To the editor: Culinary imitation or racism?

2/12/2018

The concept of “culinary exploitation” and and its characterization as “systematic racism,” as reported in Mary Bilyeu’s Feb. 6 column, “Credit where credit is due,” is plainly ludicrous.

Southerners, both black and white, have been eating many of the same dishes handed down from one generation to the next since the settlement of America. It is doubtful that the ordinary citizen gives much thought as to the origin of a particular recipe.

Would these “foodie” intellectuals have us now identify the origin of every dish in cookbooks and on menus? Can we look forward to restaurant menus telling us not only the content of a dish and calorie count, but now its specific ethnic origin? Black Southerners should be proud of their culinary heritage and desire recognition for their innovations, but white restaurateurs promoting dishes of African origin as “southern” cooking does not constitute conscious or deliberate racism or appropriation.

After all, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

JOHN M. STEWART
Maumee

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Elon Musk, focus on earth

I agree with millions of others that the excessive, uncontrolled buildup of greenhouse gases could destroy the earth’s ecosystem and affect every living species on it.

If Elon Musk were to put as much money into cleaning up the earth’s biosphere as he puts into putting his car into outer space then he would not have to invest billions of dollars into his planned colonization on Mars. That plan would only be necessary in the event of a catastrophic collapse of the Earth’s ecosystem.

The earth has always adapted and survived, but unless its ecosphere is cleaned up to its pre-industrial conditions, it is unlikely that humanity will endure.

DAVID L. FLINT
Lewis Avenue

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