In a cringe-inducing campaign video, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz discuss the hard-hitting issue on everyone’s mind: tacos.
I’m just not much of a spice guy, Walz explains. I like “white guy tacos.”
“What does that mean,” Harris asks, “like mayonnaise and tuna?”
“Do you put any flavor in it?” she follows up.
“Ugh, no,” Walz confirms, doing his best to seem pitiful. He’s “just not much of a spice guy.”
Listen, I’m just not much of a spice guy. pic.twitter.com/u9yadJBMh2
— Tim Walz (@Tim_Walz) August 15, 2024
This bit plays to a popular meme on the internet that says white families eat boiled chicken and carrots for every meal. But this is just a racial stereotype. It’s ugly. It’s hateful. And for a party that claims to fight bigotry, they must Do Better.
White people do season their food.
White guy food — i.e. European food — doesn’t need outrageous levels of spice to make it edible. It’s seasoned with a culinary precision that even the finest taco could not match. But just because it’s not spicy doesn’t mean it’s flavorless.
With herbs de provence, duxelles, and countless varieties of demi-glace and rich sauces, French food is the most finely seasoned cuisine in the world. Italian food is packed with regionally diverse flavors, from the bold acidity of tomatoes, garlic and chilies in the South to the heavy earthiness in the North. The Spaniards have a million different ways to season ham. And the British? Well, we don’t have to talk about them.
Who does this appeal to? It’s not going to make Walz more appealing to spice-loving Latin voters. It’s a push to court self-hating white millennials who have been taught since birth to deride everything about European culture. It’s all for the crowd who think open borders are necessary to get authentic street tacos in the Midwest.
But the kicker for Walz is that it’s not even true. He’s clearly a resident of Flavor Town. His “turkey trot tater tot hotdish” won the Minnesota Congressional cook-off four years in a row. The recipe is publicly available, and it’s jam-packed with herbs and spices.
