Food and Racism

Résumé du document

Racism implies an active detestation of other races, whereas white supremacy is a state, institutional which manifests itself under a constant priviledge in everyday life, which benefits all whites, regardless of their opinion of racialized people. It is the fact, as white people, of being able to walk around without risking an identity check, not having to wonder if a job application was rejected because of the recruiter's racism, being able to walk into any hair salon and get a haircut (which is far from being the case with frizzy hair), being an "expat" and not a "migrant". The privilege of whiteness is not to be permanently reduced to a stereotype. This white supremacy, is not just the opinion of an individual but also a social organization that cannot be turned against the dominant race.

Extraits

[...] Beyond prices, racialized restaurant owners must respond to customer expectations, which are themselves influenced and shaped by opinion-makers, such as journalists. By going to a restaurant, customers are often looking for « authenticity » and it is perceived, on the one hand, by low prices, and, on the other hand, by « the confirmation of prejudices about a given culture. In other words, racialized restaurateurs have to manufacture authenticity for the benefit of their customers »1. And the problem is that if racialized restaurant owners refuse to play the role they were assigned to they are punished. [...]

[...] To market his pancake dough, he played on a racist stereotype widely used at that time, a Black Maid, the big asexual and devoted "Mamma", always in the kitchen to make food for the white people of the house. This cliché says a lot about the slave system. First a black figure serves white people. And secondly she is represented with a fat body. But the real-world black maids were far from fleshy, given the meager rations given to them. [...]

[...] Codification requires recipes to survive through history but also it needs to be passed on. In order to that, cookbooks require to be published which requires publishers, printers and customers, which is far from being within the reach of all those who wish to share their traditions. In addition, most prestigious chefs today come from culinary schools. However, the programme of these schools is not neutral. « They teach mostly, if not exclusively, the French bourgeois cuisine of the 19th century, with its mother sauces, its obsession with meat and its endless rhythm of starter - main course - dessert » (translated by myself)1. [...]

[...] Eating Wolof or Igbo in Paris is impossible. It is impossible to find these categories in the gastronomic guides, on TripAdvisor or even on shopfront of restaurants. It is not that the Wolof or Igbo cooks are not present in the capital, but it is that the culinary identities available in Paris are only those resulting from the colonization and it is not uncommon for them to be summed up as « African », « Asian », « Latin American » or even simply « exotic ». [...]

[...] A white person who receives a racial insult can always count on a police force and a political class largely dominated by individuals of his race. A black man cannot say the same. We can count 4 different kinds of oppressions : Systemic, Institutional, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal. But the historic context is very important to determinate if we can talk about discrimination or not. And racism has a long, complex history that, still today has an impact in the daily life of racialized people. [...]