Via the pages of Everyday Feminism, Rachel Kuo instructs the dull masses on how to avoid “cultural appropriation” while eating: 

When we talk about “ethnic” food, we’re not referring to French, German, or Italian cuisine, and definitely not those Ikea Swedish meatballs.

I suspect few people think of German cuisine as particularly mysterious and alluring. There are, I fear, very few German restaurants beyond the borders of Germany. Good cars, though.

Usually, we’re talking about Thai, Vietnamese, Indian, Ethiopian, and Mexican food – places where food is cooked by the “brownest” people.

As is the custom with articles in Everyday Feminism, the density of assumption in what follows is quite high. For instance, when my family ventures out for a meal, table for twenty, I can say with some confidence that the choice of restaurant isn’t determined by the melanin levels of the people cooking it.

What happens is that food becomes the only identifier for certain places. Japan reduced to ramen and sushi, Mexico reduced to tacos and burritos, India reduced to curry, and so on.

Again, note the loadedness, the questions begged. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten, say, chili while convinced that said meal was an adequate distillation of the entire population of Mexico and Texas, past and present. Nor can I recall “fetishizing the sustenance of another culture.” Or “subsuming histories and stories into menu items.” It’s a meal, not an attempt to absorb world history or to flirt with some notional brownness. Yet this is asserted as “what happens,” as some universal fact. And then promptly contradicted:  

Eating food from another culture in isolation from that culture’s history and also current issues mean [sic] that we’re just borrowing the pieces that are enjoyable – palatable and easily digestible. 

Um, isn’t that rather the point? You know, tastiness without baggage? Isn’t that what makes foreign cuisine commercially viable, a livelihood of millions? Or is ordering takeout only acceptable following lengthy, brow-furrowing investment in each and every vendor’s ancestral culture and current politics? Should every visit to, say, a Pakistani restaurant entail a stern lecture on the pros and cons of European colonialism and a lifetime subscription to the fever dream of Islam? Would that aid digestion? Stated plainly, it sounds a little silly. But Ms Kuo wishes to appear concerned, deeply concerned, that people of pallor might enjoy falafel and a spot of hummus “but not understand or address the ongoing Islamophobia in the US.”

Sail away, sail away, sail away. (h/t, Damian) // At last, a self-operated mechanical hugging machine. // Selfie arm extensions. // An interactive self-updating history of the world. // Shazam your beer. // Slackline walking, it’s not for everyone. // He folds paper better than you do. // Portable and discreet. // At last, videos for pets. Look, Fido. Squirrel! // In fairness, new shoes cheer me up too. // A tall chap in wartime, 1944. (h/t, Kristian) // Tip of Fuji. // 57. // Give the gift of life skills. // Loudspeakers of note. // The eagle hunters of Mongolia. // Assorted Bond interiors. (h/t, Things) // This. // Einstein’s theories of general and special relativity explained in simple terms. // Cup of penis. // 230-foot Croatian sea-organ. // Someone fetch Mulder and Scully, there’s oddness afoot.

More intellectual life at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire:

“Fuck you, you filthy white fucks!” “Fuck you and your comfort!” “Fuck you, you racist shits!” These shouted epithets were the first indication that many students had of the coming storm. The sign-wielding, obscenity-shouting protesters proceeded through the usually quiet backwaters of the library… and converged around fellow students who had not joined in their long march. They confronted students who bore “symbols of oppression” such as “gangster hats” and Beats-brand headphones.

The flood of demonstrators opened the doors of study spaces with students reviewing for exams. Those who tried to close their doors were harassed further. One student abandoned the study room and ran out of the library. The protesters followed her out of the library, shouting obscenities the whole way. Students who refused to join their outbursts were shouted down: “Stand the fuck up!” “You filthy racist white piece of shit!” Men and women alike were pushed and shoved by the group. “If we can’t have it, shut it down!” they cried. Another woman was pinned to a wall by protesters who unleashed their insults, shouting “filthy white bitch!” in her face.

Vain little monsters projecting their own vices and relishing the sensation of power over others.

Update, via the comments:

Janice Fiamengo on the neurotic malice of feminist outrage junkies:

See also Make Way for the Mao-lings, in which Dr Fiamengo vividly illustrates the tactics and effects of feminist hysteria, and the video here, in which she debates with a feminist professor of philosophy, Alice McLachlan, who insists that she “cares a lot about free speech,” but not for people who might dare to disagree with her. And remember, should you be at all sceptical of identitarian politics and tribal psychology, Your Failure to Agree Will Not Be Tolerated. 

Don’t worry, he’s not naked. // You want one and you know it. // When your nearest neighbour is Area 51. // His swordsmanship is better than yours. // The Hindenburg’s interiors. // Cats unimpressed by feline-human hybrid. // A visual history of Macy’s Thanksgiving parades, 1929-1964. // The untidy moons of Pluto. // At last, clip-on man buns. // Man with broom, brooming. // A Mongolian record shop. // On a classic of Australian television drama. // Advent calendars filled with liquor. // Crooked timber. // Magnetism. // This rent map of London is not for the squeamish. // The Three Laws of Robotics do not work. Would an autonomous robot surgeon perform an abortion? // And finally, it turns out there are around 1.2 million people with my surname. What about yours?