When food is racist, chapter 22,871: Burger King accused of hate crime for people using chopsticks in a commercial

We either have fixed the racial problems in this world, or we have simply run out of ways to accuse others of racism and have to create new outrages out of thin…soup.

Remember, recently when HuffPo declared that black people eating healthy meant they would have to eat “white people food“?! Then it got worse when that same white people diet was found to be killing the environment. How about when someone was merely saying a particular stew looked like dishwater and was instantly branded as xenophobic?

The concept of food being inherently race-based will forever be a source of menu-bourne mirth. The latest comes from Burger King, via New Zealand. Over in the land of the Hobbits, BK Lounge is launching what it calls the “Tastes Of The World” menu. One of the items is a chicken sandwich seasoned with a Vietnamese sweet chili sauce.

In a commercial spot touting the new sandwich, they had customers attempting to eat them with comically large chopsticks. Oh wait, that is the burger chain made a distasteful racist representation based on hateful stereotypes.

So this is the new Burger King ad for a “Vietnamese” burger ok coolcoolcoolcoolcool CHOPSTICKS R HILARIOUS right omg etc ?????? pic.twitter.com/zVD8CN04Wc

— 마리아. Maria. (@mariahmocarey) April 4, 2019

Now, as this editor is not prone to offenses and microaggressions it is difficult to see exactly where the racism exists. But it is certainly there. Mariah even goes into details, which only cast more fog on the issue.

Part of this is reminiscent of the time Ben & Jerrys Ice Cream came under fire for a similar “offense”. They wanted to honor the NBA star Jeremy Lin with his own flavor. They concocted “Taste the Linsanity”, frozen yogurt with swirls of honey and pieces of fortune cookies. That was deemed to be racist because — well, I’m still not sure how. Fortune cookies are a largely American tradition. Lin is of Chinese descent but is an American from California. In other words, the exact same origin as the cookies, so where was the racism?!

But take Mariah’s word on this matter, this was an unacceptable commercial.

I'm so sick of racism. Of any kind. Of the kind that makes fun of different cultures, to the kind that shoots and murders those peacefully praying in their place of worship. Say no to every single manifestation of it. #GiveNothingToRacism.

— 마리아. Maria. (@mariahmocarey) April 7, 2019

Now hold on, did she just make the leap from this Burger King spot to the recent mass shooting at the mosque in New Zealand?! Yes, yes she did.

Her post had received enough social media attention to warrant an interview with HuffPo. It did not do much to clear up this matter.

Many were enraged by the company’s decision to make fun of chopsticks, an eating utensil used by ethnic groups across Asia for thousands of years. Asian communities across the world, including in the U.S. and New Zealand, use chopsticks for eating and cooking.

Right, we are fully aware of this. Chopsticks are a known entity, and have been around forever. So why is portraying people comedically using a prop of chopsticks considered hateful?

Mo, a classical pianist, said she was “fed up” with seeing Asians portrayed by powerful companies in a diminished way.

Um, except — they were not. None of the people appearing in the video she posted were Asian, therefore they were not “portrayed” in any fashion, diminished or otherwise. Now unless we have crossed a line where using an eating utensil in a comedic fashion is to be deemed racist by default, the hate crime seems nonexistent.

There are other ways to respond to this type of microaggression of course.

Dude, I can eat a burger with a normal pair of chopsticks any day. pic.twitter.com/vusSi0mqoZ

— Sidney Wong 黃吉贊 (@SidneyGJWong) April 4, 2019

here’s me thinking we should start an ‘eating burgers with chopsticks normally’ challenge

— Celine Kao 高若芸 ? (@celinesque) April 5, 2019

See how not leaping to a default state of outrage ends up appearing so much better? But most do not. Another news outlet reached out to Mo, with what it hoped was encouraging news.

This should make you feel a little better, just a little…https://t.co/EANxZtCqPZ

— AsianSocialNetwork (@AsianSocialNet) April 5, 2019

Seems a contradiction here. The appearance of cheering for the failure of these Western food outlets in Viet Nam should be judged as making fun of white cuisine, according to the lesson being applied. This would then sound like a racist tweet from this account.

After all, if we are going to apply ridiculous racial food standards then those should be applied equally.