Oberlin Students Push To Bar Serving Sushi As “Cultural Appropriation”

Formal_Seal_of_Oberlin_College,_Oberlin,_OH,_USA.svgWe have seen students rise in protest over what they believe is “cultural appropriation” in schools offering yoga or students wearing dreadlocks or serving Mexican food. Now students at Oberlin are fighting to stop the school from offering students sushi. Now, with the support of celebrities and alumni like actress Lena Dunham, the students have denounced the practice and want the school to stop students from eating sushi as “insensitive” to Asian students.  The sushi controversy arises at the same time that Oberlin has seen the protests from students demanding sweeping changes to the faculty and curriculum as part of the Black Lives Matter movement.  It is a sad statement of our times that common complaints about bad college food must now be stated in the language of racial or cultural victimization. It is not undercooked rice (a complaint by Oberlin students) but the appropriation of their culture or a “micro aggression” as it was labeled in 2015 at Oberlin by students.

The students insists that the sushi is not being properly prepared and, as one student Tomoyo Joshi objected, “if people not from that heritage take food, modify it and serve it as ‘authentic,’ it is appropriative.”

Does that mean that Asian people can serve bad sushi? College food is notoriously known to be lacking a certain quality and are rarely cited as places for fine cuisine. I have no problem with students objecting that the pizza, tacos, or sushi is really bad. What I resist is the notion that bad food is an act of racial or ethnic insensitivity or “cultural appropriation.” I am half Italian but I do not claim cultural appropriation or microaggression every time I encounter bad pizza or pasta (which is most of the time). As for my Irish side, it is hard to truly denounce bland Irish food as non-authentic. No microaggression. No colonial effort of cultural appropriation.

In the end, there is such a thing as just bad food.

53 thoughts on “Oberlin Students Push To Bar Serving Sushi As “Cultural Appropriation””

  1. Autumn,

    Here’s more of what real oppression looks like: “They also show the department watching over gatherings that seem benign and even mundane. For example, DHS circulated information on a nationwide series of silent vigils and a DHS-funded agency planned to monitor a funk music parade and a walk to end breast cancer in the nation’s capital.” (the Intercept)

    Of course I can’t rule out DHS agents attending the meeting to discuss sushi with the food service provider. They probably all got sick and gave up infiltration immediately!!! 🙂

    Naval gazing causes political quietude!

    Thanks for the kind words.

  2. Liberal chickens coming home to roost. Not General Tso chickens, but regular old American chickens. I wouldn’t want to misappropriate the Chinese culture. Just more absurdity.

    Squeeky Fromm
    Girl Reporter

  3. I’ll quit appropriating culture when they stop using computers and books, cars and airplanes, radio and Internet.

  4. So? No white or Asian students to be allowed into the new-ish Black Literature or “Black Studies” classes? No black students to be allowed to register for Shakespeare? How far is this “appropriation” foolishness going to go?

  5. @Jill,

    Excellent points! It is mostly certainly a class issue when some people have the luxury of debating whether or not a particular type of cuisine is authentic when there are so many hungry people in this country (not to mention in those nations from where we have allegedly “culturally appropriated” their foods.

    Very disturbing indication of moral decay IMO.

  6. ( sigh) It is what is to be expected from Oberlin students these days. Always know as a very liberal ( good) college, it has morphed into a joke over the past year. I would really like to know how this has affected their alumni donations.

    So, no sushi, more tuna noodle casseroles, other ” mystery” meat casseroles for Oberlin!

  7. All well deserved ridicule aside, this is a serious problem. There is a reason that “microaggressions” and appropriated food stuffs are looming large on the campuses of the privileged. That reason is class. There are community colleges with food pantries, pantries which are empty well before the end of every month.

    You have to come from enormous privilege to believe that these types of things are issues are evidence of oppression. Here is what real oppression looks like: “Many, many Baton Rouge officers have threatened non-violent protestors by pointing their weapons directly at them. A Huffington Post journalist reported an officer pointed a machine gun at him. Police are caught on camera pointing their guns at non-violent protestors, in videos and in newspapers pointing guns at protestors. Numerous other reports of police pointing weapons at protestors have been observed by legal observers of the Louisiana Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. (Black Agenda Report)

    Oberlin is quite close to Cleveland. Are these people willing to risk their butts by protesting the Republican convention? Will they go to Philadelphia to protest the Democrats? Will they risk actions like those written about above by driving on a few hours to protest in Detroit with BLM? I doubt it. It’s very scary dealing with actual aggression by state actors along with a very real chance of getting hurt, beaten and abused.

    Many (of course not all) people of privilege do not show much concern for the welfare of others. I believe their narcissism and cowardice towards real problems has been fostered so as to keep them from joining with others to solve desperate situations many others experience. Instead, they are groomed to join the ruling elite where they are welcomed and feel only too at home.

  8. I agree with Darren and Justice Holmes.

    It’s really pathetic that these priveleged students are spending so much time on this “cultural appropriation” nonsense. There is a plethora of relevant issues they could be addressing.

    I read an article in The Atlantic a few months ago about this and the comments were priceless – I kept having to wipe the tears away from eyes as I was laughing so hard.

    Anyone who has traveled understands that all foods are altered to meet the tastes of the domestic population so the restaurant can stay in business. I remember when I first moved to the US and had spaghetti back in the mid-80s – nothing at all like the pasta I knew from Italy or even Germany.

    Much ado about nothing.

  9. One possible solution would be to serve the complainers all-natural and authentic fugu, while the outsiders and appropriators eat fish encircled in rice, but not called sushi. Over time, natural selection will eliminate the complainers.

  10. As Darren suggested, ignore the fools.
    This is a symptom of the snowflake generation, to be immediately given a bogus amount of attention because of the platform that the inter tubes provides.
    I can see where this is going.
    These weasels are going to suggest that math is a cultural appropriation of Egyptian culture and should be banned from college curriculums.
    What’s next, using money is an appropriation of Chinese culture?
    Flakes, ignore them, they just want instant attention.

  11. Justice, I guess the point is that Oberlin is wrong to serve sushi. It would seem to me the little brats should never be forbidden anything they so desire to eat. Umless, of course it wasn’t killed humanely, or killed at all, or processed, or whatever.
    How about, nod to my childhood, the Oberlin Picayune Intelligencers. They will totally miss the point, which is the idea.

  12. Justice Holmes – their is a certification for sushi chefs, so I suppose they could demand no sushi until the chef was certified. However, I lived on Jello when I was in college. It was the only food they could not ruin.

  13. So let me get this straight non -Asian humans shouldn’t east sushi because it’s insensitive to Asians. Isn’t sushi a Japanese food? Why would all Asians be offended? Wouldn’t it just be Japanese students?

    How do Japanese sushi restaurant owners about this? Will they be refusing to serve non Japanese patrons? Will they also be closing down and going bankrupt?


    1. Mental Midget – Oberlin College is a private college in Oberlin, OH. They are the Oberlin Yeomen or Yeowoman. I am sure those are both trigger words they have not gotten around to, so they will soon change. Maybe we can suggest a new mascot for Oberlin?

  14. The best way to combat this type of idiocy is to just ignore these fools.

    If they expect Omakase they can pay $150.00 for it. I’ll instead have everyday sushi for $2.00-$3.00 a plate.

  15. If the Oberlin star descends so rapidly that few people want to apply there, that will be just desserts. Let Oberlin be an apostrophe in the history of tertiary education, a mosquito on the back of an elephant, a mere footnote a few hundred years from now. Let Oberlin rapidly fade into obscurity.

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