Not disputing that they've got that young entrepreneur thing going on. But how much they come off as assholes has a lot more to do with what people are reading into those words than what they said themselves.
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Portland Burrito cart closed after owners accused of cultural appropriation
- Thread starter superdeluxe
- Start date
Not disputing that they've got that young entrepreneur thing going on. But how much they come off as assholes has a lot more to do with what people are reading into those words than what they said themselves.
Dusk Golem
A 21st Century Rockefeller
Oh my, thanks for sharing Bobby. So media played a role into this, I thought it might be related to the highly competitive food scene here but I wouldn't of expected they backed out from media and racism coverage.
jack_package_200
Banned
I would love to see how many of them were from the Portland area. I can imagine quite a few of those voicemails coming from Oregonians outside the Portland city limits like Tigard, Tualitan, Lake Oswego, and Beaverton.
bonesmccoy
Banned
Yep, it's a stupid op-ed.
CarpeDeezNutz
Member
Lotta Mexican moms would gladly show you their recipes as long as you spend all day helping them make it.
davidwhangchoi
Member
i made some thomas english muffin pizza. i saw someone do it and copied. please don't hurt me.
<snip>
EDIT: Wow. I totally read the wrong part as bold. GAF should get a better bolding system for the dark theme!
Dongs Macabre
aka Daedalos42
Jesus.
Is there a term for whatever the opposite of "virtue signalling" is? Asshole signalling? Cuz people sure love to do that whenever anyone wants to talk about cultural appropriation.
A Link to the Past
Banned
NeoGAF reacting to clickbait, sheesh
jack_package_200
Banned
If you ever come to Portland, you owe it yourself check out the food carts. I miss going to school downtown where there were a ton of them.
I need that spicy beef chow mein.
I need that spicy beef chow mein.
BlazinSkatinAxel
Member
👀
FallingEdge
Member
We'll have to take you to race court but based off of previous decisions, I think you will be fine.
BlazinSkatinAxel
Member
It's like Florida Man doing Florida stuff while listening to Flo Rida while in Florida.
Bobby Roberts
Banned
This is where lost context (that a lot of people don't have, and really aren't in a position to have) comes into play. I don't blame people outside the city for not having the context - why would they? Why SHOULD they?
But the paper that ran the profile in the first place has an arts/culture section head who is an amazing troll. And his notion of what this city is, is such a weird, twisted, skewed, antagonistic thing, that his tone permeates almost everything he touches, and it's been cause for a lot of ill-will between the paper and its readers (and, obviously, the other papers in town, specifically the one I work for).
So readers weren't inclined to give that paper any leeway, and that paper was obviously not inclined to write the profile in a way that didn't lean into its editor's ethos. Instead of softening the profile a little, or omitting the weird "we peeped into their windows for the realest tortillas you could eat," they leaned into that shit, and framed it in a way that I would imagine absolutely made these two women sound way more opportunistic than they might have actually been.
So the reaction wasn't just to them, it was to a paper who has been faceplanting on these sorts of issues for years now.
DorkLord54
Member
Fried chicken and fried foods in general are a staple of Southern cuisine, passed down to the region by the Scots, who gave the world the delicacy we now know as the fried Mars bar.
I guess I just don't know why fried chicken became a racial stereotype. I have been in the Southern states, and everyone eats fried food pretty much all of the time. It would be like making ice cream a racial stereotype.
Nealand Liquor
Member
It really should be illegal for anyone to prepare or eat any food that is not part of their ethnic heritage. People should also have to offer DNA based ID cards at grocery stores to ensure they are not purchasing fruits, veggies, meats, grains or herbs/spices from outside of their ethnicity.
Damn that sounds like they were trying to be cute tbh
Like they were trying to sound like their shit was TRADE SECRETS that they've gone out of their way to learn authentically and less "lol we're stealing shit"
Like if you're not Italian I'd beat not ever see you learning how to make pizza
Edit: unless you make a pizza-ish equivalent from any of the other parts of the world that have not-pizzas. But only if you're from that place.
Like they were trying to sound like their shit was TRADE SECRETS that they've gone out of their way to learn authentically and less "lol we're stealing shit"
Like if you're not Italian I'd beat not ever see you learning how to make pizza
Edit: unless you make a pizza-ish equivalent from any of the other parts of the world that have not-pizzas. But only if you're from that place.
Bobby Roberts
Banned
^^^ yeah, it's a lot of that shit coming into our office.
Some meaner. Some a little more clever. But mostly it's that, preceded with some indignant set-up about Jagger's failings as a writer/person.
But a lot of people are essentially mashing that button like its wakeup dp.
What if your ethnicity isn't Monsanto?
My black ass loves that shit so let's fight.
Yup, let's do battle.
Over Taco Bell.
Yeah.
:\
Bobby Roberts
Banned
Yeah, this is where that context I was talking about upthread would come into play. The paper in question has been caught out there basically promoting a tone where "lol, we're stealing shit" would be presented straight-faced as a positive. So readers in the city weren't as quick to offer that benefit of the doubt.
Obliterator
Member
Thanks Bobby, that's a damn good break down / overview of what happened and puts the whole situation in a lot of context. Thanks for the effort of relaying all of that
Are we?
I don't think the classic "liberal issues" like excessive PC-ness or cultural appropriation drama are as widespread as people claim.
Issues of dialogue and cultural appropriation are real, but they seem to be framed by these news stories that makes people ignore the wider context.
Cultural appropriation specifically is when the culture that is borrowed from is disrespected while the borrowers reap the benefits. I'm not sure if that's the case here, but it's an interesting discussion to be had in regards to cuisine.
Automatic shutting down of an establishment if the owners don't match the food's cultural origins is silly, of course. e.g. White people running an Indian restaurant isn't an inherent issue, it's more to do with their behavior and interactions regarding Indian culture, and so on.
people were so outraged over this that a group i was in on facebook froze posting and banned half the posters who were pro-burrito cart, just in case anyone thinks the outrage was fabricated and this is a non-story
my mind is blown by how much of a parody people have begun to resemble. how does this story gain traction in 2017, yet alone in portland. i can't even count how many tattoo shops, yoga studios, or coffee shops have used the "we traveled to ____ foreign country ourselves to learn the ancient technique!!" hook. restaurants, too! you name it! it's same trick every other child of an upper-middle class family pulled on their parents to get a paid vacation and a sizeable investment into their easy, low-commitment job. "the australian coffee market is booming, father. i must go learn their techniques by hand and bring it to No Where, Wisconsin. also i need to go spend 6 weeks backpacking vietnam to the source beans. may as well go to cambodia, too, for spiritual reasons"
my mind is blown by how much of a parody people have begun to resemble. how does this story gain traction in 2017, yet alone in portland. i can't even count how many tattoo shops, yoga studios, or coffee shops have used the "we traveled to ____ foreign country ourselves to learn the ancient technique!!" hook. restaurants, too! you name it! it's same trick every other child of an upper-middle class family pulled on their parents to get a paid vacation and a sizeable investment into their easy, low-commitment job. "the australian coffee market is booming, father. i must go learn their techniques by hand and bring it to No Where, Wisconsin. also i need to go spend 6 weeks backpacking vietnam to the source beans. may as well go to cambodia, too, for spiritual reasons"
Zoe
Member
Is that not the point of internet mobs?
Where do you draw the line between them closing due to backlash versus closing of their own volition?
Read bobby Roberts posts in this thread. The article in op is essentially click bait
Damn what a story. To be honest, no one forced them to close. Making it seem insidious. They should have ignored the criticism and kept on. But it is Portland. I knew someone who was from Portland who said his name which was inspired from the word for Peace in Sanskrit/Hindi had it changed because it felt like an act of colonization. Once their yelp started getting trashed, they wouldn't have survived there. Some people actually writing on the Yelp review that they should take all sales profits and go back and apologize to the old ladies and give the money to them. What world are these people in.
superdeluxe
Member
I picked the article, because it was the first one I saw that seemed pretty even keel compared to those on one side (Portland mercury/Mic) and those on the other (Fox/Blaze). Bobby mentioned the uproxx article I can link that
Obliterator
Member
Eh unless I'm reading Bobby wrong as I understand it, there was a huge controversy around the situation. But basically the original thing that started it all WAS clickbaity and kinda screwed the whole situation up / blew it all up.
Mattakuevan
Member
Portland. A city where you wouldn't be caught dead with even a light tan for fear of being mistaken for being non-white...
White people telling other white people what can and cannot be appropriated...
I feel like I shouldn't be surprised, but I still kind of am.
White people telling other white people what can and cannot be appropriated...
I feel like I shouldn't be surprised, but I still kind of am.
thefragrance
Member
burritos aren't even a thing in Mexico, Christ.
Bobby Roberts
Banned
The Uproxx article is a much better sum-up/investigation of what the fuck is really going on, absolutely. Four really good writers putting some serious thought into not just the pop-up itself, but the culture, and the media response, and why people are reacting the way they are to that media response.
More than anything, this is a big fucking brouhaha because the utility it provides as a chance to easily mock something absurd/ridiculous/privileged is too juicy. It's a laffy-taffy setup and people cannot wait to slap down their best punchlines about italian food, greek food, chinese food, etc. (cyanide, apparently)
The initial response to this article wasn't "white people telling other white people what can and cannot be appropriated." It was minority women, mostly.
The preponderance of white responses, so far as I've seen, have been along the lines of "yeah well, a chinese guy made my pizza so I guess I'm racist now lol you guys are ridiculous"
MisterNoisy
Member
Once again, Portland gonna Portland.
Honestly, a little cyanide in the water of that city would go a long way towards making the PNW a better place.
Honestly, a little cyanide in the water of that city would go a long way towards making the PNW a better place.
I umm don't get it. Keep Portland Weird!
I do miss the food truck scene in Portland
so so much.
WTF?
I do miss the food truck scene in Portland
so so much.WTF?
Mattakuevan
Member
Sorry, should have been more clear. That's what I was referencing.
itwasTuesday
He wasn't alone.
The best local carry out Italian place near me is run by one Caucasian woman, one Korean woman and one Chinese woman. And mostly Korean staff. It used to be an Italian family but they got bought out.
I'm saying you can run whatever you want, just keep your p.r. in check.
But it is 2017, so these are all guesses.
I'm saying you can run whatever you want, just keep your p.r. in check.
But it is 2017, so these are all guesses.
Gentleman Jack
Member
From the Uproxx piece:
This is really, really good.
This is really, really good.