Ethnic Foods: Threats to Ethnicity

At many times in U.S. history a melting pot ideology has reduced ethnic divisions by promoting a common culture, primarily Anglo-American culture. Anglo-Americans who accept this view therefore lose their sense of ethnic identity. A sizable minority of Americans do not consider themselves ethnic at all. Even the 1990 census ancestry survey resulted in the projection that almost 35 million persons would have refused to respond or would have listed their ancestry as “American,” “white,” or “United States.” Such people clearly do not subscribe to identity politics but may well enjoy Chinese or Mexican restaurants and prepare Italian dishes at home. Some foods are pointedly nonethnic, such as the vegetables in white sauce encouraged in cooking classes for immigrant girls at the turn of the twentieth century, and the gelatin salads of the cold war 1950s.