No, immigrants don't eat dogs and cats – but Trump's claim is a component of an unsightly history of myths about immigrants' eating habits

When Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said in the course of the presidential debate on September 10, 2024, The Haitian immigrants eat petsFood historians like I used to be not surprised concerning the insult. Trump's lie followed an extended American history of spreading ugly rumors about immigrants stealing and eating pets.

Dietary rules that unite and define American cuisine can so easily be abused to divide Americans through disgust. In the United States, the cow is food and the dog is a friend. The chicken is food. The cat is a companion. The sharp boundaries between the animals Americans eat, love, protect and exterminate help shape the dietary rules that outline American norms.

What we eat, what we don't eat, and with whom we break bread are only among the food rules that unite and define Americans. Think of how the turkey – or tofurkey – unites Americans behind the Thanksgiving ritual. Bottled water. Ice cream. Hot dogs on the ballpark. Pretzels on airplanes. Popcorn at the flicks.

Food may also create group identity beyond the mainstream. Just consider the various factions of vegans, vegetarians, paleo, grain eaters and meat eaters who use food to specific a political position. And in fact, religious dietary rules have Concerned scholars in order that Jews, Muslims and Christians were never capable of eat a meal together for hundreds of years.

There are no evidence that Haitians steal and eating domestic cats and dogs. But there may be evidence that racists have long twisted dietary rules to divide people and dehumanize immigrants. Trump has lied to attract a line between Americans and others who supposedly eat the animals Americans love.

The legend of the delicious pets

The myth of eating pets goes back to old legends in Europe, Australia and the United States that “immigrants steal our cats and dogs for his or her dinner tables or serve in ethnic restaurants“, writes folklorist Jan Harold Brunvand.

Two of probably the most common food-related legends revolve around “oriental restaurants serving dog (or cat) meat and legends about Asian immigrants in the United States catching and cooking people's pets,” Brunvard writes.

By 1883, the legend was so widespread that the Chinese-American journalist Wong Chin Foo offered $500 anyone in New York for evidence of Chinese people eating cats or rats. No evidence was found, but that didn't stop the racist jokes and concrete legends.

None of the various examples should be told again. But scientists have cited, for instance:sick jokes”, for instance a “new Vietnamese cookbook called 100 Ways to Wok Your Dog”.

Or as a comedian Tessie Chua joked about her multi-ethnic Chinese, Filipino and Irish identity in 1993 when she said, “That means I eat dog, but only if I can wash it down with Guinness stout!”

In 1971, major news agencies, including Reuters, reported on a “outrageously silly urban legend“ of a poodle named Rosa, served in a Hong Kong restaurant, complete with chili sauce and bamboo shoots.

In 1980, Stockton, California, was seized by racist rumors of Vietnamese families stealing expensive pedigree dogs for dinner.

As only in 2005the tv show “Leave it, Larry!” showed wedding guests vomiting after being falsely told they’d eaten a German Shepherd named Oscar prepared by a Korean-American florist.”Oscar is Bulgogi!”, shouts Larry David.

Scientists call these tropics a “domestic backlash” And “Vehicle for anti-immigration sentiment and particularly anti-Asian sentiments within the USA”

A protracted history of food-related insults

Perhaps it’s more accurate than the saying “we are what we eat” that we’re what we don't eat. Avoiding our neighbor due to his disgusting food – smelly, weird, inedible – can also be a distinctly American tradition.

“Garlic eater” was once known within the USA as ethnic insult for Italian-Americans within the early twentieth century. The terms “Spaghetti Bender” and “Grape Stomper” were also used, but “Garlic Eater” stuck because, as one scholar argued, “garlic served as an 'olfactory signifier'” – a particular smell – “for the stranger who consumed it.”

So if Right-wing radical Laura Loomer tweeted in September 2024 that the White House “will smell like curry“If Kamala Harris becomes president, she will also have used food to stoke racist fears.”

The Americans usually are not the one ones doing this. Some Persians call Punjabis “dal khor”, which suggests dal eater, and a few Romanians call Italians “macaronar”, which suggests macaroni eater. Both are insults. Iranians They are known to call Arabs “malakh-khor” or locust eater and southern Italian sometimes called Northern Italians “Polentoni” or polenta eaters.

To an outsider, being called a lentil or polenta eater sounds more like a compliment to a healthy eating regimen than a racist slur, but such are the vagaries of racism: people hate who they hate and justify it in any way they’ll.

There are many other examples of how food can differentiate communities. In the Amazon The Parakanã people value tapir meat, but detest monkeys. The Arara, their neighbours, feel the alternative. Both groups are disgusted Curry, garlic, tapir, polenta, lentils – it’s not the nail that matters, but how the hammer hits.

Rumors with real-life consequences

Urban legends about food and racist rumors can have serious consequences. In early 2024, a false rumor surfaced that a Laotian and Thai restaurant In Fresno, California, boiled pit bulls caused such heinous harassment that the owner, David Rasavong, the restaurant moved to a brand new location.

After Trump repeated the parable During the controversy about immigrants eating pets, Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, quickly said became the goal of bomb threatswhich led to the closure of municipal buildings and schools. Members of the Haitian community said they Fear for his or her safety.

But there may be also a more hopeful side to the query of whether food is used as a way of dividing or uniting people. The Latin origin of the Words society and camaraderie mean the individuals with whom we share our bread.

Garlic is now as vital to American cuisine as apple pie. Today, Americans are so grateful for sushi, garlic and curry – and the range behind the deliciousness – that give American food its special flavor.