(Response 1 of 5) Introduction: Food in Multi-Ethnic Literatures
by Anna
In the introduction of Food in Multi-Ethnic Literatures, authors Fred L. Gardaphe and Wenying Xu establish the concept of “…food as a cultural sign that participates in the representations of race, ethnicity, gender, class, nationality, and exile.” (10) They note that throughout the history of the United States, food has been used as a tool to encourage and enforce assimilation, and that foods from immigrant cultures signified “ethnic inferiority.” (9) However, they also cite writers who view food as a way of expressing pride in their culture and identity.
The authors use Italian cuisine as an example. Though now widely popular in the US, it was once considered inelegant and “Anti-American.” (6) News media wrote about it with distaste, in an effort to otherize and even displace Italians from cities into rural areas. World War II presents another attempt to preserve cultural homogeneity via food. There was a campaign to nationalize the diets of immigrants and minority groups in the US, with the goal of making them more “Americanized” and patriotic, as well as making more people dependent on consumer culture. The authors draw strong connections between capitalism, immigration, and food, citing that “US prosperity has often coincided with the exploitation and impoverishment of ethnic food producers.” (8)
In some cases, preserving food culture is an act of resistance to such exploitation. For immigrant women, it can be a way to “assert agency in their diasporic contexts.” (8) For example, the Caribbean tradition of “making do” with what they have points to not only the creative problem solving and resilience of the cooks, but also “presents challenges to both agricultural production in postcolonial areas and postcolonial literary production.” (9) They simultaneously celebrate their culture and question the forces that systemically stole resources from it. However, patterns of cultural exchange can emerge despite forces of xenophobia or cultural preservation. Italian immigrants used to reject the American food they were given, throwing out rations of cold cereal. Over time, just as spaghetti became widely accepted by Americans, Italians began to eat cold cereal.
While the piece does not focus solely on New York City, instead addressing the larger American experience, it is still heavily pertinent to our study of the city. The example of spaghetti and cold cereal was written about Boston, but this type of cultural mixing is probable in NYC, due to the close proximity in which different cultural communities live. This piece points to the universal nature of any cultural signifier: some will view the difference as an inferiority, some will display it with pride.
Questions:
How would the perspectives presented here compare to the food experience of a multiracial family or a multiracial person?
Considering the prevalence of modern-day consumer culture, are there ways to challenge capitalism with food?
