Juno News - Another business gets shut down in the name of social justice

00:00:00.000 Cultural appropriation was the topic du jour in, what, 2014 or 2015? I don't really like talking

00:00:11.240 about cultural appropriation because it's kind of a low-hanging fruit in a way, but alas, we're

00:00:16.500 still going around in circles on the topic because some are still convinced that, for instance, a

00:00:21.880 white person should not be permitted to cook and sell Asian-inspired food in the multicultural city 1.00

00:00:28.120 of Toronto. Last week, Toronto Star editor Evie Kuang took to Twitter to complain that a white-owned

00:00:35.440 eatery in Toronto was selling items like dumplings, noodles, and hot sauces. She took issue that Ripe

00:00:43.020 Nutrition owner Alexandra Baird was selling superfood dumplings, and she also had some complaints that

00:00:49.480 Baird was sexualizing the names of some of the ethnic sauces. Kuang wrote on Twitter,

00:00:55.140 I legit threw out my Chinese food lunches because white kids would make fun of it all day. 0.98

00:01:00.340 I bought into pizza day and dry-ass turkey burgers. So did many others. And now you taking our culture

00:01:06.640 and selling it, and people think it's legit? Damn. I swear with these social justice types who are all

00:01:12.600 into cultural appropriation, they always bring up being embarrassed about their ethnic food lunch as

00:01:17.400 a kid. They always bring it up. And I'm not denying their experience. It is valid. But it's become a

00:01:23.440 total trope and cliche. And I think being embarrassed or self-conscious as a kid or teenager about your

00:01:29.920 lunch at school is a universal experience that can be applied to anyone. I think it's either related to

00:01:36.120 an overall general self-consciousness of eating around other people and knowing that kids or teenagers

00:01:41.240 will make fun of you for anything. Or it's because the food you bring from home can show your socioeconomic

00:01:48.080 status. But ultimately, it was really only junk food that was considered cool. In any case, many of us,

00:01:55.800 maybe most of us, undergo that self-consciousness, and we get past it, and we move on. But people like

00:02:01.840 Evie Kuang, they experienced that self-consciousness years ago as a child or teen. But now they feel

00:02:08.020 vengeful. And so they have leveraged current cultural sensitivities to get this small business

00:02:14.820 to close down. And during the COVID-19 pandemic. And Kuang acknowledges this. She says she doesn't

00:02:22.360 want to knock a small business down, but she does it anyways. And to be fair, sexualizing the sauce names, 1.00

00:02:28.940 I don't find it appealing. But I think if the business owner was contacted privately about it and

00:02:34.400 heard some criticism, maybe she would have changed it. You know, why does this need to be a public

00:02:39.680 mobbing? We have to see this for what it really is. It's a woman, a grown adult woman, who can't get 1.00

00:02:47.080 past her memories of the mean kids from her school-aged years. And so she is in the present day

00:02:51.900 targeting a business. And maybe it's also notable that she's targeting a female-owned business. 1.00

00:02:57.040 So this is a female-on-female attack. With the idea maybe being that women more easily and more 0.85

00:03:04.080 readily cave to pressure. We can't really say for sure though. But the funny or sad part is, look at

00:03:10.460 the Instagram of the business that people are going after. She posted this. My page is pro-black,

00:03:18.040 pro-brown, pro-trans, etc., etc., pro-inclusivity, pro-ho. After being called out and undergoing this

00:03:25.380 mini-controversy, the owner of Ripe Nutrition apologized. You really hate to see it. She

00:03:31.820 removed all of the products from her website that were culturally insensitive. And she says

00:03:35.940 she's going to take cultural sensitivity training and that she's going to do better. But as you and

00:03:40.760 I know, apologies never get you anywhere with the social justice mobs. Ripe Nutrition, from what I 0.93

00:03:45.860 understand, they had their eatery. But they also had a pop-up shop broth bar that was going to be

00:03:52.060 housed within a clothing store called Permission. And amidst all this hoopla, Permission decided

00:03:59.080 that they are going to part ways with Ripe Nutrition and kick the broth bar out of their

00:04:03.820 space. They don't even give a tangible reason why. And I briefly looked through the Instagram

00:04:08.680 comments on Ripe Nutrition's page, but it was just so painful. There were people calling for the owner

00:04:14.600 of Ripe Nutrition to pay reparations for the hurt she's caused. The last thing I want to point out,

00:04:21.680 it's kind of a fledgling thought, but I find it interesting that people like Evie Kuang,

00:04:26.880 they cling to food as the be-all and end-all of culture. But culture is about institutions,

00:04:32.860 ways of life, values, family structure, parenting style, etiquette. But for the cultural appropriation

00:04:38.440 crowd, they really hone in on food. And their whole philosophy here in this case was that because kids

00:04:44.980 were mean to them in school for their ethnic food, no one else is allowed to start a business cooking

00:04:50.500 those foods ever. It's sad to see business owners fall for and give into this philosophy of

00:04:57.720 vindictiveness. I'm Lindsay Shepard with True North. If you like our coverage and commentary,

00:05:02.600 please consider supporting our work. Until next time.

00:05:08.440 Thank you.

Juno News - November 22, 2020

Another business gets shut down in the name of social justice

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