My question is: when did we as an American society denigrate into nursing bruised egos and hurt feelings? Or, specifically: when did college campuses make a spontaneous transformation from institutions where students cared about higher education to places where spoiled, complacent numbskulls with a victim complex gripe, bitch and complain about every single little problem that floats its way into their little narcissistic bubbles? Newsflash, dear children: real life can be offensive. It seems we as a generation have forgotten the golden rule to dealing with things that rustle our jimmies: if you don't like something, don't do it/be around it/partake in it/etc. You'd think kids with a college education and a $30k a year tuition could grasp such an elementary concept.
But no. They're too preoccupied protesting about how the food served in the cafeteria is racist.
At least that's what's been going on at Oberlin College in Ohio. Student groups representing the different cultured populations of the student body are calling out Oberlin's dining department, and the catering service they use, of "a litany of offenses that range from cultural appropriation to cultural insensitivity."
Oh, look! Racism allegations are in the news. Please, show me something I haven't seen.
It goes even further: the African-American student union, ABUSUA, demanded that the dining hall start serving fried chicken once in a while, which apparently was unsuccessful. Many students wrote fiery editorial letters to the campus newspaper, demanding that the caterer, Bon Appétit Management Company, be fired and replaced with chefs who, in the words of one student, "have the respect and autonomy to cook the food they love."
Tomoyo Joshi, a Japanese exchange student, put forth the argument of food as cultural representation: "When you’re cooking a country’s dish for other people, including ones who have never tried the original dish before, you’re also representing the meaning of the dish as well as its culture. So if people not from that heritage take food, modify it and serve it as ‘authentic,’ it is appropriative."
Are...are you kidding me? Are you really serious with this crap? Cultural insensitivity? Because they maybe forgot to put orange sauce on the orange chicken? If they were really serious about such a rampant abuse of cultural appropriation, why have they not protested at franchised places like Panda Express, where, apparently, even Chinese people are split between revulsion and appreciation and where some people don't consider it authentic? Where are the passionate student unions with the picket signs then?
Yeah. I didn't think so.
At this point in time, I'm so used to seeing the news littered with things that people get pissed over that I'm practically waiting, watch in hand, to see when the next thing people get offended over settles in. What can we get pissed at next, folks? The air?
This dude put it best in one of his tweets I found quoted in the New York Times:
When you're defending the cultural authenticity of GENERAL TSO'S CHICKEN, you're a living Portlandia sketch.
— Fredrik deBoer (@freddiedeboer) December 19, 2015
Couldn't have put this better myself. You can't write this kind of insane, childish and downright stupid behavior for even the funniest of sitcoms.In fact, this is what all this should be: funny. Hilarious. Side-splitting. All the level-headed people in the country should be rolling around on the floor, laughing until the veins in their neck burst. But I can't say that I can expect something like that due to the continued rise of the evil influence of -- dare I say it -- political correctness, that chokes the ever-loving life out of this country.
This is America now, folks: where people who may not fully prepare the rice and pepper steak to a T are guilty of committing the same egregious crime of those shallow animals (I hope they've died out) who once burned, lynched and tortured other fellow human beings because their skin color was different. Yes, definitely: there is a total, irrevocable connection between the two charges.
Gimme an ever-loving break.
But hey, I'll vouch on behalf of one thing these Oberlin nimrods didn't see fit to do: at least they haven't demanded that a professor or the dean resign from their position, as our diminutive, low-brain-celled, elitist friends at Yale have proudly done. So I must give these fellas credit in that department. Bless yer hearts, yew really are try-in'.
Let me go broad for a second. I really used to take great pride in our generation. In some instances, I still do. I don't fully buy into the bitter notion that this is, as Sorkin avatar Will McAvoy puppets, the "worst period generation period ever period!" But in these types of instances, it's hard to disagree with The Social Network scribe's old-guard news anchor. This type of pissant grumbling by the old folks is not a new phenomenon, but c'mon, when you get down to the basics of the situation, you're crying in your soup over food! (No pun intended.) And this is why all the adults think this country's on the 3:10 to Hell when our generation takes charge. You social justice warriors ain't doing us any favors with our generational reputation. You've probably given Time more fodder for a sequel article to this one.
Have we already forgotten the lessons in the well-justified and well-deserved open letter that the good Dr. Everett Piper issued to the Oklahoma Wesleyan student body? This ain't a daycare, it's a higher learning institution. You're supposed to be challenged, not coddled. And you're supposed to deal with the situation, not throw a temper tantrum masked by sit-ins and picket signs. So why don't you recognize that fact and go make use of the astronomical tuition you (or, more likely, your parents) shelled out by actually studying what you're passionate about. Because frankly, kiddies: this food protest is a waste of air and a waste of precious time.
It actually mentally hurt to read the New York Times article from whence this story came. After I briefly caught a glimpse of the upcoming story on the news before the channel was (unfortunately) changed, I had to Google the article in order to suspend the disbelief I had found myself in. But it only further boiled the cauldron of pity, disbelief, semi-hatred and just plain ridicule I had for the students that concocted such a miserable, headline-grabbing shrill protest. I instantly wanted to take to a public platform and scathingly denounce these simple-minded, blubbering brats for spewing drivel under the guise of advancing social justice and cultural sensitivity. In their mind, they think they're doing something good for society, when all they're doing is blowing a rusty old horn for a recital they hardly practiced for.
Of course, I can still lambast them, and I probably will. But after researching and writing this, the strongest emotion I have left is sorrow and pity. Sorrow for a time when a person's moral convictions become so sensitive and so twisted that the mere sight of a harmless, slightly-inaccurate dish of culturally traditional food can throw them into such a misplaced righteous anger.
You're getting upset over food; something that you will eat and that your stomach will ultimately break down and digest until it flows through your bowels and comes out as a nice, brown, neatly-compacted log of excrement. Food is meant for nourishment, not a beauty contest. Get over yourselves and your self-righteous, self-serving indignation.
And that's all the words I have for this spat. Go ahead and feel free to start a discussion in the comments.
