“In defending his position, he wants to be above criticism” — logical fallacy. He doesn’t agree with the criticism. That is not the same as claiming to be above it, or, trying to silence it. The subtext to this thread is silencing: white people shouldn’t be writing or getting published if their subject matter has the…

You aren’t getting the self-deprecating theme in the poem. He isn’t satirizing a culture that is not his own.

But what if your intent is to satirize the presumption that the first rule of satire is that you must “be good” (whatever that means) at the target of the satire? In all seriousness, the edge between authenticity and absurdity is hard to see sometimes, in foodie culture especially. “I love this [insert unfamiliar…

Insisting that white people only write about “white cultures” while PoC have full license to comment on everything is a way of maintaining a prejudiced paradigm of ethnicity. Its maddening to grow up and be encouraged to embrace multiculturalism, do so, and then have that held against you because the standard has been…

Not quite. Trillin is a foodie. He might be mocking himself a bit, which, as a fellow foodie I completely understand. It might also be indirectly trolling the idea of “cultural appropriation” from the point of view of someone who has great respect and love for Chinese culture and doesn’t feel like apologizing for it…

Or, illiterate crybabies can’t read obvious self-deprecating satire when they see an opportunity to take a ignorant pot-shot at an old white guy. Makes you wonder who harbors more prejudice. And what’s the over/under of Jezebel approving this comment? I’m not optimistic.