Barbecue: America's Most Political Food | Hacker News Reader

Barbecue: America's Most Political Food

newyorker.com

58 pointscamtarn31 comments

Fun fact: Barbecue can be traced to it's Caribbean origins as barbacoa:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbacoa

Disclaimer, my ancestral heritage is from Puerto Rico.

The word, yes. Slow cooking meat as a concept, however, is too pervasive and general a concept to be traced to any single time/place (imo).

The specific event (i.e. having a barbecue) is a direct descendant from the Caribbean practice. It actually goes over this in the article, along with a very brief description of how barbecues have been used a political events since the founding of the country.

That etymology seems unlikely since Puerto Rican cuisine has nothing that resembles that style of food.

The Tainos were the natives of not only Puerto Rico, but they're mostly gone now. I have a few relatives who are partly Taino, even my great grandmother was a full native to Puerto Rico. To clarify further the Tainos were not only Puerto Rican natives, they were also native to parts of South America (north east), Cuba, Jamaica, and Hispaniola (Haiti / Dominican Republic). It would be incorrect to attribute it to Puerto Rico itself, thus I attribute it to the Caribbean where they were natives. I'm sure it's been done elsewhere, but it became widespread in the southern states first according to Time:

http://time.com/3957444/barbecue/

I have eaten at Maurice's several times (it is delicious), but never knew the history. Confederate flags are common at businesses throughout the region, so it's hard to single out Maurice's as an outlier in this regard. Still an interesting read that will make me rethink whether to eat there.

The article has a certain vibe which reminds be of USSR's political persecutions.It's pretty disturbing how the author heavily implies that the children have to undergo some kind of renunciation ceremony in order to atone for the ideological beliefs of their father.

Perhaps a more fitting title for the article would be "Ancestral sin: an excessively long article about confederate flags and white privilege, with bits of historical moralization"

To me, this article seemed more about how political barbecue can be. It's equivocal about what the children should do, and never really answers the question of whether it's okay to eat at the restaurant again.

You might think that it's obvious that the children have no obligation whatsoever, but that doesn't make contrary opinions political persecution, even in vibe.

That's interesting. Do you generally have trouble with reading comprehension skills?

Being from Oregon, I had no idea until much later in life how diverse different styles of BBQ are.

There's some interesting coverage of BBQ as an exception to the homogenous, fast-food culture in the US in Tyler Cowen's book "An Economist Gets Lunch": http://amzn.to/2nZDa0k

Kansas City BBQ is the most overrated food in America.

That's... not what this article is about.

But it needed to be said.

Kansas City isn't even mentioned in the article...

What experience are you basing this opinion off of?

Regional differences in food is one of the great things about the US.

De gustibus non est disputandum.

As a local I would agree that 1) most KC barbecue joints are unremarkable, and 2) even done right it's good, but not "OMG I've never had meat so delicious" good. Still, though: good.

I recommend Q39 and Joe's KC to people visiting who want the good stuff. Just picking any ol' place that says it serves KC barbecue is a recipe for disappointment (goes double for anything at the airport or Crown Center). You'd be better off picking a random Mexican restaurant here than a random barbecue joint. YMMV.

[EDIT] incidentally we have a surprisingly decent food scene, and most of it's not barbecue, so don't limit yourself to that if you visit.

The kids had decades to disassociate. They chose the money. Let them rot.

Pretty sure this is a submarine marketing piece, but I'm not entirely sure who would be paying for it. Is there a cartel of companies that sell barbecue food in America???

Meat industry consortiums afraid of vegan/vegetarian trends?

Regional BBQ joints are afraid customers will forget their white supremacist past?

This is probably the most boring submission I've seen (read: skimmed through) on Hacker News in a while. I'm not criticizing writing style or quality here, just the topic seems so incredibly 'un-hackerish' that I'm puzzled how it got so many upvotes.

I didn't upvote it, but by its title, I thought it was going to mostly be about how different regions have different style BBQ. And those regions generally have a strong dislike for the other regions' styles.

Stupid articles from the New Yorker always seem to hit the front page, no matter what they are about.

Going to throw out a guess that it's got something to do with this buried lede:

> Lexington County, which encompasses all but one of the dozen Piggie Park restaurants now in operation, remains a bedrock of hard-right politics.

Also: Confederate flags, awful Southern white people, and some folks who moved down from PG County buying property from the latter and looking to get rid of the former. Is it too blithe to say "culture war, move on"?

Being southern or "from the south" and white does not make one automatically awful. That kind of stereotyping is literally what found us in such a political mess and should be discouraged. Please knock it off. If you were to say awful racist white people, I'd agree, but shockingly, there are plenty of awful racist white people in the north as well as the south, they're just louder down south.

Note: I'm white, from the south, am a veteran, also tend to lean liberal and work as a software engineer in the 3rd biggest city in the US. I think of myself as progressive and voted for Gary Johnson this election.

I suppose I could've made it more clear that I was characterizing the article's take, rather than expressing one of my own. I'm a Mississippi son myself.

Ah my bad. I have to constantly correct people who equate southern with stupid. It gets old.

I disagree, I found this submission to be entertaining and informative.

Submitter here. I am amused and puzzled as well. Apparently people care more about barbecue than they do about the more 'hacker-ish' things I've submitted. I've long since given up trying to predict the tastes of HN voters - nowadays I just submit anything I find personally interesting.

Ha. And now it's been flagged off the front page. Apparently people both like and hate stories about barbecue! Fascinating.

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