So apparently two white women decided to start a hobby/part time business making burritos. The Portland news media wasn't having it. Two rags out there put them out of business with articles like this. I have no words for how ridiculous this is.

http://www.portlandmercury.com...-and-willamette-week

This Week in Appropriation: Kooks Burritos and Willamette Week
by Jagger Blaec • May 22, 2017 at 12:37 pm
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Portland has an appropriation problem.

This week in white nonsense, two white women—Kali Wilgus and Liz “LC” Connely—decided it would be cute to open a food truck after a fateful excursion to Mexico. There’s really nothing special about opening a Mexican restaurant—it’s probably something that happens everyday. But the owners of Kooks Burritos all but admitted in an interview with Willamette Week that they colonized this style of food when they decided to “pick the brains of every tortilla lady there in the worst broken Spanish ever.”

“...You can eat $5 lobster on the beach,” Connelly said, “which they give you with this bucket of tortillas.” The “they” she was referring to were probably the Mexican “abuelitas” these two women preyed upon in order to appropriate the secrets of their livelihood. Suitably impressed, these tourists began asking the locals questions about how these tortillas were made. “They told us basic ingredients,” Connelly said, adding “[but] they wouldn't tell us too much about technique.” Hmmm. Wonder why? This is where things go from quirky to predatory if you haven’t already guessed.


“…We were peeking into window of every kitchen, totally fascinated by how easy they made it look,” she said. So let’s recap the story thus far: These two white women went to Mexico, ate tacos, and then decided they would just take what the locals clearly didn't want to give them. If that wasn't bad enough, they decided to pack up all their stolen intellectual property and repackage it in one of the few places where such a business could plausibly work: Portland, Oregon.

While describing themselves on their Yelp biography (which has since been edited), Connelly claims to have “a mean tortilla flip” while Wilgus anointed herself as the “director of vibes” and “our little abuelita with recipes from the heart”—even though the recipes were stolen.

Week after week people of color in Portland bear witness to the hijacking of their cultures, and an identifiable pattern of appropriation has been created. Several of the most successful businesses in this town have been birthed as a result of curious white people going to a foreign country, or an international venture, and poaching as many trade secrets, customs, recipes as possible, and then coming back to Portland to claim it as their own and score a tidy profit. Now don’t get me wrong: cultural customs are meant to be shared. However, that’s not what happens in this city.

Because of Portland’s underlying racism, the people who rightly own these traditions and cultures that exist are already treated poorly. These appropriating businesses are erasing and exploiting their already marginalized identities for the purpose of profit and praise.


People of color are nothing more than an afterthought when the white perpetrators of this tradition continue to do this on a regular basis. While Portland is supposedly a progressive place, super liberal white people usually only have other super white liberal people to answer to—which means this cycle of cultural appropriation will never end until people of color call attention to it.

And call attention to it we did. As soon as Willamette Week, who has a history of publishing racially insensitive food commentary, published this story, people of color were outraged. Even some of those aforementioned super liberal white people. The comments on the article went up in flames, and pretty soon the story was even picked up by a national outlet.

Following the WW’s article, one commenter said: “Now that you all boldly and pretty fucking unapologetically stole the basis of these women's livelihoods, you can make their exact same product so other white ppl don't have to be inconvenienced of dealing with a pesky brown middle woman getting in their way. Great job.”

Another commenter explained what’s basically a sad truth underlying the Portland restaurant community: “If you knew anything of the restaurant industry (or Google) you'd know that this is true. ‘Ethnic’ chefs are expected to ‘cook from their ethnic backgrounds’ while White chefs can do what these two horrid women did: vacation somewhere and ‘get inspired’ and appropriate an entire culture's cuisine and claim it as their own.”


Immediately after the fury continued online, a different resource emerged and quickly went viral: a Google doc showing exactly how prevalent this epidemic is. The list titled “White-Owned Appropriative Restaurants in Portland” provides a who’s who of culinary white supremacy.

An introduction to the document begins by saying, “This is NOT about cooking at home or historical influences on cuisines; it's about profit, ownership, and wealth in a white supremacist culture.” And it ends by letting visitors know, “If you've come here in anger, please read at least a couple of these articles before continuing to the list on the next tab below.”

Despite this issue being dismissed by supporters of Kook’s Burritos—while our views were seen as just a bunch of angry minorities attacking innocent white women who only wanted to make tacos—the food cart closed as of late Friday. Willamette Week has not taken any responsibility or shown any accountability for their actions.

While the closing of Kooks Burritos is a victory, it’s a small one and unless we continue to call this out it will happen again. In the meantime, it helps to support the originators of various cultures. If you’re really dying to get a burrito, here’s a list of six Latin owned restaurants that also exist in Portland.

Stuff like this is why Trump won. They have gone crazy and I think most normal people are realizing it.


The cultural appropriation angle of grievance makes no sense to me. Ladies are bad for making burritos but are other races bad for using and doing things that started in other places?

Anytime I see shit like this I always look (pray?) to see that it is from the Onion


I worked for a while at a mental health institute as a counselor for children. The things I saw there are downright sane compared to this kind of bullshit thinking

Here's my take. Since it's Portland, Oregon, chances are those two white cultural apporpriators are liberals themselves and, now, they're getting a taste of their medicine. If they weren't before, then maybe this experience will make them turn conservative.

quote:

Originally posted by EmpireState:
Stuff like this is why Trump won. They have gone crazy and I think most normal people are realizing it.


The cultural appropriation angle of grievance makes no sense to me. Ladies are bad for making burritos but are other races bad for using and doing things that started in other places?

Exactly!

If I catch one Mexican dancing poorly, making a cheeseburger, or preparing biscuits and gravy, then I'm calling them out! We can't have them appropriating our culture!

I wonder if these stupid fucks have ever looked in an American style restaurants kitchen? They are constantly preparing steak and cheese, French fries, and pizza.

Food is not intellectual property. The diversity and blending of food is one thing that brings our country together. It's called a melting pot for a reason. Jesus H Christ (sorry having a Jewish family guess I can't say that).

Fuck you social justice warriors. I'm adding to the list of things they can't appropriate Fútbol Americano, they are only allowed to watch regular ol Fútbol.

Dang, and now I want a burrito. Guess I'll have to head out and find a local cultural appropriator.

So let I get this straight. According to this kooktard it is some sort of theft of intellectual property for a person of one ethnicity to take a recipe from another, and open a business.

Based on this logic I can now only eat in the following restaurants
- Mexican restaurants run by Mexicans
- Japanese restaurants run by Japanese
-- a damn problem here because most are owned by Koreans
- Chinese restaurants run by Chinese
- Italian restaurants run by Italians
- Greek restaurants run by Greeks
- TexMex restaurants run by Texans of Mexican heritage
- BBQ run by authentic southerners

Is that my understanding here boopsie?
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Wow, that's some kind of crazy.

There's no such thing as "cultural appropriation" except in some kooky people's heads.

And, yeah, the "intellectual property" bit was extra ridiculous.

Maybe I'll drop Jagger Blaec a note and share my thoughts. She has a honkey for a husband, too. What the fuck do they eat at home? Is he allowed to cook her some greens? Can she make him a burger? Do they both avoid Mexican? She earns her living writing in and speaking in English. Do they speak English where her family is from? Unless her people were here from the beginning her entire existence is "cultural appropriation".

SJWs are so absurd.

Cultural appropriation, also called western civilization.

Isn't this the result of hating the melting pot in favor of multiseperationism?

A couple of thoughts come to mind. First, racism is a one-way street, whites are always racist, whether they know it or not. Non whites are never racist, even when they go overboard.

Second, multiculturalism means to esteem all cultures except whites, which you demean.

Great. Where am I going to find a 1/8 Chinese, Japanese, Indian, American, Mexican, Greek, Italian, Cajun to cook my meals at home? And a black cowboy to do my BBQ w/ me on the weekends because I'm not certified.

I'm just gonna claim "cultural fluidity"

What happened to
"No borders no barriers?" Maybe they're "identifying"
Mexican.

I can't believe what I just read.

I am cooking the world's best fajitas for my family whose ancestors hail from Germany and the Nordlands and the UK this weekend. On my Big Green Egg that is an ancient Asian invention. The meat was sliced with Solingen blades and Spanish Albarino and Temperanillo wine and Belgian beer will be served. Two Irish Labradors will patrol for dropped food items. There will be American and Blue Line flags and the chef's BBQ gun will be Sig 220 in a holster made in Texas. There may even be some Chinese fireworks. And my fajita recipe was culturally appropriated from the border near Del Rio Tx. Come to think of it, almost everything we eat, say, or do was culturally appropriated from somewhere. The Kama Sutra comes to mind but that's a whole new train of thought.....

Sooooo.... when did it become appropriate to restrict peoples' activities based on their skin color/heritage?

This 'Jagger Blaec' person seems to have inherited George Wallace's ethics. Martin Luther King, Jr. would be so proud.

Idiot libtards. Nothing else needs saying about the level of self loathing from a liberal stronghold.

But what if those white ladies "identified" as latino and the taco truck was their "safe place"?

If I was them, thats what I would do. Then Id sue the fish wrap that ruined their business and make them buy me an "emotional support" Cadillac Escalade. White people can still drive those. Right?

Why is it the people screaming for, "Equality" seem to be the most prejudiced? Why is it the people screaming for, "Tolerance" seem to be the most intolerant? Why is it when something offends them they go out of their way to shut it down and silence it?

So two white women making tortillas and selling tacos. Who gives a shit? If they're good they'll be successful. If they suck they won't be. Either way, I'm sure that those with a last name ending in Z with the food trucks and the holes in the wall will be unaffected.

I'd love to see their take on one of my favorite dives here in Phoenix, Chino Bandido Takee-Outee. Yep, blend of Mexican and Asian cooking styles with a politically incorrect name and fantastic food. Talk about cultural hijacking...