The Guardian piece by Raj Patel linking American sugar-crusted apple pie to the “vast and ongoing genocide of Indigenous people” is causing both fury and surprise among readers, who are questioning whether the popular dessert is next in line to be cancelled as “racist”.
The article, titled ‘Food injustice has deep roots: let’s start with America’s apple pie’, was published in May but is still raising eyebrows over the author’s reflections on the history of colonialism and slavery enshrined in the dessert’s recipe and its sugary crust.
“Apples travelled to the Western hemisphere with colonists in the 1500s in what used to be called the Columbian Exchange, but is now better understood as a vast and ongoing genocide of Indigenous people,” Patel writes.
According to the author, even the gingham on which our apple pie lies is not “uniquely American” but rather linked to “war capitalism” over the British East India Company trade.
“The apple pie is as American as stolen land, wealth and labour. We live its consequences today,” the author claims, adding that “the bloody and international origins of the apple pie are subject to a collective amnesia.”
The piece provoked an ongoing backlash from readers, with political commentator Ben Shapiro noting that the American treat turned into “an offensive symbol of white supremacy” in the 21st century:
Patel, who has reportedly described himself in the past as someone with “very strong anarchist sympathies” did not call the apple pie “racist” per se. But many suggested on Twitter that it is exactly how the dessert will look to the woke crowd from now on.