Food & Race

I was just listening to an NPR interview with Sherman Alexie about his new book. He described the protagonist as an "apple," red (Native American) on the outside and white on the inside. It made me recall a dinner party conversation from a year ago during which dinner guests traded all the names they had been called by fellow countrymen who accused them of "selling out." I was surprised, not that the concept existed among different countries and cultures, but that each expression was food related and that none of us at the table knew euphemisms other than our "own," which included oreo, banana, coconut, and chicken mcnugget.