Americans taking offence on behalf of poor ‘victimised’ foreigners is offensive — to me
Oh dear. I may have to write a book called How to Lose More Friends and Alienate More People. In a recent episode of Top Chef, the American cooking show I appear on, I complained about the other judges’ insistence on pronouncing ‘paella’ as ‘py-ay-a’. ‘You don’t say “Bar-the-lona” or “Me-hi-co”,’ I pointed out. ‘So why say ‘py-ay-a’?’
I thought this was fairly uncontroversial, but it was as if I had just produced a white hood and a burning cross. After the other judges had picked their jaws up off the floor, one of them raised herself to her full height and said, ‘Actually, Toby, I do say “Bar-the-lona”.’ Now I know how Nick Griffin felt on Question Time. The reaction in the blogosphere was instantaneous. ‘Toby displayed no respect for either Spanish culture or cuisine on tonight’s episode,’ wrote a typical blogger.
The irony, of course, is that Johnny Foreigner doesn’t give a fig about any of this.
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