Today in Cultural Appropriation

Lot of people here who ain’t never been to Whitman’s backyard.

 

I think this Jewish lawyer from long ago had largely the same realization: “I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.”

 

Pork is almost a Type I error for the whole Intelligent Design idea. It’s hard to imagine random selection leading to something so perfectly suited for that cooking technique.

 

Peterson is Robert Bly/Iron John/drum circle ca 2018.

There's always a Peterson.

 

Very few foods on earth can reach the heights of perfectly-smoked brisket:

 

That’s the point.

The places in the good neighborhoods get the buzz, because the “trendsetters” go there, and they end up on the “best of” lists, even if the authentic hole in the wall puts out better tacos.

 

Meet me here, and I will buy, and prove you wrong:

 

I’ve been in many such backyards. That’s the point. You’re doing it quite well.
Lots of people are. I like good BBQ and have it often. But we can stop thinking the secret to good BBQ travels on the wind, and only tatted-up men with flat bill caps and chalkboards drawn up daily understand its fickle movements.

 

Apparently, you’re missing out.

 

This all sounds pretty standard to me.

Which American generation, when young, going back to say 1900 or so, wasn't shallow and pre-occupied with money and sex and celebrity and popular music and movies and its own gratifications?

Gatsby and Chaplin and Rudolf Valentino make a pretty good case that it was ever thus, at least in the 20th century.

As to saving one's true emotions for letters or notes (or DMs or texts), that's Jane Austen.

This also doesn't make much of a dent in consideration of racial differences.

 

Bayless is an interesting example for this thread.

An article from Chicago!, questioning him...Why is Rick Bayless the expert on Mexican cuisine when he isn't even Mexican?
"Something just bugged me that a white guy was gaining so much fame for his Mexican cuisine. I'm sure his love of Mexico is genuine and he does good charity work. I'm not saying he's a bad guy, and he is a great chef. But why does the media make him the spokesman for Mexican food in the United States?
The story had a weird tone kinda like watch the white guy hang out in
the barrio and judge whether the food measures up to real Mexican food."

But he is probably the most qualified appropriator.

"The Government of Mexico has bestowed on Rick the Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle–the highest decoration bestowed on foreigners whose work has benefitted Mexico and its people."

He lived there for 6 years, learning from locals all throughout the country. You can tell he has a lot of respect for those people. It was interesting to find out who his brother is, never made the connection until this year. (don't watch espn)

 

Agreed. The “OMG Millennials!” stuff can be pretty overwrought. The millennials I teach today aren’t a gnat’s ass different from the Gen Xers I was teaching 20 years ago.* They just have Twitter, Instagram and iPhones.


*Their disdain for my sagacity hasn’t changed an iota.