Social science on the perilous whiteness of pumpkins
Yes, now for something completely ridiculous: From Margaret Wente at Canada’s Globe and Mail: I learned about the true meaning of the pumpkin-spiced latte in a scholarly paper, called The Perilous Whiteness of Pumpkins. It was peer-reviewed and published in a genuine academic journal. Lisa Jordan Powell, its lead author, is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of British Columbia. “Starbucks PSLs are products of coffee shop culture, with its gendered and racial codes,” it warns. They make up just one part of the “pumpkin entertainment complex, whose multiple manifestations continue the entanglements of pumpkins, social capital, race, and place.” Ms. Powell (who did not respond to an offer to comment on her paper) is merely one of countless academics Read More ›