Dave Chappelle just performed 21 straight shows in Oakland to an incredibly diverse group of people. Some nights he performed 5 hours straight without a break. And you know what he said he wanted to be when he was growing up—A TEACHER!! He is of course a teacher in another sense. He helps to relieve us of the multi-cultural boundaries that exist between us.
Which brings me to the importance of multi-cultural education in schools. Youth need to identify themselves with where they came from and they also need to learn and appreciate that about others.
Regardless of where you are on the planet, food is an excellent tool for breaking down social and cultural barriers. Dave Chapelle makes a pretty good living hammering away at our insecurities around race and gender. If you visit a school cooking class, you will see that it too is an excellent space for doing the same. The other day at our school farmer’s market, I overheard a brief argument between two students and a parent about the produce in front of them.
“Squash is camote.”
“No squash is calbasa.”
“What you be calling squash? This is a sweet potato!”
“No squash is calbasa.”
“What you be calling squash? This is a sweet potato!”
It’s hard to stay quiet about what you put into your body. Like language, the food we eat influences how we identify ourselves, how we interact with others, and how we interpret different tastes and