#Idk if y’all realize how blatantly transparent y’all are

[starlooove]

Jason and Dana are literally red and blue what more could u fucking want. He can’t dance but does so anyways bc he’s comfortable with her, her community and family love him and give him good food and space and time to relax while he’s over there, they both force eachother to chill out so they can take care of business like the the hypocrites they are, she trusts him with her people and community on an interpersonal and vigilante level WHAT MORE COULD YOU FUCKING WANT

[brehaaorgana]

it’s so friggin GALLING to see people insist Jewish people from MENA countries who immigrated (or FLED) to Israel are “stealing” or “appropriating” MENA dishes when those dishes include like, “NEW WORLD” CROPS. 

babycakes, that’s A.) not how appropriation works and B.) not a good look for you to paint all Jewish people as thieves and C.) complaining over trivial matters to be honest! It’s absurd.  

what’s bad about MENA Jews eating food they’ve eaten their whole fucking life? NOTHING. What was bad about Native-American Crops being introduced to the rest of the planet? Oh gee, idk, it was accompanied by the Atlantic Slave Trade, slavery, genocide, racism, brutality on my ancestors and people…….. 

to claim It’s bad and wrong and “appropriation” when MENA Jewish folks eat shakshuka when they grew up doing so, but it’s not bad and wrong MENA Gentiles got to make a “traditional dish” whose staple item only came to them via slavery and genocide? It’s fake! It’s faux outrage and faux concern! It’s ignorant and antisemitic at BEST. 

i don’t actually care if Italians now have tomato-based pasta sauce, or if MENA gentiles eat shakshuka but I do see how TRANSPARENT it is when you pick and choose your issues of culinary appropriation so blatantly. Let’s be real clear: the rest of the world did not eat chili peppers, paprika, or tomatoes until AFTER they were stolen from the “new world.” 

entire civilizations were wiped out, colonized, or forcibly assimilated, some 10-12 MILLION Black Africans were enslaved (and let’s not gloss over Arab North African participation in the slave trade here) and that doesn’t even begin to give a figure for how many native americans were enslaved for the “Columbian Exchange” that brought the rest of the world tomatoes. 

so your “issue” isn’t ACTUALLY about appropriation of cuisine, crops, ingredients, or anything else. It’s not about people being harmed. Y’all don’t even stop to realize for two seconds the ONLY reason a tomato-based dish can even be “traditional” in MENA is because of genocide and slavery in the Americas some centuries back. It truly didn’t cross anyone’s mind - and its obvious! 

And I don’t spend my days whining that tomato-pasta sauce or shakshuka is somehow gross appropriation because A.) my people have BIGGER PROBLEMS and B.) it’s not a PRODUCTIVE conversation to have, even if I’m at least validated in saying “colonizers stole and benefitted from stealing our crops.” The rest of the world now uses paprika or chili peppers in their food because of colonialism. Calling it “appropriation” for other people to eat tomatoes at this point does almost nothing to help me, or native people. I’m explaining it this way to show it’s absurd, to prove it’s absurd, and to prove the point of hand-wringing that “Jews (”Israelis”) “”stole”” shakshuka” is also absurd and hypocritical. 

This is about your antisemitism, not genuine concern over someone “taking” your food, OTHERWISE you’d feel that using the following in any MENA dish or just in general! is ALSO appropriation:

tomatoes

potatoes

vanilla

rubber

corn/maize 

beans (the common bean - AKA pinto, lima, kidney, etc)

cacao/chocolate

 tobacco (say goodbye to hookahs unless you want opium!)

sweet potatoes

allspice

bell pepper 

chili pepper 

cashew

avocado

guava

papaya

passionfruit 

peanut

pecan

pumpkin

pineapple

strawberries (commercial varieties you eat now!)

pitaya (dragon fruit)

quinoa

long-staple cotton

wild rice

paprika

like good luck making shakshuka without “~appropriating~” tomatoes, chili peppers, and paprika!!!!!!! i’m sure it will turn out GREAT.