frankly I’ve been meaning to say this but I think it’s always going to be mean spirited and insensitive to make fun of other cultures’ food and maybe you should just not do it, especially considering the storied history of racism, classism, and xenophobia in it.
ALT
no and that’s what made me want to post this in the first place. Even say the food had no historical baggage, that’s still like, someones comfort food, the food their grandma makes, the food they make for others to show they love them. Literally what do you gain by making fun of it? It doesn’t make me feel good to have my food mocked, I don’t wanna make others feel that way either.
One detail I think is overlooked when it comes to British food is how the industrial revolution altered British cuisine. After the enclosure of the commons the dispossessed peasants were forced into towns and cities where they were reliant on food commodities that could be purchased. The working class was only able to afford the basics thanks to their poverty wages. Previously when living a subsistence lifestyle British people’s diets would have been much more diverse (albeit only as diverse as is possible between 49° & 59°N).
However making fun of British food in many cases represents an understandable backlash against the ways white supremacist attitudes have been applied to the cuisine of former British colonies and their diasporas in Britain. Unless of course its Americans making fun of British food, which is probably just on account of boring old 250 year old nationalism.
Yeah, I’m not trying to police how people vent about their oppressors. But rather people just…looking for excuses to be mean or justify laughing at something. I think that sucks, and just leaves people feeling bitter and angry and sad. And like you said, most of the “weird food” people think of in both British and American cuisine is the result of poverty and hardship.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again- as an Asian person who was born and raised in Indonesia, yknow, the Spice Islands that were fought over by Colonisers… I’m pretty sick and tired of the tee hee white people don’t put spices on their food thing like. Yeah, it comes across as.. pointless and dumb. I’m neurodivergent and when I cook for myself I don’t use a whole lot of spices, actually! I eat my chicken white, cooked in garlic oil, salt, pepper, maybe an herb.. little else. It’s easier on my sensory issues.
So yeah, with no due respect can people just lay the fuck off and let people eat what they eat? Is that so hard, or are y’all gonna spontaneously combust if you don’t have an Acceptable Target to make meanspirited jokes about? You can in fact criticise colonialism and oppression without making everyone else the butt of the joke in the process. God.
ALT
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