Racist Sandwiches

                And now it is sandwiches.

                In recent years, everything from appropriation to competence and literacy to mathematics has been deemed racist by “progressives.” We can add sandwiches to the list. Really.

                Yale University recently invited Soleil Ho (!), host of a podcast titled “Racist Sandwich,” to speak about food through a social justice lens. The event was co-sponsored by Yale’s Poynter Fellowship in Journalism, the Yale Center for the Study of Race, Indegenity, and Transnational Migration (YCSRITM?), the Timothy Dwight College, the Yale Sustainable Food Program, and the Asian American Cultural Center. Sounds like all the pieces were in place for one helluva party!

                It is no wonder Yale wanted Ho to speak at the festive extravaganza. She ties the food industry to gender, race, and class. She previously spoke at the 2019 XOXO Festival for independent artists in Portland, Oregon. In that speech she highlighted “more stories by and about people whose food ways and livelihoods have been marginalized and undervalued by a white supremacist, ableist, hetero-patriarchal, capitalist culture.” This past August, for example, she savaged Popeyes’ chicken sandwich, labeling it “a cheap product where the true cost is carried by marginalized people and animals besides the consumer.” This raises the question: “Say what?” Care to elaborate?

                Ho has had guests such as Julia Turshen, author of a cookbook called “Feed the Resistance,” on her podcast. One can’t-miss episode from October of last year was titled, “Sheet Pan Chicken with a Side of Social justice,” during which Ho noted that the cookbook’s Thanksgiving menu mentioned indigenous activists “and the reasons why a lot of people might not like Thanksgiving.” Turshen replied that she believes “cookbooks are a very useful and effective and sort of a powerful tool.” Alrighty then.

                Progressives have already largely succeeded in destroying Columbus Day and turning Christmas from a sacred to a secular holiday. Perhaps Ho and Turshen can convince people that giving thanks is racist, too.

                Or at least prevent them from going to Popeyes on Thanksgiving.