Is French Cuisine a Gateway Food to White Dominance?

In recent years, there has been an explosion of academic work declaring everything from meritocracy to math to be racist or vehicles of white dominance. Offering statistical analysis to support such claims is itself problematic since statistics have also been declared racist. Now however Law professor Mathilde Cohen of the University of Connecticut has found an untapped area of white dominance.  In a talk at Sciences Po Paris and the University of Nanterre, Cohen explained how “French eating habits reinforced the ‘dominance’ of white people over ethnic minorities.”Presumably, the French themselves are allowed to continue to eat their own food without violating the Civil Rights Act. However, Cohen explained that the cuisine is used “to reinforce whiteness as a dominant racial identity.” The reason is the white people value it and thereby force minorities to “act white” by eating it:“The French meal is often presented as the national ritual to which every citizen can participate equally. But French food ways are shaped by white middle- and upper-class norms … and the boundaries of whiteness are policed through daily food encounters.”

The remarks are based on Cohen’s paper “The Whiteness of French Food Law, Race, and Eating Culture in France,” which explores the “neglected area” of “food studies, critical race theory, and critical Whiteness studies.” Cohen works “to identify and critique a form of French food Whiteness (blanchité alimentaire), that is, the use of food and eating practices to reify and reinforce Whiteness as the dominant racial identity.” It also allows you to go to France to present such theories like going to Medellín, Colombia to discuss the scourge of the drug trade.

As an Italian, I am happy to note that our cuisine is not viewed as a vehicle for white dominance.

However, I must confess that I am skeptical. Indeed, it would suggest that President Joe Biden and the First Lady were coopting Vice President Kamala Harris and the second gentleman by recently taking them to Le Diplomate. If the Bidens were “policing” the “boundaries of whiteness . . . through daily food encounters” there were cheaper ways to do it. Having eaten at the restaurant, it is a lot less expensive to do your policing with a baguette at Le Pain Quotidien.

It would also make Julia Child the Bull Connor of cooking.

Then again maybe people of all races just enjoy good cooking. The rest is . . .  well . . . just tripe.



45 thoughts on “Is French Cuisine a Gateway Food to White Dominance?”

  1. It is almost impossible to believe that these leftists aren’t aware how ridiculous they are. They pick a topic, any topic, and attach racism to it. Chaucer was racist because he used the term niggardly. Betsy Ross was racist because a former second-string quarterback knows absolutely nothing about history. Math is racist because it can be hard. Ivy league schools are racist because they don’t discriminate against Asians enough.

    Perhaps the most disgraceful thing that the Dem/Left has done is to cheapen the very concept of racism. People who aren’t racists are called racists by black racists. The end result is that we don’t care what they have to say about racism anymore. This is their legacy.

  2. Thou shalt not impune Julia Child or Mastering the Art of French Cooking, or, another favorite, The Way to Cook.

    I wish we had more French influence in our cuisine. Have you seen the MREs their soldiers eat, or their school lunches? There are actual chefs at their schools who cook with fresh, local ingredients.

    Let’s just state the obvious. This is stupid. The US is part of Western civilization. It was a British colony that thankfully did not hold too closely to British cuisine, or we’d still be drinking room temperature beer, steak and kidney pie, and bangers and mash. Great Britain has its culinary niche, but it’s just not as popular as Italian, Asian, French…really anything else.

    US regional cuisine is based upon the makeup of the inhabitants. You get Cuban media noche sandiches in FL, divine Cajun and Creole food in Louisiana. There’s seafood along the coasts. Lobster bakes in Maine. Great crab in Chesapeake. There are specific differences between Boston and Vermont baked beans. You’ll find elk and huckleberries on the menu in Montana. The Mexican food is frankly weird and I suspect ketchup-based in most states. Here in CA, if drive a ways either north or south, I can eat Cuban, Mexican, Argentinian, Chinese, authentic Chinese (squid ink and birds nest soup eek!), Japanese, Korean, steak houses, clam chowder, Mongolian, French (almost forgot), sushi, Persian, hookah bar, Tapas, Moroccan, Caribbean…If someone said they were making a pop up restaurant one night only that was a fusion between Asian donabe and Moroccan tandoori, for $100 a plate, it would have a line to get in.

    Does food have to segregated now, too? Certain people have to eat beans and rice, others haggis, and others Asian, but it can’t be Americanized Asian.

    Let people like what they like. Develop their palate or be picky eaters. Even our food choices are scrutinized for evil intent or systemic racism. There are even people who make a business selling dried insect powder or chocolate dipped grasshoppers.

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