Liz Cooper’s husband always enjoyed a love affair with the hot and spicy foods of Mexico and China.
But Cooper knew her husband’s most recent foray into traditional Korean cuisine stemmed from a deeper, more personal place within him. Sharing a meal of kimchi with his young son who was adopted from Korea two years ago satisfied more than a growl in their bellies.
“I think my husband was trying to make a connection of his own to Korea and our son that he could understand and enjoy,” Cooper says.
Diversity experts say this family has reached a critical stage in the process of acceptance. They are ready to advance from just being introduced to difference to creating a positive relationship with it.
It’s an opportunity that happens every time Cooper makes a run to a grocery store.
The neighborhood grocery store is one of the most accessible gateways to diversity if a shopper is willing to make that connection. The items and products sold within its aisles can expose individuals to other cultures in a non-threatening environment.
“It’s a soft approach in exposing communities and individuals to difference,” says Aswad Allen, director of diversity affairs in the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
“It’s almost a risk-free experience that’s purely grounded in the enjoyment of the meal, not the historical or cultural context of where it came from. But it’s a starting point we all need.”
Most people tend to think of diversity as something that’s thrust upon them. Or they misunderstand what it means, confusing it with controversial subjects such as affirmative action or bilingual education.
But true diversity – a difference in thought, experience, perspective and ideals – is not just not a concept grounded in gender, race or religion, says Allen.
For a meat-and-potatoes kind of person, that spicy corn and mango salsa with tortilla chips might be the first step in a process that ultimately makes the need for bilingual education easier to swallow. Learning to clean collard greens at a grocery store cooking demonstration might encourage someone to speak to the young African-American couple up the block.
And if Cooper ever wants to branch out beyond the JES Korean barbecue sauce available at the neighborhood Safeway, she may one day feel more comfortable perusing the aisles of the Komart Asian specialty market on Havana in Aurora.
Sound like a pipe dream? Experts say the grocery store makes it OK to be open to difference so acceptance of diversity has a place to take root.
“On some level (shoppers) realize that if it’s in my grocery store, it’s OK, and I just might try it,” says retail consultant Bob Phibbs. “It’s a part of the mainstream, and I’m not being exotic or strange if I want to eat it.”
Grocery store shoppers are able to make their own food choices without any other biases involved, says Frank Romero, grocery director for Kings Soopers City Market.
“The product is sitting right there and available to try. Customers don’t have to worry about getting static from others, their peers or their family asking them about their choices. It’s a private experience.”
Diversity experts say anything that makes individuals more open to diversity as quickly as possible is good considering how fast ethnic demographic shifts are changing the face of the nation.
Rise in immigrants
The United States is experiencing one of the biggest waves of immigration, says Luke Visconti, partner and co-founder of DiversityInc. magazine. Ethnic populations are doubling and even tripling in some cases before anyone has time to respond or understand what the fallout will be.
Nearly 1 in 5 Coloradans is Latino according to Census data – a tremendous increase that caused the Latino population to jump by more than 17 percent in just a four-year span.
Already diverse urban hubs such as Los Angeles or New York could absorb a similar demographic shift without much hoopla. But having that happen in Denver, which was less diverse to begin with, is “like a shock to the system,” Visconti says.
“You see people reacting to the change and most of that reaction is negative because humans in general don’t like change,” Visconti says. “Anything that will make that process begin is a good thing. That thing is most likely going to be food.”
Visconti believes during this era the country will adapt quicker than it did 100 years ago when the Irish, Italians, Hungarians and Jews reached American shores.
Technological advances give us access to more information about the world around us, easing our acceptance of differences. Once rarely visited points of the globe are just an airline trip away, while Food Network chefs tempt our tastebuds with exotic cuisine.
But sharing a meal remains one of the easiest and most non-threatening ways for a person to be more open to a cultural exchange.
“Food is not going to live next door to you,” says Dan Gasby, CEO for B. Smith Enterprises, which promotes Betty Crocker corn bread, Pilsbury Grands biscuits and Lawry’s seasoning salt – staples in the African-American ethnic market.
“You get hungry roughly three times a day,” Visconti adds. “You don’t get diversity training three times a day. Eating gives people a low-impact way of trying something new. If you don’t like it, send it back. It’s not a big deal.”
Jump-starting “exposure”
Food, like language, music, celebrations and even clothes are attractive and pleasing aspects of culture that easily can be adopted and made a part of an individual’s personal experience, says Allen.
Allen says eating food from another culture jump-starts “exposure,” a critical step in a three-phase process that leads to true acceptance.
Local grocery stores become an entryway for exposure because stores shift their formats to conform to a particular neighborhood’s needs, says Jeff Stroh, Safeway Denver Division spokesman. For example, product selection at the Safeway store at 2660 Federal Blvd. reflects the Hispanic influence in the neighborhood. That store carries dozens of items not sold in others, including a variety of chilis, peppers and spices, and tortillas, as well as cooking regiment staples, such as pinto beans sold in bulk.
“Different cultures can open up to you in terms of labels and products just by going up and down a grocery store aisle,” Stroh said.
The impact food can have on a psyche can be initially shallow, but with time, a deeper understanding can occur.
“It’s not uncommon to find a guy at a bar, eating tacos and drinking beer with his buddies while all the while bashing Mexicans,” Visconti says. “But if you look carefully at what’s happening in our society, you can pinpoint a profound change taking shape, an opening up of our society. Now you are going to see more guys at the bar eating burritos with Mexican- Americans sitting at the table with them.”
Staff writer Sheba R. Wheeler can be reached at 303-954-1283 or swheeler@denverpost.com.
