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Portland Burrito cart closed after owners accused of cultural appropriation

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superdeluxe

Member
Not sure how I feel about this yet:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry...ral-appropriation_us_5926ef7ee4b062f96a348181

Two Portland-based women were forced to shut down their burrito food cart over accusations of cultural appropriation and recipe stealing.

Liz “LC” Connelly and Kali Wilgus’ Kooks Burritos business was featured in the Willamette Week on May 16. During the interview, Connelly described how the duo made their own tortillas after taking a trip to Puerto Nuevo, Mexico, in December and obtaining information on the process.
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ETA: Adding the article that Bobby suggested from Uproxx, four chefs dug a little deeper into food and cultural appropriation

http://uproxx.com/life/cultural-appropriation-food-chefs/
 
R

Ratrat

Member
This is a joke right?

They sound like they barely knew what they were doing and have no business selling food though.
 
S

SliceSabre

Banned
Wait....what!?

That's how shit in the food world works...you learn different recipes and such from other people and how they do it and do it yourself. Like...I'm not seeing the problem with what they did. Damn I better be careful I'm be stealing chicken taco recipes for years.
 
E

EMT0

Banned
If you read the article, it says clearly that these women went beyond asking for advice from Mexican shops they visited. They badgered the women they saw making burritos and even spied on their kitchens without informing them in order to gleam as much as they could. Appropriation may sound like a weak reason, but for these people in particular? Fuck em I say. That's amoral as fuck.
 
O

Obliterator

Member
There has to be more to this story right?

Because if it's as presented then that is absolutely insane. I would have to think there was more going on
 
S

superdeluxe

Member
I think the biggest question for me is, what do you consider stealing. It seems like they got the basic concepts, the Mexican ladies wouldn't give them their trade secrets so they (the white women) went home and through trial and error got the perfect tortilla
 
S

smurfx

get some go again
EMT0 said:
If you read the article, it says clearly that these women went beyond asking for advice from Mexican shops they visited. They badgered the women they saw making burritos and even spied on their kitchens without informing them in order to gleam as much as they could. Appropriation may sound like a weak reason, but for these people in particular? Fuck em I say. That's amoral as fuck.
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i'm trying to care but i just can't. how are these women in mexico being affected by these women making burritos in portland?
 
F

Fat4all

Banned
EMT0 said:
If you read the article, it says clearly that these women went beyond asking for advice from Mexican shops they visited. They badgered the women they saw making burritos and even spied on their kitchens without informing them in order to gleam as much as they could. Appropriation may sound like a weak reason, but for these people in particular? Fuck em I say. That's amoral as fuck.
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if anything charge them with loitering/trespassing

their burrito shop in Portland isn't stealing business from Mexico
 
N

NimbusD

Member
Uh, that sucks. Sounds like they actually did put in a lot of work to make what they set out to make. It's not like they just went to mexico, wrote down a recipe, and came back to riches.
 
R

rjc571

Banned
Taco Bell was started by this guy:
pFvA80h.jpg

Hopefully their reign of terror-filled cultural appropriation ends soon
 
S

Spyder_Monkey

Banned
It's one of those stories meant to get people riled up. It was only one writer making the accusations and no one forced them to close down.
 
J

jack_package_200

Banned
There is probably more to the story.

I can't imagine most people in Portland, myself included, give a shit about them stealing a recipe.

The business was probably in the red. I imagine some pr and negative social media buzz/harassment eased the decision to close up.
 
nillapuddin

nillapuddin

Member
I'm from America and I made spaghetti last night, I apologize for my sins. It will never happen again, Ill only eat McDonalds from now on.
 
E

Electric Eye

Banned
Stealing a tortilla recipe? Going to Mexico to learn the technique? Its not the KFC recipe making tortillas isn't a great mystery and they could have learned it from watching a youtube video. The whole things is stupid.
 
N

NandoGip

Member
I guess the argument is that portlands racist history makes it impossible for minorities to start their own businesses so thats why people lashed out on these ladies

Idk
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
superdeluxe said:
Once the viral internet mob gets a hold of something..hard to shake them off
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Yeah sounds like they cut and ran as soon as possible before it could get ugly. The advantage of being a pop-up eating establishment is they probably aren't financially on the hook for too much.
 
S

Slo

Member
nillapuddin said:
I'm from America and I made spaghetti last night, I apologize for my sins. It will never happen again, Ill only eat McDonalds from now on.
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We've got to stop this white on white cultural appropriation.

I have no idea if you're white or not, but I'm plowing ahead with my joke anyway.
 
R

RedNalgene

Member
This seems completely ridiculous. So they went to Mexico, talked to people, "spied" on kitchens (given the context in the article it seemed like they were playfully using the term) and then reverse engineered everything when they got home. How is this a bad thing? Did they threaten the Mexican restaurant owners? Sounds like a case of people getting on their high horse because they didn't agree with something. If you don't like it, don't eat there.
 
P

Pancho

Qurupancho
I think its more straight up stealing recipes than cultural appropriation. The article makes it clear that they didnt obtain those recipes with consent.
Edit: but then again they just observed and "reversed engineered" kind of also sounds like a complete overreaction.
 
C

CarpeDeezNutz

Member
What a weird time to be alive. I have an older cousin who told me that when he was a kid in the 80s, was embarrassed about the burrito lunches he would take to school, like got made fun of. And now we are here.
 
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