In this thread: Europeans being casually xenophobic about immigrants in The Americas and the dishes they bring from home, thus proving this new community’s point.
Anyway while I’m on my European slander streak, let me tell you a story: One time i was staying in a hostel in Montreal and there was a French guy (like, a l’hexagon French, not Quebecois) there. He unironically said to me “A single tomato from France tastes better than this shit you call poutine.” That quote lives rent free in my head.
Also you wanna know why he was in Montreal? Cuz he couldn’t get a job in France. peak comedy
Europeans being casually xenophobic about immigrants in The Americas and the dishes they bring from home, thus proving this new community’s point.
No shit. Orange chicken was invented by a Chinese-American chef in Hawaii. Chicken alfredo was invented in the US by combining the Italian dish fettuccine al burro with cream and chicken. And breakfast tacos were an adaptation of a Mexican dish tacos de guisados, except Texans used eggs, instead of yesterday’s stewed leftovers. (Also, I’m not sure the OP and community admin even gets the point.)
American is not just a single culture, it’s a melting pot of a bunch of different cultures. Same goes for Canada, just with a different mix of dominant cultures. American food is a reflection of that, sometimes remixing the idea so much that it turns into something else. Cajun food wouldn’t exist without a mixture of French and American influences.
America may be constantly battling racism and xenophobia internally, but we recognize it for what it is: a shit behavior that should should be excised. European and Eastern cultures like Japan are so casually racist and xenophobic that they don’t even recognize it in themselves.
The Axis powers came to be out of a combination of elements, but xenophobia was the biggest one. Germany got their shit together in the end, after brutal period of being forcefully separated themselves, and a period of self-reflection. Italy and Japan? Yeah, not so much.
So, to the OP: I hope your new community isn’t yet another outlet to be racist.
America may be constantly battling racism and xenophobia internally, but we recognize it for what it is: a shit behavior that should should be excised. European and Eastern cultures like Japan are so casually racist and xenophobic that they don’t even recognize it in themselves.
The best way I’ve heard it described is that Americans consider racism something you do, while the rest of the world tends to view it as something you are.
To an American, if someone is a racist, it’s because they do racist things. So Americans are actually fairly good at recognizing and excising casual racism, because they recognize it as a behavior they can change. But this also means Americans are fairly quick to judge individual actions as racist, because they see it as something that should be improved upon in the future. To an American, a racist is racist because they have recognized their own racist behaviors and don’t see them as a problem.
Meanwhile, Europeans and Asians tend to think of racism as something you are. And that’s a big difference, because it makes them much less adept at identifying the more casual forms of racism. Because even if they’re casually racist, they’ll simply tell themselves “well I’m not a racist, therefore my actions weren’t racist.” Since that binary “is/is not a racist” flag hasn’t flipped in their brain, they’re able to tell themselves that their individual actions aren’t racist.
It’s like Europeans need to be at least 51% racist in order to be considered racist, so anything below that amount is excusable. Individual people will obviously have different thresholds for when that Boolean bit gets flipped from “not racist” to “racist”, but it still needs to hit that personal threshold before they’ll start calling out racism. And europeans will tend to judge their own actions much more leniently, like a zealot telling themselves that God is on their side so their bad deeds aren’t really bad.
But that causes interesting culture shocks whenever Americans interact with Europeans or Asians. Europeans are quick to jump on the “all Americans are racist” bandwagon, and the American will tend to nod along and agree because they recognize that everyone has the potential to be racist. Then the American will see the Europeans do/say some vile racist shit, and start to call it out. But then the European gets defensive and adamantly states that they’re not a racist… Because the European takes the “hey that was pretty fucked up and racist, don’tcha think” as a personal “you are a racist” attack, instead of a “that individual action was racist, and you should examine why you did it” behavioral check.
And the American will be confused on why the European immediately jumped all the way to “why are you calling me a racist? I’m not racist” argument. Because in their experience, the only people who immediately jump to that are the full blown reich-wing racists who don’t see their own racist actions as a problem, but want to continue existing in a civilized society. Labeling someone as a racist is a big deal for an American, because it means the person has refused to examine their own racist behaviors, or has done so and sees no problem with the racism. To an American, labeling someone a racist is basically the nuclear “I’ve exhausted all other possibilities, and can only conclude that they’re doing it on purpose” option.
So Americans will often walk away from the interactions thinking “holy fuck those Europeans were really goddamned racist” simply because the Europeans refused to acknowledge that their own individual actions had the potential to be racist. Meanwhile, the Europeans will think that Americans are really fucking racist because Americans are quick to call it out amongst themselves.
Ahh, the humble French tomato… which originated from the Americas…
Alfredo pasta was invented in Italy.
The US invented its own dish and gave it the same name.
America has distinctive quick breads like southern biscuits and flapjacks, many desserts were invented by the Pennsylvania dutch (like doughnuts and approximately a billion cakes and pies), several excellent kinds of whiskey, a galaxy of unique bbqs, Cajun food, distinctive east and west coast deli styles, a distinctive style of fried chicken, chocolate chip cookies, deep dish pizza, french dip sandwiches…
The one I love is German Chocolate Cake. Invented in either Pennsylvania, or New York, the prole’s last name was German.
Especially funny as Pecans are a very American thing, they don’t even grow in Europe.
So probably a significant part of the US population thinks because of this cake that Germans bake Pecan based stuff, while most Germans (me included) haven’t seen a Pecan nut in their whole life. :-)Honestly most Americans think more about the coconut in that cake than the handful of pecans that can be left out of the recipe altogether depending on the area of the country that you’re in.
From what I can tell, most Americans don’t even realize that schnitzel is basically what they/we call “country fried chicken/beef/pork,” and assume that wörst in the form of various sausages, and beer are all that German cuisine consist of. Maybe some sort of doughnut as well, named after Berlin.
Hamburgers, meatloaf, gumbo, and all sorts of southern food is American.
*Edit. Some of you think hamburgers weren’t an American creation. Y’all are incorrect. The humburg meat was never put between bread. The sandwich hamburger is a US creation.
Dude, Hamburgers are literally named after the non-US city they originally came from…
But I have to admit that the refinement to its delicious present day form is an American achievement!That’s a Hamburg steak. Not a hamburger, since there’s no bun
Literary all of those dishes have origins outside of the US lol
So does all human society, this is a stupid argument.
My point is that US people tend to claim ownership to a lot of things that were not invented there. I’m all for sharing culture and food and transforming them to something new, but don’t claim they are your invention.
Like as american as apple pie is an expression for a dish from Germany and the Netherlands.
We invented the chocolate chip cookie, man. That pretty much means we won. Lol
Haha, can’t argue with that logic. And cookie dough ice cream!
Nah, I as an naturalized American citizen I do not want stuff I create to be called “Chinese”, its xenophobic. I mean, you can say “Chinese-American” to refer to me but not “Chinese”. Cuz why is a white US Citizen creating stuff labeled as “American” while stuff I make is not “American”? Double standards.
If I come up with a new food receipe, its American food. If I make a painting, that’s made by an American artist. If I publish a book, that’s written by an American writer. Don’t fucking try to “other” me.
Fun fact: orange chicken was invented by Hawaiian Chinese guys who ran the Panda Express in Honolulu. They wanted to create a dish that reflected the sort of flavors that were popular at Chinese restaurants in Hawai’i. So it’s not an “American” concoction. It’s rooted in the culture of Chinese in Hawai’i, who were invited to live and work in Hawai’i back in the kingdom days.
Pizza was invented in the US. By an italian immigrant, but it still counts.
Last panel gets it wrong, though.
Rest of the world totally thinks that there is such a thing as original American food:
High-caloric, hyper-processed junk containing no significant nutritional value but much too much fat, fructose sirup and carcinogenic substances.
That, and watery beer.There is also the American national dish of cereal (frequently meaning lumps of coloured sugar mixed with lumps of different-coloured sugar).
Cereal was made by old man kellog to feed to his insane asylum inmates at his battle creek, mi sanitorium, as a low protein food that would lessen the masturbation of the inmates.
He put mittens on some they could not get off so they did not whack it at night.
He did not run an insane asylum. It was a health resort. The cereal was for people who suffered from upset stomachs which was highly common because people were inflaming their digestive tracks and giving themselves stomach cancer because tonics were popular at the time and were full of crazy shit. Not just opium and other fun stuff.
He was so against sexual gratification he did thing mitten thing for children and a teenagers, also physical restraints but never inmates, closest would be orphanages but also promoted the practice to his playing clientele
Kellog was a crazy religious nut but the kind that wouldn’t even fuck his wife, let alone children like the sickos we’re stuck with today. All in all, I prefer his style of crazy religious nut vs the rapey kind.
It’s not disputed he ran a sanitorium. I don’t get it when people online just refute established fact. There is not any debate, there is a historical record, and it’s not disputed, and Kellog ran a Sanitorium, was obsessed with masturbation, and was a crazy old bitch. Why try and revise that unilaterally? Am I supposed to prove established fact with sources to prove common knowledge? I get my fill of that in politics, I may have to do it with federal agents executing citizens under false pretense, but I will not waste further time on it for this.
Yes it was a sanitarium, it it wasn’t not an insane asylum or a prison. It was a health resort.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Creek_Sanitarium
The Battle Creek Sanitarium was a world-renowned health resort in Battle Creek, Michigan, United States.[3] It started in 1866 on health principles advocated by the Seventh-day Adventist Church and from 1876 to 1943 was managed by Dr. John Harvey Kellogg.[4]
I’ve showed you one of my sources, now you show me yours.
I am not arguing settled historical fact. If you want to overturn the historical record, take it up with the historians first.
Settled facts is a weird name for the pop history nonsense.
