When faced with the enormity of the blogosphere, it is human nature to project and fill in cracks; to assume that each blogger is kind, thoughtful, and open to trying new things.
Even with my jaded eye, this week I had an online experience that taught me that the food blogosphere is NOT a homogenous place; all singing kumbaya.
This experience also taught me something about myself and my assumptions.
What the heck am I talking about?
(I do not bring this up to trash a particular blogger so I will speak in non-specifics in terms of the blogger’s identity)
I visited a blog of a food blogger of some fame this week. It told of an experience this blogger just had regarding her being mugged. I have had a similar experience and can tell you it is infuriating and frustrating and can make you feel VERY vulnerable and emotional and falliable.
This blogger wrote about the details. She went further than a simple description of the event and made some race-based statements that were 1) not necessary for the reader to grasp her experience, 2) served to make me feel deeply marginalized (it was my race she was objectifying), 3) made me wonder why I should care what she writes and why that writing should bother me, 4) what obligation she has to any reader that reads her openly public blog, 5) what obligation she might have to the wider food community to moderate her character in the written word, and 6) whether this whole concept of the Food Blog Community is not just an extended illusion many of us care to share.
Lots of meta-issues. Lots to think about.
In my experience with racism, all my life, there is little one can do one-on-one with the racist because they are fully identified with that process; seeing the world in terms of race.
I don’t ask what that person can do to apologize for their world view. I do ask how I find myself vulnerable to it, again and again.
” by David Joachim and Andrew Schloss right now and I have to say I am LOVING this book. Will post review soon!
8 comments for this entry ↓
1 Kalyn // Jun 9, 2006 at 12:30 pm
I didn’t see the post you’re referring to, but I always think it’s sad when people don’t recognize how their words affect others. Racism is something that people seem to be especially unaware of in themselves. Your post should provide some food for thought for everyone who wants to be inclusive in their writing. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
2 nika // Jun 9, 2006 at 12:49 pm
Kalyn: you are such a sweetheart and you put it so well.. inclusivity.
Its definitely something all of us have to practice!
This hits on an unexplored aspect of writing for a blog .. you learn lessons about one’s audience, most often directly! I value that.
Nika
3 bridget // Jun 10, 2006 at 1:59 am
It’s a lesson for all.
4 Pamela // Jun 10, 2006 at 7:09 am
I agree
5 Susan in Italy // Jun 11, 2006 at 1:51 pm
Dear Nika, I did read the blog you refer to and I can see why someone would take the comments to be racist. Indeed on the surface, they are nothing but. I also think that the fact I do not belong to any of the races mentioned in the post lends me a distance from this whereas you have said that it hit you directly. However, I have read this particular blogger’s previous work, a 1-year blog and a book and I have to say that I find a lot of self-depricating humor in those two works. I have seen a number of cases where the writer has recounted “dumbass” things she and others have said to show how silly they can be sometimes. I took the post as the author’s crack at herself and her husband. To me, it’s all about context and I have interpreted this blogger’s work as non-racist among many other things.
Also, conflict is part of community too.
6 nika // Jun 11, 2006 at 2:14 pm
Susan, Thanks for the visit and comments.
I did try to keep the blogger in question abstract because this was more about my experience with it versus her personally. I have read her “mea culpa” and your comments and agree that the blog post in question doesnt indicate that we are dealing with a KKK member here :-).
My point was larger and I would not say that my questions have been or will necessarily be resolved. Thats ok too, didnt expect resolution!
Personally, I feel that the food community can and does have it’s conflicts. But those, to be relevant to the food community, fall within a certain set of topics.
For example, foie gras, local foods, organic foods, sustainable foods, gluttony versus appreciation, celebrity chefs, and so many other things that make up the “foodie” universe. Honestly, beyond the appreciation of “ethnic” cuisines and workplace issues (like spraying migrant workers with pesticides in grape fields), race is not really part of the “foodie” universe as a conflict-vector.
Perhaps it is, then I have misunderstood. To me, it is not. It is not what defines my food photography desires. It is not what spurs my desire to learn more about pastry or sausage making or mushrooms or myriad other topics.
I am lucky because I am not of just one race either. Nothing in my life or bloodlines is pure. I do not strive for racial purity nor perfection. That is not what drives me.
My diverse background makes me look for an inclusive worldview because otherwise I would be dishonest with myself. (I will be tedious and say what that is: Mom’s side = british, irish, low land scots, cherokee, shawnee; dad’s side = spanish, moorish, chibcha (extinct tribe native to the Andean highlands around my ancestral home near Chinchina, Colombia))
Its also much more interesting.
Like I said, many open questions. One of the more persistent for me, honestly, is the whole dynamic between blog author and blog reader. Does the author, writing in a public setting (especially in a high profile blog) have any accountability for the effect that their blog has on readers?
Then, for my own solipsistic processing, what truly is my “role” in the relationship.
I own my own blog. I have pride of ownership in what I put up but I do not have legal responsibilities beyond copyright issues and I suppose slander/lbel issues. My personal ethics push me to not be racist in my writings (it just would not be something I would write honestly, this is not a blog on race). Beyond that, as an author, I TRY to keep to the topic at hand!
Like I said in the original post, I do not write here for apologies. I would not presume to have that authority over any adult.
I trust kharma to work things out.
7 Susan in Italy // Jun 11, 2006 at 5:10 pm
Hi Nika, Thanks for the response. I have been feeling lately that the food blogging community (the part of it that I’ve surrounded myself with at least) has gotten less interesting. Certainly less interesting than the issue the “famous blogger” brought up, and many of us continued. My food blogging experiences have brought me some new cooking insights but mainly a lot of empty compliments. The standard comment I get and give being, “Mmmm… delicious!” It seems fake. Thanks for helping make today’s blog experience more real.
8 nika // Jun 12, 2006 at 9:22 am
Susan, I am glad to have met you for the same reason. I think its really hard for alot of people to keep track of their comments so it never feels like a conversation. I always hope (tho am not upset if it is not the case) that people will come back after their initial comments to see my response. I am glad you did, otherwise we would not have had this conversation!
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