The taste of whiteness

“White food” generally refers to highly-processed products that are generally understood to be not so good for you (although not everyone necessarily agrees).

But links with race lurk in the term, too. And that’s the premise of this recent piece that turns the idea of “ethnic cuisine” back onto whiteness and ponders the question of why nobody ever says “Let’s go grab a cheap meal at that Caucasian place on 28th Street.”

Social scientists talk about people being assigned to “marked” or “unmarked” ethnic and racial categories, and linkages with culturally-specific or “culturally-appropriate” foods are one way that non-white categories become clearly marked. The author can’t quite decide whether this is always a bad thing or not–see what you think!