You know doing so is part of white culture, right? The assumptions about food starts there.
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How can you state that as a fact? There have been disparaging remarks made between cultures for as long as there have been cultures. In China the south and the north view the spice levels of the other as strange. White culture is certainly a problem, and certainly a thing, but reducing every fucking thing to “white people started it” is reductionist, inaccurate and a kind of self flagellation used to show how some white people, like the ones that like spicy foods, are “the good ones”.
There are several intersecting changes in food availability and economics that seem to have led to the change from highly spiced food being the province of the rich in Europe to simply seasoned foods having more social status, but they had nothing to do with race relations.
We talk a lot about intersectionality here, but somehow whiteness is a single, overarching explanation for every cultural difference.
Because we live in a white supremacist society that has long stigmatized non-white culture.
Making jokes about bland white food is not oppression. Centuries of violence and second class citizenship is, that takes all the means you’ve developed to survive that oppression and makes it into a caricature of people is. In the past 2 years, we’ve had companies taking off racist depictions of Black people off widely available products, as if Black people are merely props for white comfort, and we’re still debating whether or not America is racist or asking if having people who are not white as LITERALLY mascots is racist… well, yes. THAT is racist.
Making some lighthearted jokes at the expense of middle class white America is not.
We’re not talking about culture difference. We’re talking about people believing that the joke about bland food is oppression or just as racist as making jokes about fried chicken or watermelon or smelly Indian food or dog in Chinese food. Again, it’s not compared to that backdrop of racist bullshit.
And of course, making jokes about bland white food is nothing new…Martin Mull was doing that back in the 80s…
I can’t remember if it’s in the video, but they talk about food a bit in the book:
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White culture = overreacting when someone points out examples of white culture.
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No, claiming that everything is a result of white culture is the over reaction.
In this case, how food is categorized by race is very much a part of white supremacy. 
White supremacy does shape many aspects of American culture. Sorry if that’s a hurtful fact to note, but it’s a fact.
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European, American, and everywhere colonised by white people. Wish we had a shorthand for that.
Wait, how about white people?
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I don’t see how people can get indignant when you’re just accurately describing the world. Sorry that Europeans fucked shit up and embraced the ideology of whiteness, but it’s a thing that exists that we have to deal with. Injecting some humor into that is actual kind of helpful in breaking down the concept of whiteness to show what a ridiculous thing it is…
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Yeah but who here is doing that? No one, except an unspecified someone who exists only in your (apparently whitened) imagination. Which is why I say that you’re the one doing the overreacting.
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Just saw a quote today from Cathy Park Hong: “Whites fear that all the sins they committed against black and brown people will come back to them tenfold,” writes Hong, “so they fantasize their own fall as a preventative measure to ensure that the white race will never fall.”
Not about food where I read it but I’ll link anyway. Well unless you consider the food in the original (and now difficult to watch due to its rape culture elements) Blade runner movie speaks to us about food and race. Which obviously I do
ETA
I don’t think she’s quite right. I think white people fantasize their own fall as a justification for preemptive violence.
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“Racist white people are also racist about food”
“NO YOU’RE THE RACIST!”
That train is never late, is it.
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Too true. That article reminded me of campaign ads from the last major election showing people calling 911 but getting no answer, and the rise of services like this:
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(Hong, actually)
Her recent book is awesome btw, with a lot of insight on forms of white culture:
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I’m going to blame that on autofuckup. And perhaps a glass or two of wine if I’m pressed
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The thing about it is “Asshole Prolapser” and “Shit Liquifier” are probably very bland with the exception of the capsaicin. The Scoville scale is not a measure of how flavorful something is. It definitely is a cultural signifier of some sort to try to replace flavorfulness with mere heat.
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I’ve been reading this thread ever since a friend started it; no one commenting in good faith has done that.
As Mindy stated, we live in a society that was built on a foundation of White supremacy which means that it permeates all aspects of that society - including food preparation.
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This conversation is making me think about something that is bland but not part of white culture – very specifically NOT – but shows how white culture ends up informing the basis of African-American cuisine by regulating what food was available to that community (and the choices made to combat that): navy bean pie.
It’s easy for me to get (I lived for decades within walking distance of the bakery that makes if for the Nation of Islam’s main mosque, Maryam), but this first article I found shows that they ship at least to Cincinnati:
This article gives more information about it from another part of the country:
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Reminds me a bit also of this discussion about “vanilla” becoming paradoxically associated with whiteness and blandness.
I want to say I saw another essay on that too. But it’s interesting, and yes, it’s about white culture and slavery.
Not because we’re trying to prove how “good” we are by eating spicy food. That’s a childish and simplistic way to think about a difficult and complicated problem.
Frankly it’s an offensive assumption as well and really borders on bad faith.
Who the hell is eating spicy food to prove they aren’t racist?
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Mmm… love me some pepper spray concentrate with Ed Hardy-esque branding. Pass the ketchup.
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