Nasty food for nasty thoughts

Here's another possible interpretation of the widespread reaction to Chinese food poisoning possiblities: maybe it embodies a serious element of racism and fear of foreigners.

"The association of Chinese with dubious edibles has insinuated itself into our cultural consciousness in small and seemingly trivial ways -- in schoolyard taunting, in sitcom gags about takeout food, in standup monologues about puppy chow mein." So writes Jeff Yang in yesterday's Washington Post: A Taste of Racism in the Chinese Food Scare (July 15, 2007).

In contrast, the New York Times had an editorial, Killing the Regulator, (July 16, 2007), about the subject that stated: "What China needs is an effective and transparent regulatory system and a clear understanding that its export boom will suffer if it continues to sell tainted food, toys and toothpaste. Until that happens — and there is no guarantee that it will — American regulators will have to do more to screen Chinese imports to protect American consumers." The article also noted that, because the Bush government has destroyed much of our regulatory infrastructure, perhaps large wholesale buyers (like WalMart) could police their own imports from China and wherever else was necessary.

Both points are important, but I find this paragraph of Jeff Yang's article thought provoking:

"As it is, Food and Drug Administration records show that China isn't even the leading source of contaminated imports to the United States. India and Mexico have exceeded China in "refused food shipments" over the past year, and the leader in rejected candy imports was a country with an otherwise antiseptic image: Denmark. Domestic food sources also aren't exempt from scandal: Remember the California spinach scare last year? And last month, another California-based company recalled more than 75,000 pounds of hamburger distributed in the western United States, the latest in a lengthy series of tainted-meat incidents -- all from American suppliers."

Addendum: A lot of the cartoons of the week chosen by the Sunday papers had some type of joke which I think also hints at the roots of anti-Chinese bias in American culture. The best one, by Jeff Danziger, had the caption: "At the Moon Garden Palace, You Can Now Get REAL Chinese Food (Just Like in China)" and showed the above-the-counter food choices: "1. Happy Shoebox, 2. Chicken Anti-Freeze, 3. Sweet-Sour Phonebook."