• ElJefe@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    As a Mexican, I don’t take Taco Bell jokes to be offensive. Or even Mexican food jokes to be offensive, for that matter. I mean, i know my people’s food will sometimes make me shit my pants, but fuck it’s delicious. But back to the point, Taco Bell is far from being ethnically offensive, because it is far from being representative of Mexican food.

    • xedrak@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Taco Bell is far from being ethnically offensive, because it is far from being representative of Mexican food.

      You’re right, Taco Bell is way better.

      (just kidding pls no hate)

      • CanadaPlus@futurology.today
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        1 year ago

        Everyone knows it’s a shitty photocopy of Tex-Mex. We eat it anyway because it’s greasy, cheap food with a strong but not offensive flavour of some kind.

          • CanadaPlus@futurology.today
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            1 year ago

            And then they combine a few stock ingredients together with it in one of many ways. Their marketing doesn’t even bother to claim it’s anything special, it’s just like “here’s a new, even more convoluted way to combine the exact same shit! DONG!!”.

            It’s still hits the spot, though, and to cut them some slack my bean crunchwrap is mostly vegetables, which is more than you could say for pizza or a burger and fries.

            • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Oh definitely. Makes it stupidly easy to make at home. Cheaper and faster too according to some YouTube cook vlogger. I abhore his cross contamination controls, or rather the complete lack thereof, but it’s supposed to be a home cooking show, so whatever. Dude still manages to do some decent knife and fire work, so I’ll watch to get ideas.

      • EatATaco@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        There are some things you don’t joke about, taco bell actually being Mexican food is one of them. It might be a war crime to even joke it’s better than Mexican food.

      • ElJefe@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        I think a very interesting part of Mexican culture is to learn how to not take ourselves too seriously. I had to learn to deal with being made fun of for the stupidest things. It was always “el que se enoja, pierde (he who gets mad, loses).” So you had to learn how to take it and dish it back. And the idea was to keep it as a battle of wits, without becoming irate and physical. I have to admit, I lost more times than I’d like to own up…

      • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        You guys like Speedy Gonzales.

        They (a good amount of Mexican immigrants at the time) like Speedy because it was pretty much the only remotely positive representation of Mexicans in American television back then…

        What’s weirder is they also thought his cousin slowpoke was funny. Even tho Slowpoke was a common stereotype of Mexicans, having him on the same show as Speedy made it less bad, because a lazy relative was something everyone of all cultures can relate with.

        If they showed all of Speedy’s family as the same as Slowpoke it would have been more problematic.

        But especially back then, minorities were pretty pumped to get any positive representation

        • ElJefe@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Without getting too deep into it, I think the simplest explanation is that speedy Gonzalez was just funny and entertaining. I don’t think many people at the time stopped to think too much about it being representative of our culture or even a stereotype. Looking back, sure, it is a stereotype, but one that even by then was so outdated that no one thought twice about it perhaps being offensive.

          • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I don’t think you realize the character is 70 years old… In 1953 name any other positive depiction on American TV. Hell, let’s split the difference. What was the best one as recent as 1988?

            And Speedy wasn’t the stereotype, Slowpoke was.

            Did you start talking about him halfway thru?

            And this isn’t just like, my opinion man.

            More than a few people have asked over the last 70 years, there’s been surveys and I think even a legit sociological study. It’s not a random question that no one’s ever though of before.

            The answer is pretty much always the same, except maybe very recently because reparations has improved a lot just in the last decade.

              • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                Yeah…

                That’s literally why Speedy was “canceled” and need an international movement by Hispanic people for him to come back

                I literally just said that

    • Jiggle_Physics@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Yeah, the joke isn’t just that Mexican food gave them the shits, it’s that we still eat knowing that is the case because its so fucking good.

    • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Taco Bell was started by a white guy named Mr. Bell. He had a hot dog stand that wasn’t doing so well, and talked a Mexican restaurant that always had a line out the door into teaching him how to make tacos. He moved the stand across town and made so much money that he started his own store.

      Carl’s Jr, and In N Out have similar origin stories.