If you don't like spicy food, are you a racist?!

The article says to watch kids to see if they turn up their noses for any other culture's food other than their own: say Haggis, for example.

Why do people write stuff like this? Obviously, they are trying to be incendiary. Or maybe it's an editor who adds the headline after the writer is done. The writer has no control over it.

Well, I've had this battle in my own house. I like spicy food. I like all kinds of food, but my wife and children won't eat a lot of what I'll eat. In our case, I don't think it's a sign of racism. They like some Indian food, and some Chinese food; just not all of it.

What really kills me, though, and does seem kind of somethingist, is that they won't even consider eating grubs. Apparantly grubs are a wonderful delicacy for some natives of the Amazon rain forest. They turn over a rotting log, find the grubs, and heat them up over a fire. The grubs are full of fat, and the heat renders the fat, and it's delicious to them, kind of the way whale blubber is delicious to Eskimos. Maybe they should have used that example in the story?

The problem is that racism is a very difficult thing to tackle. And it could well be that refusal to eat certain foods comes from an attitude that the people who make this food are subhuman, rather than just a mere dislike of the taste of the food.

But I see these guidelines really as just that: guidelines that give people an idea of what to look for, and not a hard a fast rule about racism. Of course, if I know education, all the rules-minded dweebs teaching these kids will interpret it as a rule, and turn dislike of spice into racism, which it isn't, of course, on it's own.

Compounding the problem here is the nature of large bureacracies. Their goal is to standardize and equalize treatment of all children in the school system. This is impossible, of course, but they try. And in their efforts, they promulgate ill-conceived documents like this one, that can easily be made fun or, and also easily be interpreted as a rule, when it's really just an educational document, not meant to be taken as gospel (or so I hope).

With human behavior, we must be flexible in teaching and interpreting. Racism is a tricky thing. Avoidance of food could be a sign of racism, but only if a sufficient number of other behaviors are also present. I hope the English system allows folks to take into account everything, not just each little specific rule.

I read the article - this is crazy!!!!!! The National Children's Bureau has issued guidance to play leaders and nursery teachers to watch out for racist behaviors among kids in their care. It actually says "This could include a child of as young as three who says "yuk" in response to being served unfamiliar foreign food."

I'm no racist - at - all but there is no way I would eat dog or cat like they do in China, horse like they do in parts of Europe, snakes and bugs like in Afica, and when I lived in the Cayman Islands I refused to touch Cow Foot Stew. I say YUK!!!!!!

I wasn't aware that disliking any type of food made anybody a racist. I don't think there's any correlation between what types of food somebody likes or dislikes, and whether or not they're racist.

Myself. I go to the Le Cordon Bleu college, and have heard some crazy things, but never heard anybody call another person racist for disliking a certain food.

judgements about anything that doesn't concern themselves.

As to being racist, that is a word that is thrown around way too much, like abuse, to the point that it no longer means anything.

You are not racist if you have food likes or dislikes. It's food, not a race of people.

AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I can't STAND it anymore! Stick to your guns and eat what you want, when you want, and how much you want. Anyone who even THINKS that you're a racist because you don't like spicy food, is an idiot and should be avoided at all costs.

i would have thought that it would be called "spicest"
As long as crap like that makes the news and people watch, listen or buy the papers that it is in, stuff like that will continue.

Only if you are selective in your spicy food selection. If you eat Buffalo chicken wings but refrain from a vindaloo then I would consider you an evil bigot that deserves to be humiliated in public. Just sayin. lol

Nooooo! Britain! Save yourself! You're following us Americans down the path of politically correct idiocy! Turn back while you still can!

nope.some individuals out there either don't like spicy foods,have health problems that don't allow them to eat spicy foods or something along that line

It really is scary to watch the UK continue down the rathole of moral relativism and sensitivity police tactics.

Yes, you MUST eat coon and wop food by UK law.

Yes. you are such a racist. Shame on you. o_0

Noooo!!! LOL :)

I think this is nuts.

No doubt about it. For shame!

lmao i don't like spicy foods :/ that's just dumb

This agency gets 12 million pounds a year to study children, and this is the best they can come up with? That children who don't like spicy food MAY become racist, and that even as babies this is something we should be concerned with?

Well, that was money well spent wasn't it?

First of all, children, let alone babies, are not inherently racist. That's something they must be TAUGHT. Likewise, babies and children need to be taught about living in a multicultural society - including learning how to recognize and respect differences in cultures and food is a great place to start since we all have to eat.

Second, I don't know of many kids who like spicy food - even those from cultures that traditionally eat spicy food (like Korea, Thailand, India, etc.) Again, this is something that is developed. For crying out loud, your taste buds are much more sensitive when you're young, and become less sensitive when you get older. This is one reason doctors (real doctors - not the phony baloney ones this "study" used) believe that we start desiring spicier and stronger flavored foods as we get older. This also means as a kid, you aren't going to enjoy grandpa's 10 alarm chili no matter how non-racist you are!

Third, what evidence did they find to support such a ridiculous claim connecting a kid's preferred diet to racial preferences?