Woke Food

[BronsonShore]

Bow Market may work for you, but, to me and a number of folks I'm in community with, Bow Market's events are highly problematic. It would be incorrect to say that they are built into the fabric of "the community." They are built into the fabric of the White dominant culture in this area.

Keeping it short, the entire Bow Market complex is geared toward the White, professional class - even the "ethnic" restaurants are primarily "fusion" (read: adulterated/altered for White-acceptable flavors/spices). After the initial soft opening, I have not gone back and I see that the stores of interests for White non-professionals or people of color (of all classes) have departed.

I appreciate the design and the active reuse of the facility and think that it's novel that they reused a former storage/garage site, but, these kinds of markets consisting of a rotating cast of stall owners are so common to most of the rest of the world, that, what's more surprising is just how novel White Americans seem to think they are.

Tanam, which is the best restaurant in Bow Market and one of the best in all of Boston, is owned and operated by two queer women of color (and when I say “operated”, I mean that very literally: these two women are the only employees and they run the whole thing entirely on their own). The chef/owner presents each dish herself, frequently describing to the diners exactly how her Filipino mother and grandmother taught her how to make it, as well as all the hoops she jumps through to get authentic ingredients. It’s only the second Filipino restaurant in all of greater Boston, and it’s only possible because the Bow Market business model allows them to run a restaurant without paying exorbitantly more money for their own brick-and-mortar spot. They started out as a pop-up venture, and didn’t have the capital to open up anywhere else. I’d love to hear you explain how these women are highly problematic.

 

[ra84970]

The presence of queer people, people of color, or people not of the dominant culture in a place doesn't mean that place is not replicating anti-queer, anti-Black/anti-ethnic or anti-humanistic ideas.

The idea that a Filipina queer woman or any other marginalized person needs to "authentically" portray food (or any aspect of their culture) is an idea born out of White dominance.

And the fact that so many of the Azn-Am foods we consume are required, here, to be presented to what are predominantly White patrons in an ethnologue/travel diary kinda way only reinforces the constant Columbusing of White Americans and their supporters.

 

[maxdatabook]

The presence of queer people, people of color, or people not of the dominant culture in a place doesn't mean that place is not replicating anti-queer, anti-Black/anti-ethnic or anti-humanistic ideas.

The idea that a Filipina queer woman or any other marginalized person needs to "authentically" portray food (or any aspect of their culture) is an idea born out of White dominance.

And the fact that so many of the Azn-Am foods we consume are required, here, to be presented to what are predominantly White patrons in an ethnologue/travel diary kinda way only reinforces the constant Columbusing of White Americans and their supporters.

What exactly are you so angry about? Do you realize that when you write " Filipina queer woman or any other marginalized person " you are defining the Filipina women mentioned above as "marginalized". Is that fair to them, to speak for them? How do you know they feel marginalized? Perhaps they felt more marginalized in the Philippines and less so here? If you feel marginalized that I'd love to hear why. What exactly has anyone done to you to create this generalized animosity? We all have our marginalizations. There are whites who went to Harvard and those who didn't. There are whites with inherited wealth and those without. Does a Harvard "queer" have more in common with a non-Harvard "queer" than a fell non-queer Harvard alumni? Nothing is simple or straightforward. For most people, there is only good food and not so good food. Is a white supposed to enjoy the food at Tanam less because they are white? Can only a Filipino appreciate it? I'm sorry you see so much evil in "White Americans". I just want to say I don't like to be Pidgeon-holed and I haven't met anyone else, whatever their race, etc., that feels the same. Open your heart. We all get angry. It's a dead end for us all. Or look at the past 5,000 years of history. Anglo-Saxon Whites are a mere blip. They will become marginalized again very quickly in the scheme of things.

Did you know that the evidence is mounting that Atlantis was in Africa. Think about that, the first great civilization we know about was in Africa. Comets, asteroids, volcanos, magnetic fields, sun activity--none of it cares about what happens on Earth. Prior to 10,000 years ago Africans may have ruled the Earth. Everything swept away by huge waves of water.

 

[RandomWalk]

Can the mods move this digression from the primary topic of the thread to one of the other forums?

 

[MrDee12345]

"Queer"
"People of Color"
"White Dominance"
"Marginalized"
" Columbusing" - That's a new one I hadn't heard

We've got "woke" bingo! Bingo!