What's up in Portland? Enquiring minds want to know

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AJOwens
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What's up in Portland? Enquiring minds want to know

Post by AJOwens »

A blogger friend here in Ottawa posted about the Kooks Burritos controversy based on a Portland Mercury report. Now the report has been pulled as "factually unsupported," but there are still signs of an actual controversy. Is there anybody here from Portland who can fill us in?

http://drdawgsblawg.ca/2017/06/burritos ... qus_thread
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Re: What's up in Portland? Enquiring minds want to know

Post by fluffy »

This isn't really specific to Portland, it's just yet another iteration on a very wearying cycle where the state of politics and discourse around cultural issues has become divisive beyond belief.

There are so many people who dig their heels in about wanting to be shitty (racist, homophobic, transphobic, etc.) people, which has led to a lot of people lashing back against it, and often going really far in the other direction. And some of them look for perceived injustices and oversteps and then need to dig in further.

Personally I think that the anti-Kooks folks have a slight point but it's buried under a tsunami of righteous indignation and colonialist "white-knighting." Is it a problem that some white people open up a burrito stand and get praised for the very thing that Mexicans would just be seen as par for the course for? Sure, it's a deep sociological problem with a lot of history behind it. Does it mean that they should be boycotted for having taken the time to learn how to make something right? That I'm not so sure about.

There are so many things that people could be focusing their time and energy on that would benefit everyone. Like addressing the systemic sociological issues that made this a thing in the first place, or supporting Latinx producers and praising them for making good tortillas.
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Re: What's up in Portland? Enquiring minds want to know

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Re: What's up in Portland? Enquiring minds want to know

Post by Manhattan Glutton »

We have a whole generation of folks who grew up learning about the hardships of the Great Depression, struggle for Civil Rights, two World Wars... They are looking for their Own Purpose. They want a Fight.

And that Fight is against the Tortilla Nazis.
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Re: What's up in Portland? Enquiring minds want to know

Post by noma »

Here in Europe, we have Turks selling Italian pizza, Balkan folks operating hot dog stands, Chinese sushi restaurants, Greek restaurants that are actually German, Indian restaurants that are actually Arab, and so on. It's never been a problem.
If it would have been back in the day, burritos would not even exist. Wheat bread was not part of the indigenous Mexican cuisine. Nor would Döner Kebab, Central Europe's most popular snack, exist; kebab meat was not usually served in sandwiches in the Near East, but when the dish was popularized in Germany, its now popular form emerged as an adaptation to German eating habits.

I can understand the sentiments of people accusing these women of stealing cultural property. Seems a bit hypocritical though, as, in fact, all of America's cuisine, as well as European cuisine, was formed this way. Call it stealing if you wish, that doesn't change the fact.
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