A food writer from the Washington Post sparked outrage after saying that foreign food should no longer be called 'exotic' because it reinforces xenophobia and racism.
In a Wednesday perspective piece for the paper, G. Daniela Galarza complained about recent responses she received to a story, with critics mentioning the recipe she described as being 'exotic'.
'Reading the word hit me like a slap, and initially, I wasn’t even sure why,' Galarza wrote.
'Did they think the dish sounded odd or disgusting? Or were these ingredients simply hard for them to find?'
'I had a few productive exchanges with these readers on the subject so I could better troubleshoot their issues. My conclusion? What’s "exotic" to you isn’t "exotic" to my neighbor, might not be "exotic" to my mom, probably wouldn’t be "exotic" to my best friend.'
Her commentary was met with swift criticism from Twitter users who accused her of provoking a 'woke war' over something as trivial as an unassuming adjective.
Washington Post food reporter G. Daniela Galarza (pictured) sparked backlash she wrote an article asserting that foreign food should no longer be called 'exotic' because it reinforces xenophobia and racism
Galarza posted the article on Twitter - where it was met with swift criticism
In her article Galarza bemoaned that the word had seemed to lose its meaning over the years.
'The first problem with the word is that, probably within the past two decades, it’s lost its essential meaning,' Galarza said.
'The second, more crucial problem is that its use, particularly as applied to food, indirectly lengthens the metaphysical distance between
