Even your remark could be construed as racist- if you were a politician you'd be apologizing for this "For fresh vegetables, though, nothing beats the Koreans. And in Atlanta, black people eat a lot of fresh vegetables, like collard greens."
Thought about that when I typed it, but what the heck, it's true, I grew up in the South and I think I have the right to say that soul cooking is just Southern poor people cooking, and fresh greens is an essential part of it, along with fish, chicken, pork, corn, and sweet potatoes, which are popular with poor people all over the world. Many wonderful fresh vegetables came from Africa, including okra, yams, collard greens, that the Koreans love, too.
I never before realized how much fresh vegetables people from other countries eat until I started shopping at the local Korean markets. Han Au Reum and Super H, I think they're part of a national chain. The fresh vegetables are just phenomenal in freshness and value.
Around here there is much common ground between the races and the cultures. But we pride ourselves on this.
NPR has a weekly program about farming in America. A week or two ago there was an African immigrant guest talking about growing and selling African produce in places like New Jersey and Massachusetts. The people who came from Africa or lived in Africa recognize them and love them, for the others they have information sheets explaining what to do.
On the same show, a Korean woman who does the same thing only some place out west, and a Texan woman who rents her acreage out to Hmong immigrants, same thing.
We have much to learn from people from other nations, we have much to teach them as well. We are not all the same. That's not racism, that's humility. |
