Washington Post Slammed For Condemning Pumpkin Spice Over Its "Violent History"

They're trying to cancel pumpkin spice now.

This week, The Washington Post wrote about the "violent history" of fall's number one spice blend. They claimed that the beloved seasonal flavor is "fraught with colonizer histories" and tied it to racism and genocide.

The article's author, Maham Javaid, discusses the history of the spices found in pumpkin spice: nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon. It all started with the Dutch East India Company's military campaign to control the Banda Islands – a source of nutmeg – in the 17th century. The campaign resulted in the loss of thousands of lives and marked one of the earliest instances of what some describe as "corporate genocide." The spices, especially nutmeg, were highly valued for their "miraculous" medicinal properties. Monopolies were created over these sought-after ingredients, leading to Indigenous displacement and slavery.

Most of our spices and ingredients were obtained in inhumane ways, but I don't think it's necessary for us to know about the history of every single one. News outlets always try to make us carry the burden of historical injustices as if we were there, and it's getting tiring. Americans are fighting their own battles right now; at least let them cook with their favorite spices this Thanksgiving.

"Today you can buy a jar of the spice mix, typically made with cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger, for as little as $2.39, or drink it in Starbucks’s perennially popular Pumpkin Spice Latte," Javaid explains, "confident that the nutmeg wasn’t grown through means of violence." Oh, boy. In the report, historian Adam Clulow also says that while nutmeg no longer has any negative connotations, the Starbucks seasonal beverages remind him of the 1627 painting Still Life with a Turkey Pie by Pieter Claesz, describing the piece as the “ultimate symbol of stunningly opulent, globalized consumption in the 17th century.”

So, it seems like The Washington Post wants us to remember the brutal deaths of the 17th century every time we're sipping on a warm pumpkin spice latte. In other words, stop enjoying things. You can't just enjoy things, you privileged scum!

The article has already generated a hilarious response from X users. "Washington Post hates white women confirmed," writes @stclairashley.

People on Instagram have even begun mocking the Post, and rightly so.

Why can't large media outlets focus on encouraging corporations to focus on fair trade practices and sustainable agriculture instead, rather than targeting the consumers? How about promoting transparency in the food industry and their chemical-laced products or their poor working conditions?

Lastly, while acknowledging the past is important, it's equally crucial not to burden innocent people with a sense of responsibility for the wrongdoings of the past.

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