What If Johnny Doesn't Want to Eat Bugs?

Then he might be suspected of latent racism? Surely, surely, this is a parody. Please.

Comments

[Bill R]

I'd like to think so, but... I don't like escargot. Does that make me a Francophobe?

[twosquaremeals]

Wow! So that makes my elder son racist against Middle Eastern peoples since he turns up his nose at hummus. And my younger son obviously can't stand Italians, since he refuses to touch pasta sauce or pizza. That seems to me like it will be one tough rule to enforce. Don't all toddlers say "yuk" to even the most local of foods on a pretty regular basis?

[YaknYeti]

My niece must hate nearly everyone...

[Wolf Paul]

While I think that calling these things "racist incidents" is ill advised, the Telegraph headline (and some of the reactions here) are over the top.

When we brought up our children we insisted firmly that it was o.k. to say, "I don't like this" (indicating a preference), but not "Yuk!" (indicating a value judgment, and by extension not only on the food in question but on those who liked it). And the article does not talk about bugs or snails, but about spicy foods.

Again, while I would not call this sort of thing a "racist incident" it does express the beginnings of an attitude very common today, "I and my preferences are the standard of sanity, good taste, beauty, morality, etc", and combatting this is not a bad thing.

Of course the UK educational establishment (like those in other countries, including the US or my own Austria) at other times have promoted this very self-centered attitude, so I am not interested in defending them without qualification, but let's criticize them where they are actually wrong, and not where a newspaper headline makes a mountain out of a mole hill.

[Kamilla]

I'm surprised someone hasn't twigged to the lingering racist colonial attitudes in the opposite direction - the British penchant for a take away curry on Friday evening.

Kamilla

[Stuart Koehl]

>>>I'm surprised someone hasn't twigged to the lingering racist colonial attitudes in the opposite direction - the British penchant for a take away curry on Friday evening.<<<

What does that say about Jews and Chinese food?

[Judy K. Warner]

>>>it does express the beginnings of an attitude very common today, "I and my preferences are the standard of sanity, good taste, beauty, morality, etc", and combatting this is not a bad thing.<<<

Europeans and Brits have so internalized this attitude that many are unable to express value judgments on such things as polygamy, honor killings and female genital mutilation. In some cases our "preferences" *are* the standard of sanity etc.

[GL]

>>>Europeans and Brits have so internalized this attitude that many are unable to express value judgments on such things as polygamy, honor killings and female genital mutilation. In some cases our "preferences" *are* the standard of sanity etc.<<<

And in some cases, we could learn better standards from others -- or rather relearn them.

[Judy K. Warner]

No argument there, Greg. Only it gets harder and harder to find those others.

[GL]

>>>No argument there, Greg. Only it gets harder and harder to find those others.<<<

Sadly, I must agree.

[Jd]

Non-discrimination, when it is comprehensively applied, destroys any notion of the inherent nature and specific structure or order of a thing in particular such as a business, organization, community, church, etc. Catholic adoption agencies that are unwilling to adopt out to homosexual couples must close their doors because they are labeled discriminatory. The rules of non-discrimination say that society must tear down the thousands-year-old structure of marriage itself in order to accommodate homosexuals, denying the meaning of marriage as we’ve forever known it to be; the sacred union of a man and a woman upon whose union our society is built to become nothing but a legal contract between the participants. Now, toddlers that don't like spicy food are considered racist, not just fussy eaters.

With its desire for equality, non-discrimination is tearing down the nature and structure of our society and its institutions right-before-our-eyes. It is the most efficient method of systematic destruction ever witnessed by mankind. We are fast becoming a set of individuals with our collective wills and desires, and in the process, we are destroying everything we’ve built up for our society including its history and institutions and the moral foundations upon which they were built.

[Joe Long]

"When we brought up our children we insisted firmly that it was o.k. to say, 'I don't like this' (indicating a preference), but not 'Yuk!' (indicating a value judgment, and by extension not only on the food in question but on those who liked it). And the article does not talk about bugs or snails, but about spicy foods."

I doubt that distinction is relevant; it only matters if these children, like yours, HAVE been taught not to say "Yuk!" in other circumstances - and thus deliberately say "Yuk!" as "hate speech". If they disliked a "normal" British food, would they have said "Ever so sorry, Mum, but I fear this kidney pie simply does not appeal to me?" Or is "yuk" the ordinary response? If Theodore Dalrymple's impressions of contemporary British society are accurate - indeed, if Brit kids are like the general run of American kids today - then that fine distinction of courtesy would surely be lost on them.

[DBP+]

"Yuk! indicat[es] a value judgment, and by extension not only on the food in question but on those who liked it"

Perhaps we might also instruct our children that not all expressions of value judgment need result in personal offense or "diminishment of the other." It seems to me that it is also not a bad thing for one to be able to say "So what?" or "Sez you."

I'd likewise argue that thicker skin and a little resiliency (not to mention the virtue of charity) would go much further in improving such cultural relations than reporting preschoolers to authorities for food they dislike or negatively judge.

Besides, some things deserve a "yuck."

[Nick]

"Yuk! indicat[es] a value judgment, and by extension not only on the food in question but on those who liked it"

You can't have value judgments of food? Really? And, if I don't like a food I must devalue those that make it? My Mom's in for some hard times then. I never learned to like steak until I moved out of the house. I didn't realize it was chewable.

That and Dad's attempts at Indian food... <*shudder*>

[Stuart Koehl]

What if you gag at the thought of lime jello marshmallow cottage cheese surprise? Does this mean you are anti-Lutheran?

If you don't like fish sticks, does that make you anti-Catholic?

Is there any penalty for being anti-Lutheran or anti-Catholic?

[Bill R]

"Is there any penalty for being anti-Lutheran or anti-Catholic?"

Um, Eastern Orthodoxy? ;-)

[Stuart Koehl]

>>>Um, Eastern Orthodoxy? ;-)<<<

I can't believe that there are people who don't like pieroghi, kielbasi, dolmates, kibbe and the like. And then there are the hats. . .

[Michael]

>>What if you gag at the thought of lime jello marshmallow cottage cheese surprise? Does this mean you are anti-Lutheran?<<

I hope not, or I'm due for excommunication soon.

[Kamilla]

"What if you gag at the thought of lime jello marshmallow cottage cheese surprise? Does this mean you are anti-Lutheran?"

I thought that was anti-Mormonism. Anti-Looteranism would be lime jello with walnust and pineapple, right?

Kamilla

[GL]

>>>And then there are the hats. . .<<<

Let's not forget that George Costanza only used that as his reason for converting to E.O. when meeting with the E.O. priest. His real reason was to impress a girl who was E.O.

[Bill R]

"His real reason was to impress a girl who was E.O."

It's a guy thing.

[Bob]

I'd suggest that's a good step above trying to impress a girl who's emo.

[Stuart Koehl]

>>>His real reason was to impress a girl who was E.O.<<<

The hats certainly impress my girls.

[labrialumn]

But Stuart, salad is supposed to be good for you! ;-)

Eat your salad, or you can't have any hot dish!

[Christopher Hathaway]

The dimwits who thought up this idiocy need to be hunted down, quarantined from all civilized society, and sterilized to prevent them breeding. Stupidity like this is more serious that Rabies or the Plague. Unless we isolate it and prevent further cerebral infection in the populace we are doomed.

If this continues more extreme measures will be called for.