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It's official: white women are not allowed to make and sell burritos in Portland, because cultural appropriation. And it's made the British press:
White women's burrito shop is forced to close after being hounded with accusations it was 'culturally appropriating Mexican food and jobs'
Kali Wilgus and Liz 'LC' Connelly opened Kooks Burritos in Portland, Oregon
The two friends did so after taking a trip to Puerto Nuevo, Mexico, last December
While there, they learned the basics by 'picking the brain of every tortilla lady'
'They wouldn't tell us too much, but we were peeking into the windows of every kitchen, fascinated by how easy they made it look,' Connelly told a magazine
Many accused them of stealing by looking into the windows without permission
By Liam Quinn For Dailymail.com PUBLISHED: 12:16 EDT, 24 May 2017 | UPDATED: 16:07 EDT, 24 May 2017
Two white women have been forced to close their pop-up burrito shop after they were accused of cultural appropriation.
Kali Wilgus and Liz 'LC' Connelly opened Kooks Burritos in Portland, Oregon, after taking a trip to Puerto Nuevo, Mexico, last December.
For the first few months, the weekend pop-up shop housed in an taco truck was a smash hit. It gained so much popularity, a local weekly newspaper decided to profile the entrepreneurial duo.
But that's when the trouble started for Wilgus and Connelly, after quotes they gave to the Williamette Week led to them being accused of stealing their success.
Kali Wilgus and Liz 'LC' Connelly opened Kooks Burritos in Portland, Oregon, after taking a trip to Puerto Nuevo, Mexico, last December
The store initially a success, but it was forced to close after the duo was accused of cultural appropriation.
Explaining their trip, Connelly told the newspaper: 'I picked the brains of every tortilla lady there in the worst broken Spanish ever, and they showed me a little of what they did.
'In Puerto Nuevo, you can eat $5 lobster on the beach, which they give you with this bucket of tortillas. They are handmade flour tortillas that are stretchy and a little buttery, and best of all, unlimited.
'They wouldn't tell us too much about technique, but we were peeking into the windows of every kitchen, totally fascinated by how easy they made it look. We learned quickly it isn't quite that easy.'
Those comments were latched onto by a food blog in the Portland Mercury, which accused Wilgus and Connelly of 'preying' on the women they met in Mexico.
Pictured is one of the burritos the Portland pop-up store sold to a happy customer before it was closed
After the duo gave an interview, many took to social media to accuse them of stealing from another culture
'This week in white nonsense, two white women—Kali Wilgus and Liz 'LC' Connely—decided it would be cute to open a food truck after a fateful excursion to Mexico,' the piece opened.
'The owners of Kooks Burritos all but admitted in an interview with Willamette Week that they colonized this style of food.
'So let’s recap the story thus far: These two white women went to Mexico, ate tacos, and then decided they would just take what the locals clearly didn't want to give them.
'If that wasn't bad enough, they decided to pack up all their stolen intellectual property and repackage it.'
The piece went on to claim getting the weekend taco truck closed was a 'victory' in Portland - a city it accused of having 'underlying racism'.
'These appropriating businesses are erasing and exploiting their already marginalized identities for the purpose of profit and praise,' it stated.
Many on social media and the comments section of the Williamette Week article shared in the outrage.
Pictured is a burrito posted on Yelp by one of the store's creators, Liz Connelly
Many defended the duo after news spread that it had been forced to shut up shop amid the accusations
'Stealing is in their nature so I'm not surprised. They're not creative so they had to get the idea from someone,' Tee McNeill wrote on Facebook.
'Kooks Burritos is now closed. Good riddance!' Jonas Lord said.
'Awww, so you nice ladies stole hard-working and low-income Mexican women's tortilla recipes and are now turning a profit. That's not white basic privilege at all. #disgusting,' Alicia Dominguez commented.
'Now that you all boldly and pretty f***ing unapologetically stole the basis of these women's livelihoods, you can make their exact same product so other white ppl (sic) don't have to be inconvenienced of dealing with a pesky brown middle woman getting in their way. Great job,' Shauna MacKinnon added.
However, after news of the closure spread, many came to the defense of Wilgus and Connelly.
'1. Burritos are from L.A. 2. Tortilla making is easy and not a secret 3. Breakfast burritos=white people food,' one person wrote.
'Seriously!!!!? Do you not think they were speaking metaphorically "looking in people's windows"? She ended up with a tortilla recipe she developed herself and she puts french fries in them. Such cultural appropriation,' another said.
'Oh my god. you cannot be serious,' another wrote.
'If learning how to make a food from another culture and selling it is now considered cultural appropriation, then why not take this issue up with the successful Portland businesses that have been doing this at a much larger scale for
years, and stop harassing these two women struggling to start a small business,' another added.
Kooks Burritos has deleted its website, Instagram account, Facebook page, and Twitter profile.
It's official: white women are not allowed to make and sell burritos in Portland, because cultural appropriation. And it's made the British press:
White women's burrito shop is forced to close after being hounded with accusations it was 'culturally appropriating Mexican food and jobs'
Kali Wilgus and Liz 'LC' Connelly opened Kooks Burritos in Portland, Oregon
The two friends did so after taking a trip to Puerto Nuevo, Mexico, last December
While there, they learned the basics by 'picking the brain of every tortilla lady'
'They wouldn't tell us too much, but we were peeking into the windows of every kitchen, fascinated by how easy they made it look,' Connelly told a magazine
Many accused them of stealing by looking into the windows without permission
By Liam Quinn For Dailymail.com PUBLISHED: 12:16 EDT, 24 May 2017 UPDATED: 16:07 EDT, 24 May 2017
Two white women have been forced to close their pop-up burrito shop after they were accused of cultural appropriation.
Kali Wilgus and Liz 'LC' Connelly opened Kooks Burritos in Portland, Oregon, after taking a trip to Puerto Nuevo, Mexico, last December.
For the first few months, the weekend pop-up shop housed in an taco truck was a smash hit. It gained so much popularity, a local weekly newspaper decided to profile the entrepreneurial duo.
But that's when the trouble started for Wilgus and Connelly, after quotes they gave to the Williamette Week led to them being accused of stealing their success.
Kali Wilgus and Liz 'LC' Connelly opened Kooks Burritos in Portland, Oregon, after taking a trip to Puerto Nuevo, Mexico, last December
The store initially a success, but it was forced to close after the duo was accused of cultural appropriation.
Explaining their trip, Connelly told the newspaper: 'I picked the brains of every tortilla lady there in the worst broken Spanish ever, and they showed me a little of what they did.
'In Puerto Nuevo, you can eat $5 lobster on the beach, which they give you with this bucket of tortillas. They are handmade flour tortillas that are stretchy and a little buttery, and best of all, unlimited.
'They wouldn't tell us too much about technique, but we were peeking into the windows of every kitchen, totally fascinated by how easy they made it look. We learned quickly it isn't quite that easy.'
Those comments were latched onto by a food blog in the Portland Mercury, which accused Wilgus and Connelly of 'preying' on the women they met in Mexico.
Pictured is one of the burritos the Portland pop-up store sold to a happy customer before it was closed
After the duo gave an interview, many took to social media to accuse them of stealing from another culture
'This week in white nonsense, two white women—Kali Wilgus and Liz 'LC' Connely—decided it would be cute to open a food truck after a fateful excursion to Mexico,' the piece opened.
'The owners of Kooks Burritos all but admitted in an interview with Willamette Week that they colonized this style of food.
'So let’s recap the story thus far: These two white women went to Mexico, ate tacos, and then decided they would just take what the locals clearly didn't want to give them.
'If that wasn't bad enough, they decided to pack up all their stolen intellectual property and repackage it.'
The piece went on to claim getting the weekend taco truck closed was a 'victory' in Portland - a city it accused of having 'underlying racism'.
'These appropriating businesses are erasing and exploiting their already marginalized identities for the purpose of profit and praise,' it stated.
Many on social media and the comments section of the Williamette Week article shared in the outrage.
Pictured is a burrito posted on Yelp by one of the store's creators, Liz Connelly
Many defended the duo after news spread that it had been forced to shut up shop amid the accusations
'Stealing is in their nature so I'm not surprised. They're not creative so they had to get the idea from someone,' Tee McNeill wrote on Facebook.
'Kooks Burritos is now closed. Good riddance!' Jonas Lord said.
'Awww, so you nice ladies stole hard-working and low-income Mexican women's tortilla recipes and are now turning a profit. That's not white basic privilege at all. #disgusting,' Alicia Dominguez commented.
'Now that you all boldly and pretty f***ing unapologetically stole the basis of these women's livelihoods, you can make their exact same product so other white ppl (sic) don't have to be inconvenienced of dealing with a pesky brown middle woman getting in their way. Great job,' Shauna MacKinnon added.
However, after news of the closure spread, many came to the defense of Wilgus and Connelly.
'1. Burritos are from L.A. 2. Tortilla making is easy and not a secret 3. Breakfast burritos=white people food,' one person wrote.
'Seriously!!!!? Do you not think they were speaking metaphorically "looking in people's windows"? She ended up with a tortilla recipe she developed herself and she puts french fries in them. Such cultural appropriation,' another said.
'Oh my god. you cannot be serious,' another wrote.
'If learning how to make a food from another culture and selling it is now considered cultural appropriation, then why not take this issue up with the successful Portland businesses that have been doing this at a much larger scale for
years, and stop harassing these two women struggling to start a small business,' another added.
Kooks Burritos has deleted its website, Instagram account, Facebook page, and Twitter profile.
Gresham-Barlow School District agrees to pay genderqueer teacher $60k, after co-workers fail to call her "they"
By Casey Parks | The Oregonian/OregonLive
May 20, 2016 at 5:30 AM, updated May 20, 2016 at 7:59 AM
The Gresham-Barlow School District has agreed to pay $60,000 and make sweeping changes across its nearly two dozen campuses after a transgender elementary school teacher complained of more than a year of harassment from coworkers.
Leo Soell, a fifth-grade teacher at Hall Elementary School, came out as transgender last spring after surviving breast cancer.
The harassment started soon after, Soell said in a complaint submitted to district officials, and continued even after the school hosted an hourlong training on transgender issues.
Soell identifies as neither male nor female and uses the pronoun they instead of he or she. But, Soell wrote, coworkers continuously called Soell "she," "lady" or "Miss Soell." Someone smeared Vaseline on Soell's cabinets, the complaint said, and another yelled insults in the school hallway. Others conspired to prevent Soell from using the school's lone gender-neutral bathroom, the complaint said.
A district investigation, which officials have declined to release, found no proof of harassment.
But Gresham-Barlow officials agreed to a settlement this month that compensates Soell for emotional damages. District leaders also agreed to add gender-neutral bathrooms to all schools, create clear policies about transgender teachers and host mandatory trainings for all Gresham principals, as well as Hall staff.
Soell's case illustrates a gap in the major civil rights fight of the moment: Even as the Oregon and federal departments of education have directed schools to better accommodate transgender students, no such guidelines exist for transgender teachers.
At Gresham, the complaint alleges, that lack of clarity left Soell and coworkers frustrated and distracted from teaching.
"I actually feel safe now," Soell said in an interview after the settlement. "There will always be people who push the boundaries, but I'm not worried about them anymore because I know that my district supports me."
In a statement Thursday, district officials said they were "pleased" and said "the provisions of this agreement resolve concerns, enable us to put this issue to rest and allow the district to move forward."
Soell started teaching at Hall in 2013. That same year, Soell told friends and family that Soell did not identify as a woman or a man.
Initially Soell didn't come out at work. Oregon teachers work their first three years on yearlong probationary contracts, so Soell decided to wait for job security before telling administrators.
Then, in November 2014, doctors diagnosed Soell with breast cancer. Surgeons removed Soell's breasts and performed reconstructive "top surgery" to give Soell a masculine-appearing chest. After chemotherapy, Soell decided to no longer live in hiding.
Soell's name was changed legally to "Leo," and Gresham-Barlow administrators were asked to update district records.
Other school districts, including Reynolds and West Linn, have had teachers come out as transgender with little or no trouble. Portland Public Schools has multiple transgender teachers and a policy that allows employees to be out as transgender or gay.
Gresham didn't have a clear policy when Soell returned from medical leave in May 2015. Instead, according to teachers, the then-principal told them not to announce Soell's name change or refer to Soell as "they" in front of students.
If kids asked whether Soell was a boy or a girl, district leaders told Soell to respond, "We all have private lives, and it would not be appropriate to talk about our private lives during the school day." A district spokeswoman last year said administrators were worried about "age appropriateness."
Soell said coworkers responded by intentionally calling Soell "lady" or "Miss Soell."
"Another teacher yelled at me openly in the school hallway, saying that my gender is a 'belief system' that I do not have the right to make other people follow and that God is on her side," Soell said in a complaint, obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive.
Soell and the teachers union filed a grievance last school year. Over the summer, union representatives negotiated a deal that allowed Soell to go by "they" at school.
Last September, district leaders also hired nonprofit TransActive Gender Center to lead a training for Hall staff.
Still, Soell said, the harassment continued through last fall. Soell said a group of seven teachers and educational assistants used the wrong pronouns intentionally in front of parents and students.
When a student corrected one staff member who called Soell "she," the teacher "berated" the student and told the student not to correct her, Soell's complaint said.
Others blocked Soell from using the bathroom, the complaint said. Hall Elementary had only one gender-neutral restroom. In previous school years, Soell said, no teachers used it.
After Soell began using it, half a dozen non-transgender teachers also started using that restroom, forcing Soell to wait as long as 30 minutes.
In November, Gresham-Barlow sent Soell a letter saying it had investigated Soell's claims and found no proof of harassment. The district declined to share details of the investigation with Soell or The Oregonian/OregonLive.
So Soell hired an attorney.
Jennifer Middleton, whose team of lawyers helped win the right for Oregon same-sex couples to marry, told district leaders Soell intended to file a Bureau of Labor and Industries complaint.
Though the Oregon Department of Education lacks official policies for transgender employees, the labor bureau protects all state employees from discrimination on the basis of sex or sexual orientation.
Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian has ruled in favor of marginalized groups with hefty fines over the past few years. In 2015, Avakian awarded $135,000 to a lesbian couple denied a wedding cake. In 2013, Avakian ordered a North Portland bar owner to pay $400,000 to a group of transgender and cross-dressing patrons he asked not to return.
"When we made clear that we were going forward with the complaint, they said, 'Let's try and settle,'" Middleton said.
While the two sides met with a federal judge, Hall Elementary leaders converted all of the school's staff bathrooms to gender-neutral facilities.
As part of the settlement, district leaders agreed to build gender-neutral restrooms at all Gresham-Barlow schools within three years. The district also agreed to pay Soell $60,000 for attorney fees and emotional distress. That amount also covers money Soell spent out-of-pocket for cancer-related expenses that the district's health insurance rejected because Soell is transgender.
The greater victory, Soell said, will affect teachers across Gresham. District leaders agreed to develop official guidelines about transgender staff by August. Those guidelines, inspired by similar policies in Portland and Eugene, will address names and pronouns, as well as bathroom access for transgender employees.
In the meantime, Hall Principal Heidi Lasher emailed all teachers and staff reminding them that the district's anti-bullying policies refer to teachers, too.
"These policies require that all staff address transgender or gender non-conforming employees with their correct name and pronouns," the principal wrote. "If you are found to be in violation of these policies, you will be subject to discipline up to and including dismissal."
Since then, Soell said no teachers have called them "she" or "Miss Soell."
"Everyone feels better when they know what the boundary is," Soell said. "And there was just no line before."
The folks who instigated the backlash against two white women trying to sell burritos actually have compiled, and actively maintain, a spreadsheet which specifically blacklists white-owned "Appropriative Businesses" in Portland which serve "non-white" food, and suggests "minority-owned" alternatives to each one.
This is literally 100% true, and I am not exaggerating in any way. You can access it here:
"Note that the backgrounds of the people of color who own the listed restaurants do not necessarily match the cuisine they serve. We could have limited the list to only people selling their own cuisine, but we made the decision not to in order to make a point. If this seems like hypocrisy from the standards set for white-owned restaurants, you haven't understood why white appropriation is a problem."
So, it's ok for a person of Mexican ethnicity to sell Vietnamese food, but it's NOT ok for a couple of white girls to sell Mexican food.
This article explores the formation of a tranimal, hippopotamus alter-ego. Confronting transgender with transpecies, the author claims that his hippopotamus “identity” allowed him to (verbally) escape, all at once, several sets of categorization that govern human bodies (“gender,” “sexuality,” age). He starts with an account of how his metaphorical hippo-self is collectively produced and performed, distinguishing the subjective, the intersubjective and the social. The article then investigates the politics of equating transgender and transpecies, critically examining the question of the inclusion of “xenogenders” in the trans political movement. Finally, the author returns to the magical power of metaphors, arguing that metaphors do materialize insofar as the flesh does not remain unchanged by them. Analogizing his hippo-self to a “cut” as theorized by Eva Hayward – a regeneration of the boundaries of the self – he offers a final crossing to the world of fiction by showing how the His Dark Materials trilogy outlines an aesthetics of porosity, which suggests that the self is, as much as a novel, a work of fiction.
The mayor of Portland, Ore., is calling on federal authorities to cancel a pair of upcoming rallies organized by conservative groups, saying the city was still “in shock” after two men were fatally stabbed on a commuter train Friday while fending off a man shouting anti-Muslim slurs.
Mayor Ted Wheeler asked the federal government to revoke a permit authorizing a June 4 “Trump Free Speech Rally” in Portland’s downtown. He also called on the government to block a “March Against Sharia” that is scheduled for June 10 but has not received permits.
“Our city is in mourning, our community’s anger is real, and the timing and subject of these events can only exacerbate an already difficult situation,” Wheeler wrote in a Facebook post Monday.
He added that he had asked the organizers of the rallies, which he referred to as “alt-right demonstrations,” to cancel their events.
“I urge them to ask their supporters to stay away from Portland,” Wheeler wrote. “There is never a place for bigotry or hatred in our community, and especially not now.”
The federal government controls permitting for the plaza where both rallies are set to take place. The city of Portland will not issue any of its own permits allowing organizers to hold the events elsewhere, Wheeler said.
Portland has spent several days reeling from the deaths of Taliesin Myrddin Namkai Meche, 23, and Ricky John Best, 53, who were stabbed and killed as they tried to protect two young women from a man who boarded a light-rail train and began yelling hateful comments about Muslims at them. A third man who intervened was injured.
The suspect, 35-year-old Jeremy Joseph Christian, has a history of making bigoted comments online and was photographed giving a **** salute at a recent protest organized by the group behind the “Trump Free Speech Rally.” Local publications as well as the Southern Poverty Law Center have described him as a “known white supremacist.” He is charged with aggravated murder, attempted murder and other charges.
The attack came at a time of escalating tensions in Portland, a city with a long track record of activism and protests. Since President Trump’s election in November, the city has been beset by violence at political rallies from groups on the left and the right. Clashes between black-clad “antifa,” or anti-fascist, activists and right-wing protesters associated with white nationalist movements have become increasingly common at otherwise peaceful demonstrations.
The organizer of the “Trump Free Speech Rally,” Joey Gibson, sought to distance himself and his group, Patriot Prayer, from Christian, especially as reports surfaced that he appeared at the group’s other events. In a video posted to Facebook on Sunday, Gibson condemned Christian and said antifa protesters were trying to incite chaos at the upcoming rally by exploiting the attacks on the train.
“There’s going to be more intensity, there’s going to be more threats,” Gibson said. “They’re using the deaths of these two people and Jeremy Christian — they’re using it to get Portland all rowdy about our June 4 rally and it’s absolutely disgusting.”
Gibson urged his supporters to remain calm. “You throw one punch, you’re going to jail,” he said.
A Facebook page for the event says the rally will feature live music and “speakers exercising their free speech.”
The “March Against Sharia,” which Gibson is also involved in, says Islamic law “is incompatible with our Constitution and American values.” The event page calls on supporters who “stand for human rights.”
The American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon criticized the mayor’s attempts to shut down both rallies, saying the government can’t revoke or deny a permit based on the demonstrators’ views.
“It may be tempting to shut down speech we disagree with,” the ACLU tweeted, “but once we allow the government to decide what we can say, see, or hear, or who we can gather with, history shows us that the most marginalized will be disproportionately censored and punished for unpopular speech.”
“If we allow the government to shut down speech for some, we all will pay the price down the line,” the organization added.
But Tom Hastings, a longtime activist and professor in the Portland State University conflict resolution program, said the mayor was on solid footing. The looming threat of violence at the rallies justified a shutdown while the city worked out a long-term solution, he said.
“I know these lines are perceived as pretty fuzzy when we’re dealing with constitutional First Amendment rights,” Hastings told The Washington Post. “But there’s no long fuse anymore. Everybody’s fuse seems to be quite short.”
Portland has struggled to stop violence from flaring up at public gatherings in recent months. In November, shortly after the presidential election, peaceful anti-Trump demonstrations were disrupted when anarchists smashed windows, ripped out electrical power boxes and spray-painted buildings downtown.
In April, Portland’s typically family-friendly rose parade was canceled after antifa activists threatened to shut down roads if a Republican group wasn’t barred from the event. And earlier this month, dozens of “black bloc” anarchists destroyed property at May Day protests.
Hastings warned that the mayor’s decision could backfire if he doesn’t reach out to the leaders of the groups whose rallies he’s trying to block. The city, Hastings said, should arrange one-on-one conversations with organizers on all sides, otherwise the trend of violence could only get worse.
“I think it’s a real fine line,” he said. “The cancellation of this can’t be regarded as the end of anything. If you kick the can down the road and don’t do anything it will exacerbated. People are quashed for a minute, but they almost nurse this notion of vengeance and they come out much worse than before.”
05-22-2017, 08:09 AM
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