Multiculturalism
Cochran, David Carroll
The River District was known as the place to go for dinner. Within a compact area of about six blocks were dozens of excellent restaurants of every variety. Most people would just park on...
...All the menus were extensive, but each offered the same predictable dishes from around the world...
...But then complaints began to be heard...
...Fearing the bad publicity, civic leaders put pressure on the restaurant owners' association behind the scenes...
...Two doors down was a newer Ethiopian restaurant, right next to an Italian one that had been an institution in the neighborhood for years...
...Each featured the same basic decor, vaguely "global" but with nothing that was identifiably part of any actual culture...
...Choices ranged from formal to casual, expensive to cheap, heavy to lighter fare...
...The most unique neighbors were probably the Chicagostyle steakhouse advertising the thickest cuts in the district and the Indian restaurant featuring strictly vegetarian dishes right next door...
...Some more vocal leaders called for demonstrations and boycotts if the restaurants didn't embrace change...
...they were just somehow lifeless and uninteresting...
...The Italian ones served only Italian food, the Chinese ones only Chinese food, and so on...
...No matter where they went, they felt comfortable with the inclusive approach, and deep down they felt good about themselves for supporting such a progressive restaurant...
...Petition drives were launched and open forums were scheduled...
...Almost all the restaurants were owned and operated by families that originally came from the region whose food they served...
...They were dismissed as "ethnocentric" and "unicultural," opponents of progress and inclusive multiculturalism...
...People said that the individual restaurants in the district were not inclusive enough...
...People complained that the menus didn't give them a range of choices: they featured only one culture instead of being truly diverse...
...The street that featured three small storefront establishments—Korean, Thai, and Vietnamese—drew those in the mood for Asian food...
...Even though the changes were popular, a few of the old-timers were alarmed...
...Even dishes with the same names prepared by cooks from the same recipes as before were not the same...
...They wanted their own cultural foods featured throughout the district, not just confined to one or two places...
...they were no longer intimidated by unfamiliar menus...
...More important, diners pointed out that most of the restaurants did not serve food that represented their (the diners') distinctive culture...
...In response, the owners' association hired a nationally known diversity expert to lead a series of sensitivity workshops for all employees in the district...
...The River District had been like this for many years, and most people just took it for granted...
...This was a particular problem for larger groups of diners...
...It was not that the barbecued ribs or the curried chicken or the tamales at each restaurant were bad...
...It was awkward going at first...
...DAVID CARROLL COCHRAN is the author of The Color of Freedom: Race and Contemporary Liberalism...
...But getting there meant passing two barbeque joints, one Texas-style, one North Carolina-style, the smell of which frequently drew people in no matter what they came for...
...Soon the restaurants had made real progress...
...People came down to check out the atmosphere...
...Different people wanted to eat different kinds of food, and no matter what restaurant the group ultimately decided on, someone would be excluded...
...Each featured dishes from around the world, and each was careful that the atmosphere inside the restaurant—the decor, music, uniforms, and so on—was multicultural as well...
...People liked to joke about how the neighborhood made for strange combinations: the Jewish delicatessen catty-corner from the Iranian place, the sushi bar down the street from the Cajun joint serving blackened seafood...
...When patrons passed the kitchen, they could hear the cooks yelling at each other in their native language...
...Dozens of national and regional cuisines were present, thrown together in no particular order, the distinctive music and aromas of each pouring out into the street...
...No matter where they happened to be eating, they knew what to expect...
...Eventually, the city council passed a resolution calling for "inclusive eating environments" in the River District...
...They began to integrate their menus and serve different ethnic foods...
...At several restaurants, waiters and waitresses often mispronounced or improperly described some of the newer items, leading to insulted patrons who said the restaurants still slighted "other" styles of food and were not truly inclusive— they still didn't "get it...
...The owners even rotated employees, so the staff at each restaurant would be as multicultural as the menu...
...And the real heart of the problem, the most significant change in the River District, according to the old-timers, was that the food simply wasn't as good...
...They were happy with the new style, and they respected the diversity represented by each restaurant, no matter which one it happened to be...
...102 n DISSENT / Spring 2001...
...Most people said that times had changed for the better, and the River District had changed with them...
...What began as letters to the editor in the local paper soon became a movement...
...The real attraction, however, was the ethnic variety...
...It was their food and they were proud to prepare it and share it...
...This made it difficult for them to feel welcome, to feel at home...
...The ingredients were identical, but something was missing...
...Most people would just park on the street and walk around, looking at the menus posted outside, until they found one that struck their fancy...
...Eventually, the old signs that identified each restaurant with a particular region or culture came down, and new ones went up reflecting the new integrated approach...
...DISSENT / Spring 2001 .101 NOTEBOOK Most of the restaurant owners saw the writing on the wall: the old ways of doing business would no longer work with consumers who demanded multicultural restaurants...
...These changes brought a sense of excitement to the River District...
...They pointed out that all the restaurants had become remarkably similar...
...Each restaurant had cut itself off from the particular cultural tradition that once defined and sustained it, and the food had lost something...
...When some claimed the River District had replaced the authentic diversity of particular cultures for a fake, homogenized diversity, people called them nostalgic and oldfashioned...
...But most people didn't notice, and complaints were few...
...They liked being able to get Italian or Chinese or Indian or Mexican food wherever they went...
...The fanciest French restaurant in town was around the corner from a Mexican café with an outdoor patio...
...each culture had been reduced to two or three stereotypical items—tacos for Mexico, lasagna for Italy, egg rolls for China, and so on...
...Parents were especially pleased, because their kids could always find something they liked...
...They all learned through role-playing how to respect the culinary customs of different traditions and how it felt when one's own customs were treated with insensitivity...
...Most of all, people liked the spirit of diversity and openness to all cultures in each of the restaurants...
...Those who noticed gave it different names—soul, spirit, kick, spark, life, confidence— but they all agreed that it was no longer there...
...Confused diners could always count on the waiter or waitress, usually a younger relation of the owners, to explain how a dish was prepared...
...Its more expensive and trendy rival across the street specialized in North Italian dishes and had the city's most extensive wine cellar...
Vol. 48 • April 2001 • No. 2
