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.

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 vitriolthat the owner had to close and move to another location.

  • @IchNichtenLichtenEnglish
    1•5 days ago

    the notion of any “pure” and “original” cuisine existing is a myth that normalizes nativism.

    So all the dishes that definitively originate from a certain place … actually don’t?

    • @[email protected]English
      2•5 days ago

      Every cuisine except for those of uncontacted tribes is shaped by migration, trade, economics, etc. The ingredients Italian cuisine is most known for are pasta (derived from early Arabic forms of noodles) and tomatoes (South America.) You can say Lasagna was invented in Italy, but you can’t say it’s the product of cultural purity that Europeans tend to think of their cuisines as.

      Only to the degree that the hamburger actually is an original American dish does “pure” cuisine exist. People looking to discredit American food call it German, and while it evolved from Hamburg steak, by most accounts the first people to turn that into a sandwich, and then top it with cheese, lettuce, and tomato instead of gravy were in the United States. Burgers are German only to the degree that Bahn Mi is French.

      • @Shapillon
        3•5 days ago

        Bahn Mis are the best sandwiches on earth.

        We French might have invented the baguette but the vietmamese truly put it to good use.

      • @IchNichtenLichtenEnglish
        -1•5 days ago

        Every cuisine except for those of uncontacted tribes is shaped by migration, trade, economics, etc.

        Individual dishes can often be traced to a certain place and time though. You’re being overly general in your thinking.

        • @RedAggroBest
          0•4 days ago

          I forget that the US exists outside time and space. As long as 90% of Europe has some prized tomato-based dish, I will laugh at the ideas of foods having a “place”.

          Food is a cornerstone of culture and one thing that will always be true is that culture is an ever changing landscape rather than some strict index thats easily sorted.

          • @IchNichtenLichtenEnglish
            0•4 days ago

            I forget that the US exists outside time and space.

            I’ve no idea what this means.

            As long as 90% of Europe has some prized tomato-based dish, I will laugh at the ideas of foods having a “place”.

            Weird. Just because largely generic dishes exist that doesn’t negate that some others have a definitive origin.

            Food is a cornerstone of culture and one thing that will always be true is that culture is an ever changing landscape rather than some strict index thats easily sorted.

            OK. That doesn’t contradict what I was saying though.