Oberlin College students incensed over cultural appropriation, hegemony in cafeteria food

Oberlin College is having a food fight
(Image credit: Facebook/OberlinCollege)

Complaining about cafeteria food is a decades-old college tradition, dating back to a not-so-distant past when university dining halls served up bland and uninspiring fare three times a day. In this new wave of collegiate activism, some students at Ohio's Oberlin College have updated the critique of cafeteria cuisine to fit the moment, The New York Times has noticed.

A week ago, for example, members of the black student union protested outside the Afrikan Heritage House to criticize the cooking in the Lord/Saunders dining hall inside. Among the complaints: The dining hall should serve fried chicken every Sunday (when it does, it uses "only antibiotic-free chicken"), and not cook with so much cream. "Black American food doesn't have much cream in it," says a petition being passed around by black students, according to The Oberlin Review student newspaper.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The charge of cultural appropriation, or one culture poaching the cultural or artistic heritage of another, was leveled most directly by Japanese student Tomoyo Joshi, who was unimpressed with the sushi bar at Dascomb Dining Hall. "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," Joshi told The Oberlin Review. "So if people not from that heritage take food, modify it, and serve it as 'authentic,' it is appropriative." Campus Dining Services and Bon Appétit both said they will try to be more sensitive in the future.

"General Tso's chicken aside," The New York Times notes, "students on campus appear to be struggling with deeper racial and cultural rifts."

Explore More
Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.