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- Title
Do the [White] Thing: What Oppositional Gaze Narratives Reveal about Culinary Nationalism and Whiteness.
- Authors
Roth, LuAnne
- Abstract
During the racial slur montage of Spike Lee 's Do the Right Thing (1989), simmering racial tensions explode into a barrage of deep stereotypes (Abrahams 1984) expressing culinary racism. Notably, white people evade insult even though they participate in the game, violating the rule of reciprocity and creating an absent referent that compels this study. Seeking to expose the invisible center Of whiteness, this article extends bell hooks's term "oppositional gaze (2000) to explore what culinary stereotypes might have manifested had white people been included among those insulted in the montage. A survey of texts from television/film scenes to online discussion forums reveals stereotypical depictions of white American foodways, some of which were historically promoted in nationalistic and continue to be employed this way today. By interrogating these culinary stereotypes, this essay exposes a nationalistic pattern (of reacting to, appropriating, and assimilating immigrant.food traditions) with the hope of removing the ideological filter that prevents many from seeing whiteness even when it is in plain view.
- Subjects
UNITED States; NATIONALISM; RACIAL identity of white people; FOOD habits; RACISM
- Publication
Western Folklore, 2021, Vol 80, Issue 1, p81
- ISSN
0043-373X
- Publication type
Article