MEAWW.COM / NEWS / HUMAN INTEREST

Washington Post writer says Indian food has ONLY one spice in SHOCKING 'racist' claim

Padma Lakshmi slammed the writer who said Indian food is based on one spice and wrote 'what in the White nonsense is this?'

When Washington Post columnist Gene Weingarten wrote a column on the different kinds of food he doesn't like to eat, he was expecting some kind of backlash but not what he got. No sooner than he shared the column on Twitter, he was slammed for criticizing Indian food. Not just that, he also earned the tag of a racist. 

Even reality television star and 'Top Chef' judge Padma Lakshmi wrote criticizing his column and wrote, "What in the white nonsense is this?" adding, "Is this really the type of colonizer 'hot take' the @washingtonpost wants to publish in 2021- sardonically characterizing curry as "one spice" and that all of India's cuisine is based on it?"

RELATED ARTICLES

'Taste the Nation': Padma Lakshmi has come a long way since contentious marriage and divorce to Salman Rushdie

Who is Padma Lakshmi dating in 2021? 'Top Chef' judge's mystery man revealed

Weingarten took to Twitter to share his article titled, "Gene Weingarten: You can’t make me eat these foods." He wrote the tweet, "This will be my most hated column of all time, and believe me, I have been hated a LOT."

In no time, the criticism started coming in. "You are factually wrong about Indian food. To say Indian food uses only one spice is insane. Indian food uses far more spices than any other cuisine. Cumin, coriander, mustard seeds, fennel, cardamom, nutmeg, a variety of peppers, tamarind, and the list goes on and on," one user clarified for the benefit of the writer. Along similar lines, another added, ".@geneweingarten thinks Indian food is terrible because it is entirely based on one spice. Which is basically the opposite of the truth."

Soon, like Lakshmi pointed out, the issue became political. "This one spice nonsense is a straight up National Front propaganda point, is the WaPo literally platforming white nationalist discourse now?" Another user wrote, "I just unfollowed Gene. This will go down in history as a gross example of racism against Indian people that the Washington Post published." Another user wrote, "First Indian food isn't a monolith. The spice profiles and preparations vary from region to region. You established your palate is used to bland. You could have said that it's just too much flavor for you. But nah, you went straight for the racism. Yikes."

For those who fail to understand how and why the column is racist, this user's tweet sums it up. "Most South Asian kids growing up in America have heard racist comments about the smell and flavor of our food. To us, this just echoes those racist comments and isn't funny at all. You are just paraphrasing our bullies and that's why it is hurtful." Another wrote, "No one cares that you don't like it. It's the ignorance of saying it's "one spice" and assuming all Indian food is "curry" that rubbed people the wrong way. A diverse country filled with so many different kinds of food cannot be summarized by a colonizer's word like curry!"