Oberlin students -
criticize culturally-insensitive dining services
Another day, another round of over-sensitive pundits whining about the goings-on of a college campus somewhere in America.
And just what are these delicate bloggers across the web rolling their eyes at this time? Oberlin College’s newspaper interviewed students about the campus dining service’s poor attempts at crafting culturally diverse foods, and people are upset by what the students had to say.
Crappy college cafeteria food is nothing new, to be sure. My experience in the dorm lunchroom freshman year led me to choose a diet of Chef Boyardee Beefaroni and Cup Noodles over whatever slop was being served in the buffet line. But Oberlin students contend this isn’t just an issue of inedible meatloaf and overcooked creamed corn.
Students said menu items that had been labeled as traditional dishes were prepared with substitute ingredients to such a degree that they would only resemble the dish to someone who didn’t know (or, more to the students’ point, didn’t care) about their origins. One student noted the dishes seemed like a half-hearted attempt at cultural diversity with whatever scraps were leftover from other meals. Another referred to the indifferent efforts as “appropriative,” a buzzword sure to the attract the ire of talking heads in the media world.
And attract the ire of talking heads in the media world, it did.
Not the Onion: Oberlin College Students protest that Cafeteria Food Is Racist https://t.co/sPQHiMQCFu via @thedailybeast
— Steven Pinker (@sapinker) December 20, 2015
When you’re defending the cultural authenticity of GENERAL TSO’S CHICKEN, you’re a living Portlandia sketch. — Fredrik deBoer (@freddiedeboer) December 19, 2015
Dear Oberlin sushi activists, Don’t take this the wrong way, but you deserve enthusiastic marginalization for this. https://t.co/lsSOUX2SJS
— Eli Lake (@EliLake) December 19, 2015
But headlines that gleefully poked fun at students like “College Students Say Their Bad Cafeteria Food Is Culturally Insensitive” and “Seriously? Oberlin Students Believe Their Cafeteria Food Constitutes A Microaggression” erroneously conflate two arguments and betray overly-outraged bloggers’ endeavors to — once again — make light of all those purportedly thin-skinned millennials, regardless of whatever is actually occurring.
Despite what the blogosphere would have you believe, students weren’t all up in arms because the school cafeteria did a bad job preparing a dish (which we all know is a school cafeteria’s modus operandi). Students objected to the thoughtless and apathetic attitude displayed by calling such half-assed efforts an attempt to “diversify” the school menu. That’s why one student correctly described it as appropriation — when one culture takes elements from another and then bastardizes them in a way that is wholly ignorant to their origins.
“When you’re cooking a country’s dish for other people, including ones who have never tried the original dish before, you’re also representing the meaning of the dish as well as its culture,” said Tomoyo Joshi, a college junior from Japan. “So, if people not from that heritage take food, modify it and serve it as ‘authentic,’ it is appropriative.”
Maybe you don’t think labeling ciabatta bread, pulled pork, and coleslaw as bánh mì is that big a deal — even though none of those ingredients are actually in bánh mì — but the students interviewed for Oberlin’s paper are coming from a place where their cultural experiences are often ignored or deemed unimportant. For every blog that griped about the fact that General Tso’s Chicken is not exactly an “authentic” dish to begin with, zero mentioned that Oberlin’s less-than-accurate meal preparations resulted in beef being added to a traditionally vegetarian Indian dish, which was then served to Hindu students. Cows are, of course, sacred in Hinduism, and eating beef is forbidden.
Regardless, it’s not as if these sorts of criticisms are anything unique to lefty college students. I can see people from Raleigh, for example, complaining if something labeled “Carolina-style” barbecue was served with a thick, sweet sauce instead of something vinegar-based. It’s likely their feelings about the mislabeling might even get written up in the local paper. The only difference is there would be no touchy self-appointed social critics at the national level poised on a hair-trigger to blow the whole thing way out of proportion.
http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/274688/oberlin-culturally-insensitive-cafeteria/
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College Accused Of Being Racist Over Cafeteria Food http://youtu.be/jDWwoge3Zrw/ 05:37
Oberlin College Students Slam "Insensitive" Food http://youtu.be/4BpK-rcJJjk/ 04:28
Hindu group calls out Oberlin College: http://youtu.be/82sGJEBEAY0/ 01:38
There are at least 3 pages of links just on this issue .....
They have been making claims & protesting & have been accused of hoaxes since 2013. (Or longer)
* 2013 students claimed the KKK was walking down the street in sheets. 3+ videos on YouTube *
Whiny, spoiled, hypersensitive, brat.. Political PAWNS !
Edited by
SassyEuro2
on Sun 12/27/15 04:39 AM
What do you mean future?
