Even The Washington Post‘s Food section this past week deployed the Beam o’ Racism. The front-page story was headlined: “Are ‘ethnic’ food aisles racist?”
That’s right. The ethnic food aisles of Safeway, Kroger, Harris Teeter and Giant are dark reminders of America’s unique evil.
Washington Post restaurant critic Tim Carman wrote the piece, inspired by a podcast from David Chang, “the chef and restaurateur at the helm of the Momofuku empire.” Momofuku operates 14 restaurants in North America.
Mr. Chang calls ethnic food aisles “the last bastion of racism that you can see in full daylight in retail America.” Lamenting the plight of “children of immigrants,” Mr. Carman says that visiting their local supermarket is a ticket to trauma.
“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,” Mr. Carman writes.
Jim Crow was the work of Democrats, by the way. They resisted the passage of Republican-sponsored civil rights legislation even during the Eisenhower era and still promote abortion clinics in black communities. The party of the KKK was finally beaten in 1964, when a larger percentage of Republicans than Democrats voted for the Civil Rights Act and in 1965 for the Voting Rights Act.
For a detailed account, see “The Truth about Jim Crow” published by the American Civil Rights Union. Mr. Carman goes on, targeting the “Asian” and “Latino” food aisles, which constitute “de facto segregation, another kind of ‘separate but equal’ policy that marginalized African Americans for generations.”
Maybe he and Mr. Chang are right. Maybe placing cans of refried beans next to taco shells really is racist, regardless of how handy it is for shoppers who like Mexican food. Maybe the nativist supermarket clerks smirk with delight as they malevolently place chop suey next to soy sauce.
People who see racism everywhere are racist.
It’s simple psychological projection.
I always thought they should be called the Weird Shit aisles.
Would that be acceptable?
BTW, we eat lots of weird shit at our house. We pride in having a ‘broad palate’.
We distinguish between 4 kinds of potatoes, seafood includes varieties only found in certain Seas, an entire cabinet to house the varieties of spices, and pasta in so many shapes, you’d think it’s artwork.
Same goes for the toilet paper and deodorant aisles.
What a numbskull!
Can you not see it as a supermarket that caters to their customers?
Does “PF Chang’s” in a little carton in the grocerie’s frozen section offend you, moron?
I always thought they should be called the Weird Shit aisles.
Would that be acceptable?
BTW, we eat lots of weird shit at our house. We pride in having a ‘broad palate’.
We distinguish between 4 kinds of potatoes, seafood includes varieties only found in certain Seas, an entire cabinet to house the varieties of spices, and pasta in so many shapes, you’d think it’s artwork.
BTW, ‘ethnic’ comes from another racist Greek word. It means of a nation, of its people. So stay out of that aisle and stick to the factory produced foods, you’ll be ‘safer’.
The ‘sting’ of walking down an aisle and finding familiar foods offends the downtrodden??
Momofuku means FUBAR in which esoteric dialect?
Well, if they think that I am going to an Italian grocery store for Italian stuff, a Chinese grocery store for Chinese stuff, etc. etc. then they are grossly mistaken.
I only do one-stop shopping, and if it is not at Krogers, fuck it !
From now on, I’ll put the ethnic foods at the back of the shopping cart.
The Brit aisle is what I hate, pommey bastards.
Dumbasses… Dumbasses everywhere…
“… children of immigrants …”
Dude’s an enema nozzle.
My surname is Scottish sounding – so, somewhere along the line I am a child of “immigrants.”
However, I don’t take offense at much of anything – PERIOD.
I can only be offended by people whose opinions I consider worthy.
95% of the world’s population haven’t access to a supermarket and (most likely) would be hard-pressed to pretend to be offended by an aisle.
The folks in China, Mongolia, Africa, India, Central Asia, Siberia, Eastern Russia, most of South America, Mexico, Central America, and other points (of little or no interest) grub in the dirt or in their masters’ trash cans for shit to eat and are far from offended at finding a half-eaten can of (obviously white-people inspired) Beanie-Weenie.
So, fuck off.
izlamo delenda est …
Fine. The fix seems fair to me.
Mix the Mexican, Guatamalan, Venezuelan, Honduran,
Spanish, Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean,
Middle Eastern, Indian and Italian foods etc. into
the huge overall mix of supermarket products.
Let the immigrants shuffle around, wasting time
hunting through the aisles for their buried chow.
I have never seen any specialty aisles for Northern
European grub in any major chain other than a few
high falutin specialty stores.
I like my ethnic foods on the other side of a big beautiful wall.
This is the type of retard who should be forced to take a DNA test and be forced to eat ONLY foods from his ethnic background.
If you are Korean, no French Fries for you Evah!
If you have 45% Scottish blood, you will eat Haggis or face legal repercussions
If you have Navajo blood you will live on Pine Nuts and goat meat
…the company I work for is based in England and has food offerings in the “British” aisle.
Considering GB’s Islamic population, I guess that makes it rayciss, and ME rayciss by association.
…but, I’m White, so I’m automatically racist anyway, and will be until I die. Not because of anything I did, but because of the color of my skin.
It’s like original sin, but there’s no Jesus, and I can NEVER be forgiven because of what some small subset of White people did some years ago. They had the same color skin, so that makes EVERYONE rayciss who has it.
…but THAT’s not racist, NO colored person can be racist, right?
*sigh*
Wait! Democrats are the Real Racists™!? Well, that settles it. I’m voting for whoever the Chamber of Commerce says I should pay to sign the paperwork for who replaces me. And they better be “ethnic”! Or I’ll just have to vote again for whoever the Chamber of Commerce says I should pay to sign the paperwork for who replaces me.
Why is pet food in a separate aisle? All canned foods are equal aren’t they?
Where is PETA when you need them?
I’m still trying to figure out which restaurants are owned/operated by Fukumofo….
The immigrant/ethnics should learn to eat our food so we don’t need ethnic food aisles.
Ya know, assimilate.
Excuse me, on what aisle would I find the Spotted Dick? Oh, the WASP/ Pommey aisle.
@ Australian philosopher OCTOBER 9, 2019 AT 12:23 PM
It is not just England, it is the entire British Isles.
The Irish have good soup, bread and dairy the rest of their food isn’t fit for man or beast. There isn’t a cut of meat the damnable fools can’t ruin, you could give them the finest dry aged prime rib roast and the bastards will throw it in a pot of water and boil the damn thing until it is a uniform shade of grey. And don’t even think about mentioning seasoning anything.
SMUDGE
OCTOBER 9, 2019 AT 1:04 PM
“Excuse me, on what aisle would I find the Spotted Dick?”
…well, at Meijer..
https://s3-media4.fl.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/QZFf9pTlENEwUpkyQ-v6gw/o.jpg
…Kroger…
https://external-preview.redd.it/aR3f2GrxrbubvmWJSw22gF6uHRzQ065eTQ2Hz4ZNcgc.jpg?auto=webp&s=6b1d6f22a6a2e690c5343b03ac200a1dd33c5400
…Wal-Mart…
http://www.picturebritain.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/2240628786_16830630a9_o-1024×768.jpg
…etc., etc.,usw…
…is this offensive?
…and I guess that makes the JEWISH food section anti-Semitic, nicht wahr?
…and it’s not convenient for anyone, or anything, just for hate..
I like the Mexxy section,
coconut water and Jarritos real
sugar, real flavorings soda pop.
JDHasty
OCTOBER 9, 2019 AT 1:11 PM
@ Australian philosopher OCTOBER 9, 2019 AT 12:23 PM
“It is not just England, it is the entire British Isles.”
…and they like their beer warm.
…Scotland is the worst. We can a haggis for that market. But, as SNL once pointed out in one of their increasingly rare “funny” moments,
“Angus: It’s what Americans eat, not blood sausage or suet pie, ya tube! … It’s like all of Scottish cuisine’s based on a dare!”
https://snltranscripts.jt.org/90/90ascottish.phtml?amp
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xgzfxs
(Just imagine if you stereotyped this hard with Black people or Muslims…)
John
OCTOBER 9, 2019 AT 12:30 PM
“I have never seen any specialty aisles for Northern
European grub in any major chain other than a few
high falutin specialty stores.”
…see my comment to Smudge at 1:15 to see what you’ve been missing…
I remember decades ago walking down the aisle of an Albertsons, and seeing the aisle with a sign that said “Hispanic Foods”. WTF is that?
What about all the Mexican, Hindu and Oriental grocery stores down here in Florida? They’re everywhere. They racist too? They’re fun to browse in and lots of interesting/weird/scary stuff in them. But aren’t they racist precisely because they’re so exclusive and exclusionary? If not, why are they exempt? Why is the tiny Polish section at Meijer such a problem? Does Lil’ Timmy Cartman deal with this flipside, or ignore it?
I always move a jar of mole sauce to among the votive candles. Holy mole!
They used to be called the Specialty Foods aisle. Actually, it’s not even an aisle. It’s 4 or 5 foot section of an aisle. Then, some Prog decided we needed to pay MORE attention to foreign shit and demanded everything be called ‘ethnic’. Now, the same Progs are demanding we stop separating ourselves by ethnicity??? lolol.
Fuck off, spotted dick head.
Italians have their own giant aisle filled with tomato sauce, spices, bread and pasta. Go ahead, Progs. Call them ethnic. I dare you. lol
Look. Grocery stores carry what people eat most of, and put the lesser known and less popular shit in a smaller section. That’s all. Get over it.
For some reason, we have some sections of Hawaiian shit in some stores in Las Vegas. I haven’t met a Hawaiian yet. LOL. Probably because they’re not doing the ol’ LOOK AT ME!!!!! shit the other ‘ethnics’ seem to do.
@Burner October 9, 2019 at 1:03 pm
> The immigrant/ethnics should learn to eat our food so we don’t need ethnic food aisles.
The whole point of mass migration, is so we can have exciting, new, ethnic food.
(And someone to wipe us, at a
lowfair minimum wage, in ouroldgoldentriumphant years.)I must be just another stupid whitey.
I always thought the ethnic food isles were for me so I could find the weird shit needed for my girls attempts at making ethnic dishes for dinner without searching the entire store.
I didn’t know they were there for ethnic peoples to find their food staples.
boy we are some racist country, we even have segregated food isles in our grocery stores.
you must have to go to college to be trained to recognize all this racism.
Tony R
OCTOBER 9, 2019 AT 1:44 PM
“I remember decades ago walking down the aisle of an Albertsons, and seeing the aisle with a sign that said “Hispanic Foods”. WTF is that?”
ALBERTSONS?!? Good God, man, you’re as old as I am!
…poor fellow…
These assholes will only be happy when the food choices are Soylent Green, Soylent Red or Soylent Orange. Geezuz on second thought they’d even bitch about that.
Keep the goddamned crackers out of the ethnic aisle! They belong in aisle 8 along with the other snacks.
@Tim:
Ding-ding-ding! AhWOOgah-ahWOOgah!
Winner, winner, arroz con pollo dinner!
Exactly right, Tim.
When are we white supremacists ever going to get our own aisle ?!
It’s true, some people bitch if they get hung with a new rope!
JD Hasty,
It doesn’t seem as if you’ve been to Ireland recently, as the food you describe is from 40 years ago. Admittedly, they did destroy beef. However, now many restaurants, even in smaller towns and villages, pride themselves on locally sourced meat, fish and vegetables. You can enjoy a good meal there.
Marymcc
My nearest grocery store is a Fiesta. It’s all Mexican all the time.
Is Fiesta racist when I walk in or am I?
Side note – They really make a killing on the “We’re Mexican” angle.
The low income Mexicans shopping there are paying the highest prices of all the stores around. And very poor selection, to boot. I use it like a 7-11. Convenience only.
I always like to stroll down the imported food isle and see if anything new has been added…
Sometimes I go there to get more soy sauce or peanut sauce.
(And sometimes I buy a small sweet that I don’t recognize just because)
It’s not racist- it’s the opposite of it. And it’s also SUPER convenient to have Chinese food right next to the Japanese because I dont have to go down a different isle.
I used to deliver flowers to Fiesta markets down in the Tri Cities Washington area (Pasco. Kennewick, Richland area) and was very lucky if I could find someone who could speak English to sign the invoice for the delivery. It was the only place that I had this problem, even the market in Zillah just outside of Yakima at least had some people who could speak English.