Funny or racist? A piece of food on James Corden’s Late Show draws anger.



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“The next time we do this, we won’t involve or use any of these foods at all,” Corden said. “Our show is a show about joy, light and love. We don’t want to put on a show to upset anyone.

Mr Corden’s staff did not respond to requests for comment for this article.

“We’re in a sort of cultural moment where pieces like this exist with this growing acceptance of cultural foods,” said Alison Alkon, professor at the University of the Pacific. “We are a bit in this dialectic of ping-pong. “

The use of food to elicit a response of disgust, for entertainment, has a long history, said Merry White, professor of anthropology at Boston University. In the United States, the game show “Fear Factor” challenged competitors to eat foods containing ingredients such as fish eyes, cow bile and clotted blood paste. Reactistan, a YouTube reaction channel, made Pakistanis try foods that were strange to them, like American burgers, donuts, and candy like Ring Pops and Airheads.

Even Mr Corden, who is British, hosted a segment using foods from his homeland, such as haggis and a smoothie with fish, chips and mashed peas.

Lok Siu, associate professor in the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of California at Berkeley, said the practice disrespects people’s cultures. The choice of Asian foods has made Asian Americans more vulnerable or marginalized in an era of increasing violence against them.

The perception of Asians in the United States has historically been defined by food, Professor Siu said.

“You use food as a metaphor to describe this distance, the kind of weirdness between a group of people you don’t understand and their habits, the way they eat, the smell that comes with spices,” she said. declared. “There is something about the way we discuss food, the way we think about food in our acceptance or rejection of it, it is a rejection of a culture and the people in it. associated. “

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