Thursday, October 13, 2016

The perilous whiteness of … pumpkins?

The perilous whiteness of … pumpkins? - The Globe and Mail:
"Hey, you!
You, with the Starbucks pumpkin-spiced latte in your hand.
That ridiculous concoction – with its fluffiness, lack of substance, and triviality – is the ultimate expression of white privilege. 
So shame on you.
I learned about the true meaning of the pumpkin-spiced latte in a scholarly paper, called The Perilous Whiteness of Pumpkins. 
It was peer-reviewed and published in a genuine academic journal. 
Lisa Jordan Powell, its lead author, is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of British Columbia. “Starbucks PSLs are products of coffee shop culture, with its gendered and racial codes,” it warns.
They make up just one part of the “pumpkin entertainment complex, whose multiple manifestations continue the entanglements of pumpkins, social capital, race, and place.”
Ms. Powell (who did not respond to an offer to comment on her paper) is merely one of countless academics toiling in the fertile field of race and gender studies.
I don’t mean to pick on her in particular.
Like everybody else, she must publish or perish.
They churn out this stuff like Halloween candy. 
We pay for it..."

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