Macalester: the place where I learned how to hide who I am

Macalester: the place where I learned how to hide who I am

In the vegetarian cooperative that I call home, I tried celebrating Bengali New Year by making a fermented rice dish. For the two hours that I was preparing this communal meal, a group of white students continuously joked about this food, questioning how fermented the dish really was, and the food safety of a cultural tradition that has existed for thousands of years. When I raised issue with this, I was “overreacting” and “trying to force my cu…