I found the linkage of dietary choices to assimilation discussed in Gabaccia’s article surprising and ridiculous. Cuisine is an important part of overall culture, distinct to each group of people and their traditions passed through generations. With this in mind, I see how culinary diversity might be seen as posing a “threat” to assimilating immigrants into a more homogenized American culture. But the propaganda surrounding this idea was so silly and baseless. Really! Mexican foods too flavorful for the liver, and sour foods that hurt the urinary tract? Rich-flavored Eastern European food making people too “emotional”? Psh, it seems people can find “medical” justification for any socially-based argument. People will go to such lengths to defend a comfortable way of doing things if it feels threatened… in this case, the comfortable way was eating bland American-style food (well, more than that). On a larger scale, clearly the issue wasn’t the food itself but the “invasion” of new immigrants and all of their novel and different customs permeating the American mainstream.
To me, it’s just surprising that these far-fetched beliefs regarding ethnic cuisine were once widespread, when today, I think most Americans value the diversity of flavors available to our taste buds. Overall, this seems to reflect a changing attitude about the diversity of the country. While a century ago, Americans hoped to assimilate new immigrants into a common brand of American (full of the right values and a strong sense of patriotism), today we seem to emphasize valuing our differences in custom and perspective. I for one am glad to be able to walk down any street in New York and have my pick between the cuisines of the world: Thai, Indian, Mexican, Italian, Polish, or Chinese. It’s something I might take for granted in a city of many flavors of food and backgrounds. But now that I think about it, this mélange of options, each preserved and sitting side-by-side with so many other distinct palates, is quite unique and something to appreciate each day.
-Sophie
Yes and yes. Great post Sophie. I want to challenge you though to go beyond these linked insights: a) “ethnic foods” used to be seen as so “unnatural” that they might actually be unhealthy; b) now the availability of different cuisines is so established that they can be taken for granted. You’ve just sketched out the trajectory of a typical “moral panic”, as anthropologists and sociologists refer to it. First we decide some new phenomenon is a threat to our way of life – we rationalize our objection to it by arguing that it’s unhealthy. Then, 20 or 30 or 40 years later, it has been completely “naturalized” and integrated into American culture. People forget they worried in the first place. So, if this is a generic thing that seems to happen in many cases (e.g. radio; television; the internet; heavy metal music; rap; hooking up rather than dating) when social practices change, then here’s the question: what are we morally panicking about now in terms of our eating habits? Carbohydrates? Fast food? Fraudulent sea food?