From Chinese to Italians and beyond

From Chinese to Italians and beyond, maligning a culture via its food is longtime American habit

 It's a practice that's about as American as apple pie — accusing immigrant and minority communities of engaging in bizarre or disgusting behaviors when it comes to what and how they eat and drink, a kind of shorthand for saying they don't belong.

  The latest iteration came at Tuesday's presidential debate, when former President Donald Trump spotlighted a false online tempest around the Haitian immigrant community of Springfield, Ohio. He repeated the groundless claim previously spread by his running mate, JD Vance, that the immigrants were stealing dogs and cats, the precious pets belonging to their American neighbors, and eating them. The furor got enough attention that officials had to step in to refute it, saying there was no credible evidence of any such thing.

  But while it might be enough to turn your stomach, such food-based accusations are not new. Far from it.


  Food-related scorn and insults were hurled at immigrant Chinese communities on the West Coast in the late 1800s as they started coming to the United States in larger numbers, and in later decades spread to other Asian and Pacific Islander communities like Thai or Vietnamese. As recently as last year, a Thai restaurant in California was hit with the stereotype, which caused such an outpouring of undeserved vitriol that the owner had to close and move to another location.Behind it is the idea that "you're engaging in something that is not just a matter of taste, but a violation of what it is to be human," said Paul Freedman, a professor of history at Yale University. By tarring Chinese immigrants as those who would eat things Americans would refuse to, it made them the "other."

Food as flashpoint

  Other communities, while not being accused of eating pets, have been criticized for the perceived strangeness of what they were cooking when they were new arrivals, such as Italians using too much garlic or Indians too much curry powder. Minority groups with a longer presence in the country were and are still not exempt from racist stereotypes — think derogatory references to Mexicans and beans or insulting African Americans with remarks about fried chicken and watermelon.


"There's a slur for almost every ethnicity based on some kind of food that they eat," said Amy Bentley, professor of nutrition and food studies at New York University. "And so that's a very good way of disparaging people."


That's because food isn't just sustenance. Embedded in human eating habits are some of the very building blocks of culture — things that make different peoples distinct and can be commandeered as fodder for ethnic hatred or political polemics.


"We need it to survive, but it's also highly ritualized and highly symbolic. So the birthday cake, the anniversary, the things are commemorated and celebrated with food and drink," Bentley said. "It's just so highly integrated in all parts of our lives."


And because "there's specific variations of how humans do those rituals, how they eat, how they have shaped their cuisines, how they eat their food," she added, "It can be as a theme of commonality ... or it can be a form of distinct division."


It's not just the what. Insults can come from the how as well — eating with hands or chopsticks instead of forks and knives, for example. It can be seen in class-based bias against poorer people who didn't have the same access to elaborate table settings or couldn't afford to eat the same way the rich did — and used different, perhaps unfamiliar ingredients out of necessity.


Such disparagement can extend directly into current events. During the Second Gulf War, for example, Americans angry at France's opposition to the U.S. invasion of Iraq started calling french fries "freedom fries." And a much-used insulting term in the United States for Germans during the first two world wars was "krauts" — a slam on a culture where sauerkraut was a traditional food.


"Just 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." In reviewing attitudes of the early 20th century and its demands for "100% Americanism," she noted that "sauerkraut became 'victory cabbage'" and one account complained of an Italian family "still eating spaghetti, not yet assimilated."


More food culture, more fodder


Such stereotypes have persisted despite the fact that the American palate has significantly expanded in recent decades, thanks in part to the influx of those immigrant communities, with grocery stores carrying a wealth of ingredients that would baffle previous generations. The rise of restaurant culture has introduced many diners to authentic examples of cuisines they might have needed a passport to access in other eras.


After all, Bentley said, "when immigrants migrate to a different country, they bring their foodways with them and maintain them 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 found in New York City and south Florida have added to the culinary landscape, using ingredients like goat, plantains and cassava.


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


And even though the American palate has broadened in recent decades, the persistence of food stereotypes — and outright insults, whether based in fact or completely made up — shows that just because Americans eat more broadly, it doesn't mean that carries over into tolerance or nuance about other groups.


"It's a fallacy to think that," said Freedman. "It's like the tourism fallacy that travel makes us more understanding of diversity. The best example right now is Mexican food. Lots and lots of people like Mexican food AND think that immigration needs to be stopped. There's no link between enjoyment of a foreigner's cuisine and that openness."

译文

      这是一种像苹果派一样美国式的做法--指责移民和少数族裔在吃喝方面有怪异或令人作呕的行为，这是一种说他们不属于美国的速记。
      最近一次是在周二的总统辩论中，前总统唐纳德-特朗普（Donald Trump）强调了围绕俄亥俄州斯普林菲尔德海地移民社区的一场虚假的网络骚乱。他重复了竞选搭档 JD Vance 之前散布的毫无根据的说法，即这些移民正在偷吃属于美国邻居的珍贵宠物--猫狗。这场轩然大波引起了足够的关注，以至于官方不得不出面反驳，称没有任何可信的证据证明有这样的事情。
      虽然这可能足以让你反胃，但这种基于食物的指控并不新鲜。远非如此。
      19 世纪末，随着华人移民开始大量涌入美国，与食物有关的蔑视和侮辱也开始出现在西海岸的华人移民社区。耶鲁大学历史学教授保罗-弗里德曼（Paul Freedman）说："这种刻板印象的背后是一种观念，即‘你所做的事情不仅仅是品味问题，而是对做人的一种侵犯’。耶鲁大学历史学教授保罗-弗里德曼（Paul Freedman）说，"把中国移民说成是会吃美国人拒绝吃的东西的人，这让他们成为了‘另类’。
食物成为热点
     其他族群虽然没有被指责吃宠物，但也曾因新移民烹饪的食物被认为奇怪而受到批评，比如意大利人用了太多大蒜，印度人用了太多咖喱粉。在美国存在时间较长的少数族裔群体过去和现在都未能幸免于种族主义的刻板印象--想想对墨西哥人和豆子的贬损，或者用炸鸡和西瓜的言论侮辱非裔美国人。
      “纽约大学营养与食品研究教授艾米-本特利（Amy Bentley）说："几乎每个种族都有基于他们所吃的某种食物的诽谤。“因此，这是一种很好的贬低人的方式。
这是因为食物不仅仅是食物。人类饮食习惯中蕴含着一些文化的基石--这些基石使不同的民族各具特色，并可被用作种族仇恨或政治论战的素材。
      “我们需要它来生存，但它也是高度仪式化和高度象征性的。因此，生日蛋糕、周年纪念等活动都要用食物和饮料来纪念和庆祝，"本特利说。“它与我们生活的方方面面高度融合"。
      她补充说，“因为人类举行这些仪式的方式、饮食方式、菜肴的制作方式、食物的食用方式都有特定的变化”，“它可以是一个共同的主题......也可以是一种截然不同的形式”。
      不仅仅是什么。侮辱也可能来自于方式--例如，用手或筷子而不是刀叉吃东西。它可以体现在对穷人的阶级偏见上，穷人没有机会享受精致的餐桌摆设，或者没有钱以富人的方式用餐，他们出于需要而使用不同的、也许是不熟悉的食材。
       这种轻视可以直接延伸到当前的事件中。例如，在第二次海湾战争期间，美国人对法国反对美国入侵伊拉克感到愤怒，开始将炸薯条称为 “自由薯条”。而在前两次世界大战期间，美国人对德国人常用的一个侮辱性词汇是 “德国佬”（krauts）--这是对以酸菜为传统食物的文化的抨击。
“城市移民的饮食方式到底有什么问题？Donna R. Gabaccia 在她 1998 年出版的《我们就是我们吃的东西》一书中写道： 民族食品与美国人的形成》一书中写道。在回顾 20 世纪初的态度及其对 “100% 美国主义 ”的要求时，她指出，“酸菜变成了‘胜利卷心菜’”，有一篇报道抱怨一个意大利家庭 “还在吃意大利面条，还没有被同化”。
更多饮食文化，更多素材
       尽管近几十年来美国人的口味有了显著的提升，部分原因是这些移民社区的涌入，杂货店里的食材丰富得让上一代人摸不着头脑，但这种刻板印象依然存在。餐厅文化的兴起让许多食客品尝到了正宗的菜肴，而在其他时代，他们可能需要护照才能品尝到这些菜肴。

          毕竟，本特利说，"当移民移居到一个不同的国家时，他们会把自己的饮食习惯带过去，并尽可能地保持下去。... 这让人联想到家庭、社区和家园。它们是我们是谁的真实物质和多感官体现"。
      海地美食只是其中一个例子。纽约市和佛罗里达州南部等地的社区使用山羊、大蕉和木薯等食材，为烹饪景观增添了不少色彩。
    因此，当特朗普说斯普林菲尔德的移民--他称之为 “进来的人”--在吃猫狗和 “住在那里的人的宠物 ”时，他的言论的回声不仅涉及食物，还涉及文化本身。
     尽管美国人的口味在近几十年来有所拓宽，但对食物的刻板印象和公然侮辱（无论是基于事实还是完全捏造）的持续存在表明，美国人吃得更广泛，并不意味着对其他群体的宽容或细微差别也会随之而来。
     “弗里德曼说："这种想法是一种谬论。“这就像旅游谬论一样，旅游会让我们更加了解多样性。现在最好的例子就是墨西哥菜。很多人喜欢吃墨西哥菜，同时认为需要阻止移民。享受外国人的美食和这种开放性之间没有任何联系。