Culinary Envy

Western civilization is superior? Western civilization isn't superior? Superior in what? Literature? No, let's try something easier. How about eating utensils?

Okay, so most African cultures simply use their hands. Comfortable? Yes. Hygienic? Well.... And they're not particularly good for slicing things either. From Asia, we get chopsticks. Certainly, they seem to do the job. But let's say that you were an alien, and on your first day on Earth someone came up to you, gave you two sticks to put in one hand and told you to eat rice. It requires some skill. It's also a bit counterintuitive. And the drawbacks become even more obvious when we compare chopsticks to our old friend, the fork. To begin with, all food eaten with chopsticks must be sliced into small pieces. That requires a knife. Now, those of us who use Western utensils also need a knife for some foods. But others, such as baked potatoes, can be divided into pieces with a fork. Chopsticks just can't do that. A fork is a more versatile instrument. Its spokes, its concave interior, and its side are all useful in manipulating objects on one's plate. Finally, there is the matter of Occum's razor: two chopsticks are required to do the work of one fork. We may logically conclude that, as far as eating utensils are concerned, Western civilization is clearly superior.

What do we learn from this seemingly frivolous exercise? Not much--until we consider that many Asians living within the confines of the West continue to use their strange, outdated instruments. Why? Custom. Habit. But that doesn't explain it entirely. Why do people take pleasure in maintaining their old customs in new environments where those customs are no longer necessary or even even appropriate?

Well, like first-year TAs, many members of minority groups have inferiority complexes. But unlike first-year TAs, who deal with their problems by downgrading student work, minorities compensate for their difficulties by invoking their cultural peculiarities. If you don't feel a bond to the dominant culture, revel in the institutions of your particular culture. If you can't be good, be different. If you're losing the game, change the rules. Pretend that you're outside the dominant dynamic. Appear unique, exotic. Use your hands.

The phenomenon isn't unique to minorities. Let's say that you come to Yale with a knowledge of Western culture or literature that doesn't measure up to that of your peers. You feel outclassed. Solution #1: select a group IV major and go through Yale without ever reading anything other than a textbook or employing a single communication skill. Solution #2: take a lot of classes about alternative or non-Western culture, so that when someone starts rambling about Shakespeare, you can point out their ignorance of lesbian poetry from Peru. Do you smell the reek of sarcasm emanating from my every syllable?

The whole thing is very basic really. Everyone needs to feel a sense of self-worth, and however much we may enjoy pretending otherwise, self-worth comes from a sense of accomplishment. You may be good at writing, math, football, fornication...it doesn't matter. Unfortunately, many people aren't particularly good at anything, or at least, they don't feel like they are in an environment like this. So, as a last resort, they fall back upon culture, the great given, the thing everyone has. It can be ethnicity, race, religion, sexual preference, geographic origin or any of a numberless variety of things with which people may identify. It gives them a superficial sense of self-respect.

Once they have chosen their transitional object, their ideological teddy bear, the next step is to use it as a bastion of particularity from which to strike out at the dominant system that has made them feel inferior. Accuse the big guy of reductionism, racism, sexism, elitism, lookism, fascism, repressed homo-eroticism, and irremediable narrow-mindedness. Then call the new synthesis born out of resentment a gorgeous mosaic. Call it a salad bowl. And excuse me if I see it as a monumental bowl of sour grapes.