Bobby Roberts' paper helps get CAC's white supremacist burrito truck closed down

[benjipwns]

http://www.portlandmercury.com/blogtown/2017/05/22/19028161/this-week-in-appropriation-kooks-burritos-and-willamette-week

Portland has an appropriation problem.

This week in white nonsense, two white women—Kali Wilgus and Liz “LC” Connely—decided it would be cute to open a food truck after a fateful excursion to Mexico. There’s really nothing special about opening a Mexican restaurant—it’s probably something that happens everyday. But the owners of Kooks Burritos all but admitted in an interview with Willamette Week that they colonized this style of food when they decided to “pick the brains of every tortilla lady there in the worst broken Spanish ever.”

Following the WW’s article, one commenter said: “Now that you all boldly and pretty fucking unapologetically stole the basis of these women's livelihoods, you can make their exact same product so other white ppl don't have to be inconvenienced of dealing with a pesky brown middle woman getting in their way. Great job.”

Another commenter explained what’s basically a sad truth underlying the Portland restaurant community: “If you knew anything of the restaurant industry (or Google) you'd know that this is true. ‘Ethnic’ chefs are expected to ‘cook from their ethnic backgrounds’ while White chefs can do what these two horrid women did: vacation somewhere and ‘get inspired’ and appropriate an entire culture's cuisine and claim it as their own.”

Immediately after the fury continued online, a different resource emerged and quickly went viral: a Google doc showing exactly how prevalent this epidemic is. The list titled “White-Owned Appropriative Restaurants in Portland” provides a who’s who of culinary white supremacy.

An introduction to the document begins by saying, “This is NOT about cooking at home or historical influences on cuisines; it's about profit, ownership, and wealth in a white supremacist culture.” And it ends by letting visitors know, “If you've come here in anger, please read at least a couple of these articles before continuing to the list on the next tab below.”

Despite this issue being dismissed by supporters of Kook’s Burritos—while our views were seen as just a bunch of angry minorities attacking innocent white women who only wanted to make tacos—the food cart closed as of late Friday. Willamette Week has not taken any responsibility or shown any accountability for their actions.

While the closing of Kooks Burritos is a victory, it’s a small one and unless we continue to call this out it will happen again.

come at Yum! Brands you best not miss

[Momo]

People crying cultural appropriation in this case are pure scum imo.

[D3RANG3D]

I bet he went to taco bell after writing this.

[Positive Touch]

guys shutting down a place that serves white-made tacos is a blessing. any of you wasted your money on that shit irl? i have, and it was fucking traumatizing.  never again.

[I'm a Puppy!]

A white owned taco truck lost its business in a market choked with authentic mexican taco trucks? Something tells me that maybe it wasn't just because of this newspaper's complaints about "appropriation" 

[Raist]

You dare question the powers of Bobby & Pals?

Heathen.

[Let's Cyber]

come at Yum! Brands you best not miss

Cultural appropriation is only suitable when done by publicly traded companies. Everyone knows that.

 

[Phoenix Dark]

If it wasn't this it would have been Taco Bell shutting their ass down for copyright infringement. If you can't watch Little Mermaid on youtube, you can't eat chalupas from a truck.
 

[zomgee]

The article mentions a Google doc that lists white-owned food establishments and lists their POC-owned alternatives.

That's really weird.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JJuHMuAeuHxy-c4nyp6NLghhrCdZYO7I5kDGSt22Ie8/htmlview#

From the Google doc:

Note that the backgrounds of the people of color who own the listed restaurants do not necessarily match the cuisine they serve. We could have limited the list to only people selling their own cuisine, but we made the decision not to in order to make a point. If this seems like hypocrisy from the standards set for white-owned restaurants, you haven't understood why white appropriation is a problem.

White business owners wield economic and "cultural capital" advantages over POC business owners, so they are "punching down" by appropriating cuisines from people who are disadvantaged in comparison. A Vietnamese person opening a Japanese restaurant does not have the same impact as a non-Hispanic white person opening a Mexican restaurant. Healthy cultural exchange can and does occur when the playing field is relatively even, but appropriation is a demonstration of power that perpetuates inequities.

"Note that the backgrounds of the people of color who own the listed restaurants do not necessarily match the cuisine they serve." What the hell kind of statement is that? How... or why do you find that out?

[zomgee]

Although if a white dude opened up a restaurant that served the primarily Caucasian cuisine of fried bologna on white bread... I probably wouldn't eat there.

[Brehvolution]

Yesterday, I got Mexican tacos from a truck with 2 white women working it. Did I commit genocide?

spoiler (click to show/hide)

The tacos were amazing

[close]

[Joe Molotov]

A taco cuck on every corner.

[seagrams hotsauce]

The article mentions a Google doc that lists white-owned food establishments and lists their POC-owned alternatives.

That's really weird.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JJuHMuAeuHxy-c4nyp6NLghhrCdZYO7I5kDGSt22Ie8/htmlview#

From the Google doc:

Note that the backgrounds of the people of color who own the listed restaurants do not necessarily match the cuisine they serve. We could have limited the list to only people selling their own cuisine, but we made the decision not to in order to make a point. If this seems like hypocrisy from the standards set for white-owned restaurants, you haven't understood why white appropriation is a problem.

White business owners wield economic and "cultural capital" advantages over POC business owners, so they are "punching down" by appropriating cuisines from people who are disadvantaged in comparison. A Vietnamese person opening a Japanese restaurant does not have the same impact as a non-Hispanic white person opening a Mexican restaurant. Healthy cultural exchange can and does occur when the playing field is relatively even, but appropriation is a demonstration of power that perpetuates inequities.

"Note that the backgrounds of the people of color who own the listed restaurants do not necessarily match the cuisine they serve." What the hell kind of statement is that? How... or why do you find that out?

Almost certainly some variation of; writer walks into a sushi bar, tries speaking Japanese to the staff, only to realize that they're Vietnamese, and it dawns on them to add that disclaimer.

That doc is really weird. It seems like an idyllic portrait of intersectionality, but I went out for Pho yesterday and for dessert I was treated to the owners daughter complaining about how lazy Hispanics shouldn't qualify for section 8. Just goes to show that sometimes minorities appropriate white culture too, I guess

[etiolate]

you all realize that Yum Foods! is white people tacos

they coming for the almighty Taco Bell next

[CatsCatsCats]

Yo Portland is almost all white people are they just not allowed to have anything but burgers and fries? Fuck outta here.

Also, yes there's already a ton of amazing taco trucks so that's probably what really happened.

[ToxicAdam]

This is the slippery slope to only Guy Fieri restaurants left in America.

[Phoenix Dark]

I said it on GAF, I say it here. A lot of people casually misuse the phrase "cultural appropriation" and it's asinine as fuck.

[etiolate]

I don't think its done casually, it just comes across that way. I am rather sure that the people misusing the term are doing so because they recognize the social capital the term has and they want to misuse it to move up in the social hierarchy game most of us play.

So it's purposefully misused for selfish means, but its done so often that it appears casual and thoughtless.

[Huff]

#boycottportland

[CatsCatsCats]

Portland really is going to crap, glad I moved out of Portland proper

[Huff]

Poop land more like it amirite

[zomgee]

Note that the backgrounds of the people of color who own the listed restaurants do not necessarily match the cuisine they serve. We could have limited the list to only people selling their own cuisine, but we made the decision not to in order to make a point. If this seems like hypocrisy from the standards set for white-owned restaurants, you haven't understood why white appropriation is a problem.

Whoever wrote this should get fucking bodyslammed.

YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND

[recursivelyenumerable]

uhh why start a new thread, the good CA thread is here -> http://www.thebore.com/forum/index.php?topic=44919.0

I wonder what the IP situation is for Korean taco trucks.

[Phoenix Dark]

You are not morally or legally obligated to be black to own a soul food restaurant, or to be Mexican to own a Mexican food restaurant, etc etc. There is nothing wrong with any of this, who gives a fuck stop annoying me omg.

Now if you wanna talk about cultural appropriation in terms of white people adding mayo to various ethnic dishes and calling it authentic ethnic cuisine, yea I agree with you.

[recursivelyenumerable]

Covered in the OP of the other thread -> http://www.thebore.com/forum/index.php?topic=44919.0

https://twitter.com/dkpseudo/status/836494476520501248

[benjipwns]

Taco Bell was founded by Glen Bell, who first opened a hot dog stand called Bell's Drive-In in San Bernardino, California[3] in 1946 when he was 23 years old. In 1950, he opened Bell's Hamburgers and Hot Dogs in San Bernardino's West Side barrio. According to Gustavo Arellano, author of Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America, Bell watched long lines of customers at a Mexican restaurant called the Mitla Cafe, located across the street, which attracted a dedicated customer base for its hard-shelled tacos.[4][5] Bell began eating there regularly, attempting to reverse-engineer the recipe, and eventually won the confidence of the proprietors such that they allowed him to see how the tacos and other foods were prepared

HOLY FUCKING SHIT THIS GOES STRAIGHT TO THE TOP

[recursivelyenumerable]

taco reparations when?

[BobFromPikeCreek]

This is a major setback on the road to the utopian future of Demolition Man.

[Momo]

This is a major setback on the road to the utopian future of Demolition Man.

Or a major driver to eating salty, culturally appropriated, ratburgers in the sewer like the pigs we are

[thisismyusername]

Now if you wanna talk about cultural appropriation in terms of white people adding mayo to various ethnic dishes and calling it authentic ethnic cuisine, yea I agree with you.

:britneydisgust

Who the hell does that? All the white restaurant owners I know don't. It may not be "authentic" but by god and country, they don't slather mayo all over anything but sandwhichs like the savages we are.

[CatsCatsCats]

Yeah! We call it aioli!

[bluemax]

This is the slippery slope to only Guy Fieri restaurants left in America.

If you come after Flavor Town you best not miss.