Angry Food: America has a long history of denigrating cultures by criticizing their foods

It’s a practice about as American as apple pie, accusing immigrant and minority communities of engaging in bizarre or abhorrent behavior when it comes to what and how they eat and drink, a kind of shorthand for the statement that they don’t belong.

The latest iteration came at the presidential debate, when former President Donald Trump denounced a false online storm surrounding the Haitian immigrant community in Springfield, Ohio. He repeated his Vice President JD Vance’s baseless claim that immigrants were stealing dogs and cats, the prized pets of their American neighbors, and eating them.

The furore attracted so much attention that officials had to intervene to refute the claim, saying there was no credible evidence to support it. Although it may turn your stomach, such diet-related accusations are not new. Far from it.

Contempt and food-related insults were directed at Chinese immigrant communities on the West Coast in the late 19th century as they came to the United States in greater numbers, and spread to other Asian and Pacific Islander communities such as Thais and Vietnamese in later decades . Just last year, a Thai restaurant in California was hit by this stereotype, resulting in such a barrage of undeserved criticism that the owner had to close and move elsewhere.

The idea is that “you’re engaging in something that’s not just a matter of taste, but an affront to humanity,” says Paul Freedman, a history professor at Yale University. By labeling Chinese immigrants as those who would eat things Americans wouldn’t eat, they became the “other.”

IN THE USA, FOOD CAN BE FLAME POINTS

While other communities were not accused of eating pets, they were criticized for, as newcomers, finding what they cooked strange, such as Italians using too much garlic or Indians using too much curry powder. Minority groups with a longer presence in the country were and still are not exempt from racist stereotypes – think derogatory references to Mexicans and beans or insulting African Americans with comments about fried chicken and watermelon.

“Almost every ethnicity has a slur based on the type of food they eat,” says Amy Bentley, a professor of nutrition and food studies at New York University. “And that’s a very good way to belittle people.”

Because food is not just food. Embodied in human eating habits are some of the building blocks of culture – things that distinguish different peoples and can be used as fodder for ethnic hatred or political polemics.

“We need it to survive, but it is also highly ritualized and very symbolic. So the birthday cake, the anniversary, things are celebrated and celebrated with food and drink,” Bentley says. “It’s just so integrated into all areas of our lives.”

And because “there are specific differences in the way people perform these rituals, how they eat, how they have shaped their cuisine, how they eat their food,” she adds, “It can be a theme of commonality… or it may be a form of distinct division.”

It’s not just the what. Insults can also arise from the “how” – for example, when eating with your hands or chopsticks instead of forks and knives. This is evident in the class bias against poorer people who did not have the same access to elaborate table decorations or who could not afford to eat in the same way as the rich – and used different, perhaps unknown ingredients out of necessity.

Such vilification can have a direct impact on current events. During the Second Gulf War, for example, Americans, angry over France’s resistance to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, began calling french fries “freedom fries.” And a frequently used offensive term for Germans in the United States during the first two world wars was “kraut” — a sharp jab at a culture where sauerkraut was a traditional food.

“What was actually wrong with the way urban immigrants ate?” Donna R. Gabaccia wrote in her 1998 book “We Are What We Eat: Ethnic Food and the Making of Americans.” Examining early 20th-century attitudes and its demands for “100% Americanism,” she noted that “sauerkraut became ‘victory cabbage'” and one report complained about an Italian family “that still ate spaghetti and still was not assimilated.”

The growing food culture provides continuous feed

Such stereotypes persist even though the American palate has expanded significantly in recent decades, thanks in part to the influx of these immigrant communities and grocery stores stock a wealth of ingredients that would amaze previous generations. The rise of restaurant culture has introduced many diners to authentic examples of cuisines that in other eras they might have required a passport to access.

After all, Bentley says, “When immigrants emigrate to another country, they bring their food with them and care for it as best they can.”…It’s so reminiscent of family, community, home. They’re just really material, multisensory manifestations of who we are.”

Haitian food is just one example of this. Communities like those in New York City and South Florida have enriched the culinary landscape by using ingredients like goat, plantains and cassava.

So when Trump said that immigrants in Springfield—whom he called “the people who came in”—were eating dogs and cats and “the pets of the people who live there,” his remarks impacted not just the food, but also on the culture itself.

And while the American palate has expanded in recent decades, the persistence of dietary stereotypes — and outright insults, whether based on fact or completely made up — shows that the fact that Americans are eating a broader diet does not mean tolerance leads or nuances about other groups.

“It’s a fallacy to believe that,” Freedman says. “It’s like the tourism fallacy that travel gives us a better understanding of diversity. The best example right now is Mexican food. Many, many people like Mexican food AND think immigration needs to be stopped. There is no connection between enjoying a foreigner’s cuisine and this openness.”