The students gathered around, shouting and yelling, making demands that needed to be met today, right now. The crowd grew larger, and the anger grew deeper. These students, at an elite college, came together to write a 14 page paper that clearly articulated their grievances, and how they could be met. Slowly, the national media picked up the story and it gained traction. Now, if you are asking yourself what horrible injustices these students, that pay tens of thousands of dollars a year for their tuition, were protesting against, you immediately might think of war, poverty, racial discrimination or worse. You know, the typical things that uni students of their early 20s come into awareness of due to the awakening that their higher education provides. But no, these students had something else in mind.
The NYPost wrote — “Students at Oberlin offended by lack of fried chicken!” It further explained the situation by writing — “Students at an ultra-liberal Ohio college are in an uproar over the fried chicken, sushi and Vietnamese sandwiches served in the school cafeterias, complaining the dishes are “insensitive” and “culturally inappropriate.” That’s right. Students are offended that their cafeteria food wasn’t up to their high expectations. The article continued-“Worse, the sushi rice was undercooked in a way that was, according to one student, “disrespectful” of her culture. Tomoyo Joshi, a junior from Japan, was highly offended by this flagrant violation of her rice. She said — “If people not from that heritage take food, modify it and serve it as ‘authentic,’ it is appropriative”. She added that — “…in Japan, sushi is regarded so highly that people sometimes take years of apprenticeship before learning how to appropriately serve it”.
Another student in the Oberlin Review complained that Vietnamese sandwiches were served with coleslaw instead of pickled vegetables, and on ciabatta bread, rather than the traditional French baguette. Of course, one pundit noted — “…the irony here is that one of the foods that created this uproar is a sandwich created by either the Vietnamese appropriating French bread to make a delicious fusion sandwich or the French appropriating delicious Vietnamese ingredients to make a delicious fusion sandwich. Basically, the cultures' cuisine's merged, something that wouldn't have happened if people were worried about offending eaters' sensibilities.”
Here is the kicker — while many are writing off the students demands as nonsense, some school officials are taking it serious as ABC news reported that — “Michele Gross, Director of Dining Services at Oberlin College, said — “In our efforts to provide a vibrant menu, we recently fell short in the execution of several dishes in a manner that was culturally insensitive. We are committed to making sure these missteps don't happen in the future. We have met with students to discuss their concerns and hope to continue this dialogue.”
While some are laughing “foodgate” off, maybe people should be taking it more seriously, because apparently this University, much like many others across the United States, is more focused on creating a Club Med type atmosphere, instead of doing what universities are supposed to be doing, ie; educating minds. Maybe this is why a recent poll revealed that, as the Guardian reported — “Almost one-third of Republican primary voters would support bombing the fictional kingdom of Agrabah.” You know, a made-up locale in the Walt Disney cartoon movie, Aladdin? Crazy right? To paraphrase John “Whacko-bird” McCain,- “Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Agrabah!” Not to be outdone, however, the Democrats upped the ante when it was revealed in a follow-up poll that- “44 percent of Democrats support taking in refugees from Agrabah.” Which is still the very same fictional city from the Disney movie “Aladdin.” And, as The Blaze reported — “When polling young Democrats, aged 18 to 34, the number that supported accepting the imaginary refugees rose to 66 percent.
Instead of focusing on having 5 star restaurant quality cafeteria food or blowing up cartoon kingdoms and then taking in the refugees, citizens of the United States of voting age should be paying attention to the fact that — “In 2007, about one out of every eight children in America was on food stamps. In 2015, that number is one out of every five. And more than half of all students in the public schools are poor enough to qualify for school lunch subsidies. Or that — “the number of homeless children in the U.S. has increased by 60 percent over the past six years”. In fact, according to UNICEF, when it comes to child poverty, “the United States ranks 36th out of the 41 “wealthy nations””.
Or voters could note that — “There are nearly 8 million working age Americans that are “officially unemployed” and almost 95 million working age Americans that are considered to be “not in the labor force”. When you add those two numbers together, you get a grand total of just slightly more than 102 million working age Americans that do not have a job. Maybe this is why, according to John Williams of shadowstats.com, “if the US government was actually using honest numbers, the unemployment rate in the United States would be 22.9 percent”.
A recent Gallup poll revealed that — “For each of the past six years, more businesses have closed in the United States than have opened”. Prior to 2008, this had never happened before in all of US history. If you can believe it, the 20 wealthiest people in this country now have more money than the poorest 152 million Americans combined. Maybe this is why — “a recent nationwide survey discovered that 48 percent of all U.S. adults under the age of 30 believe that “the American Dream is dead”.
So, what do you think dear listeners — “Are Universities in the US doing their job?”
