psa: your food coverage is probably too white
From the LA Times, a smart solve for the dilemma of “how do you write about non-white-people food without spending too much time whitesplaining it (see: the NYT bubble tea disaster)”: by using Genius annotations to fill in, for those who really need it, what soup dumplings and bánh bột lọc are without having to link out from the page. And there’s pics, too!
As writer Frank Shyong tweeted, this way, readers who **are** familiar with those foods still “feel like our target audience,” which is the correct and enlightened way to think about reaching different audiences and their needs!! We’re into it.
Another v. good link on making food discourse more diverse: This Eater essay, “A Critic for All Seasons,” written from the perspective of a black food critic navigating “elevated” (read: white) food culture:
I’ve been cut in front of as if I didn’t exist and been grabbed by a diner who thought I was ignoring her when she wanted another drink, or whatever she felt she needed at the moment. I’ve been handed the dessert wine menu at a bar because the bartender assumed I liked sweet wines, and been asked, “Have you had a Negroni before?” when ordering one … Experiences like these are constant reminders to people of color that they’re an “other” in dining spaces.
The homogenous old guard, focusing its coverage on fine or “elevated” dining — and the select restaurants outside of those spheres that it has chosen to hold up in order to maintain the pretense of a fair shake — while often disregarding everyday Caribbean, Asian, South American, Mexican, and African restaurants, sends distinct messages to white readers (here are places you’ll like) and readers of color (your spaces don’t deserve coverage beyond a cheap eats section). Restaurant criticism is fundamentally cultural criticism and just as our society isn’t a monoculture, our restaurant critics shouldn’t reflect one.
(Bolded emphasis & hunger pangs ours!)
