America's long history of cultural insults through food

And because “there are specific variations on how people do those rituals, how they eat, how they’ve shaped their cuisines, how they eat their food,” she adds, “it can be a topic of togetherness … or it can be a form of sharp division”.

The insults can also come from — eating with hands or chopsticks instead of forks and knives, for example. This can be seen in class biases toward poorer people who didn’t have the same access to elaborate table settings or couldn’t afford to eat the way the wealthy did — and used different, perhaps unfamiliar ingredients out of necessity.

Such belittlement can extend directly to current events. During the Second Gulf War, for example, Americans angry at France’s opposition to the U.S. invasion of Iraq began calling French fries “freedom fries”.

And a common slur in the United States for Germans during the first two World Wars was “krauts”—an attack on a culture in which sauerkraut was traditional food. “What was wrong with the way urban immigrants ate?” Donna R.

Gabaccia wrote in her 1998 book *We Are What We Eat: Ethnic Food and the Making of Americans*. Reflecting on the views of the early 20th century and its demands for “100% Americanism,” she noted that “sauerkraut became ‘victory cabbage,’” and one report lamented an Italian family that “still eats spaghetti, still hasn’t assimilated”.

These stereotypes have persisted despite the fact that the American palate has significantly broadened in recent decades, thanks in part to the influx of these immigrant communities, with grocery stores offering a wealth of ingredients that would have baffled previous generations.

The rise of restaurant culture has introduced many diners to authentic examples of cuisines that might have required a passport to access in other eras. Ultimately, Bentley says, “when immigrants migrate to another country, they bring their food with them and maintain it as much as they can.

… It’s so reminiscent of family, community, home. They’re just really material, multisensory manifestations of who we are”. Haitian food is just one example of that. Communities like those in New York and South Florida have added to the culinary landscape, using ingredients such as goat, plantains, and cassava.

So when Trump said that immigrants in Springfield—whom he called “people who came”—are eating dogs and cats and “the pets of the people who live there,” the echoes of his remarks played not just on food, but on culture itself.

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Publish date : 2024-09-13 01:00:00

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