Let's Eat Some Grits and a Hyphen or Two

Hey everyone! What is going on? This week is coming to an end but where one thing ends another begins. I’m talking about the weekend of course! Whoop whoop! Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves though. Friday is still a busy day for many of us. We have to make sure we’re caught up on all of our work before we let loose and throw the top back.

Today I’m coming to you with two different culture specific writings. The first is “Reclaiming True Grits” by Bryant Terry and to be completely honest I was really put off by how strong he came on. He talks about how fed up he is about soul food being held responsible for African Americans being obese, diabetic, as well as having heart disease. Now before reading the article I was really interested in what the article might say after reading his introduction. It says he wants to show people how to eat healthy even when they find it difficult to do so within the local community. If you read my last post then you can guess why this would interest me. Although I have access to healthy food it definitely is not convenient with my busy schedule but that’s not for this post discussion. I felt partially blamed for the stereotyped soul food even though I had nothing to do with it. To me it seemed that the only people who would agree with him is someone from his same viewpoint. I only felt attacked. He also talks about this problem beginning in the 1960’s due to the media’s portrayal of soul food. Myself being from Detroit and going to pre-game football parties with my African American friends I’ve had plenty of soul food. At least to me it was soul food. Someone from the south might not agree. I would never think to blame soul food for a group of people’s health problems. Everything in moderation!

The second piece I read was from Lily Wong called “Eating the Hyphen”. I think I was intentionally told to read this one second so I wouldn’t put down my book and feel berated. This essay was a complete 180 from the first. I found myself laughing out loud as I read along. If you’re like me then you’re probably wondering what’s it mean to ‘eat a hyphen?’ So I finally found out at the end of the essay that for Lily the hyphen represents her link between American and Chinese culture. That link just so happened to be a Chinese dumpling which she admittedly ate in very odd manner. She would separate the meat from the thick doughy skin with a knife and fork. Then only after dissection would she grab a pair of chop sticks and enjoy her meal, with ketchup. This had become almost ritualistic for her. She uses pathos to build an emotional link between herself and the reader. Bryant Terry used a form of pathos but I only felt alienated after reading it. These articles were both written to try to get the reader to understand the writers’ passions for their culture. They each took completely different approaches at trying to achieve that.