white people might cook pad Thai or tacos. It's appropriation, you know. Because when Filipinos want to make spaghetti and add hot dogs, that's fine, but taco Tuesday is offensive, oppressive, and racist. (Eyeroll)
Momof4 at October 6, 2019 6:17 AM
What is "white" food?
One of the most amazing things about this country is the wide variety of cultural influences we've had - in food, music, clothing, dance, art, etc. We are, or at least were, a true melting pot.
African-Americans influenced our food to the point that it's difficult to see where that influence began or to separate it out from the original palate. Hispanic and Asian influences, while easier to separate, are no less widespread or influential.
In almost no other country in the world can you enter a small or medium sized city and find the variety of foods you can find here. And restaurants serving those foods are not reserved exclusively for people of that ethnicity either. They're open to, and patronized by, people of all ethnicities, eating together in peace. Why can't we celebrate that?
Is there any "national" food dish that could not be associated with cultural appropriation?
Pasta's origins are Asian and frankfurters originated in Germany. Marinara sauce originated in Italy, using tomatoes, a fruit brought to Europe from Central America, and garlic, a spice originally from Central or Southern Asia.
I was once served Jell-O with fruit cocktail in it by a Cuban-American and told it was a "traditional Cuban dessert." Would that be considered cultural appropriation - 'cause that's about the whitest dish imaginable outside of Mayonnaise.
Conan the Grammarian at October 6, 2019 7:25 AM
Let's not make this about white people. It's about convenience.
Whites are not the only people shopping ethnic food aisles. People not of that culture cooking that culture's food shop the ethnic food aisles in search of ingredients or dinner kits.
At my local Publix or Harris Teeter, I've seen black people, white people, and people of all ethnicities grabbing taco dinner kits, stir fry ingredients, and other ethnic foods.
I've seen Asian people grabbing hot dogs and hamburgers with nary a complaint of cultural appropriation by the nearby white people grabbing ground beef for their taco dinner kits or cubed beef for that evening's stir fry.
Conan the Grammarian at October 6, 2019 7:32 AM
What is "white" food?
Heh. What's the difference between traditional southern black cuisine and poor white cracker cuisine?
One is called "soul food", and the other is not.
I R A Darth Aggie at October 6, 2019 9:33 AM
In Augusta, GA, there is a specialty supermarket selling authentic mainland Chinese foods.
Those damned racists should be arrested, right? Seize their store!
The most successful franchises in world history are Coca-Cola and McDonald's - says people who vote with their own money. But, damn those white people behind those businesses, right?
If you have nothing worthwhile to say or do, shout "racism".
Radwaste at October 6, 2019 10:42 AM
In the German grocery store right across the border from time there is an American section between the Mexican and Asian, across from the Turkish. Only Americans are silly enough to eat pop tarts and marshmallow cream.
Suzanne Lucas at October 6, 2019 11:03 AM
"Only Americans are silly enough to eat pop tarts and marshmallow cream."
My God we're such obese ignorant deplorable racist trash.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at October 6, 2019 11:28 AM
Why do American whites tolerate this disrespect? If David Chang thinks American society is racist he should go back to China.
If the Chinese were nice enough to let me into their society I wouldn’t call them racist or complain about tiny things I find annoying.
Asiangirlwithasquirrel at October 6, 2019 11:43 AM
Only Americans are silly enough to eat pop tarts and marshmallow cream."
My God we're such obese ignorant deplorable racist trash.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at October 6, 2019 11:28 AM
It is my impression that a lot of Americans have had their tastebuds overloaded by too much sugar in almost everything. It is the dietary version of crack cocaine.
Isab at October 6, 2019 12:23 PM
"Let's devote precious shelf space to a hated minority" said no racist ever. These people seem totally unable to imagine the thoughts or motives of other people. Grocery stores have special sections for diabetics because no one else wants sugar-free foods but diabetics. It is in fact a miracle of inclusiveness that grocers cater to mexicans, to diabetics, to gluten intolerant, to Asians, that they have added dozens of weird foods that no white person will buy. If they are racist, they are the worst racists ever.
cc at October 6, 2019 12:39 PM
You know, eating pop tarts with marshmallow cream sounds like a great idea.
Sixclaws at October 6, 2019 5:54 PM
What is really upsetting these jerks is that there is still such a thing as American culture, and it is resisting the efforts of SJWs to systematically destroy it.
#Resist some more!
jdgalt at October 6, 2019 8:59 PM
Yes, Suzanne, I know the feeling... the American markets and American aisles are all things like Kraft cheese and macaroni and never things like Cowgirl Creamery's Mt. Tam.
I'm too far from the border to go regularly, though I've been thinking of going to Pontarlier one day.
NicoleK at October 6, 2019 10:17 PM
So let me make sure I have this straight. When white Americans go to the ethnic-foods aisle to get ethnic foods, that's racist. But when white Americans go to Momofuku to get ethnic foods, that's not racist. Got it.
Cousin Dave at October 7, 2019 7:28 AM
" never things like Cowgirl Creamery's Mt. Tam"
I just stop in and pick it up fresh from the Creamery at Point Reyes Station. Doesn't everyone?
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at October 9, 2019 11:42 PM
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