"Whiteflation" is a phenomenon I've noticed a lot in the study of world cultures.
Basically, it means Euros unconsciously inflate something to seem like more than it is.

Note: "Whiteflation" is different from "Eurocentrism", which is euros caring a lot more about their own shit and actively ignoring other ethnicities' stuff. Eurocentrism is actually a bigger problem than Whiteflation, but the latter is more interesting.

If you have an extensive knowledge of UNESCO sites, you'll know that some of the most interesting/ancient POC sites are not designated. While every last inconsequential pillar in Europe gets the status. This is mostly due to Eurocentrism, but some of it is due to Whiteflation.

Whiteflation happens in cuisine too:
Europeans tend to make up lots of extraneous names for very trivial variations in their food. Case in point: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soldiers_(food)
They could have just called these "strips". But for some reason, they decided to name them something taken from a fever dream.

A beef sandwich that's long becomes a "cheesesteak". But if the beef is corned, it's a "reuben". A sandwich with bacon on it becomes a "BLT". Under Whiteflation, completely trivial ingredient combinations take on a new life of their own, as a new discrete "invention" (even though the "invention" is so trivial that even an infant could make one accidentally)

In Asia this sort of stuff just doesn't happen. People don't have wildly different names for La Mian with beef as opposed to La Mian with tofu. When regional differences do exist, they are referred to as "styles" rather than completely novel objects (IE: Hakka style noodles). And even here the styles are broad general differences rather than trivial discrete hinging on a single ingredient--meaning there are a lot fewer of even these "styles".

In the West, you tend to see lots of different menu items, each one being a trivial combo of ingredients.
In Asia, that same menu would list under ONE single item, with a list of several topping options. Hotpot culture being a great example of this.

It even happens on psychological tests: https://i.imgur.com/2U3DFJi.png Asians chose B, Euros chose A. To me, B simply makes objective sense--the wood can be whittled into a cylindrical shape, it's trivial. On the other hand, blue plastic can never become wood. Feel free to argue.

I feel like the concept between cuisine, ethnogenesis, and architectural heritage are the same.
-A "sub" can be turned into a "cheesesteak" with one simple trivial ingredient switch.
-A "Walloonite" is just a French-speaking "Flanderite" (Europe has way more of these meme ethnicities that a lot of people actually take very seriously)
-A couple of stray pillars are an amazing architectural site all their own, instead of just "another minor Greek temple"

The main reason for the overrepresentation of European stuff is just Eurocentrism. But some small part of it is the Western tendency to imagine something out of nothing, to maintain a long list of names for the sake of an illusion of diversity. AKA Whiteflation

  • hahafuck [they/them]
    ·
    4 years ago

    I think you are ironically over-himogynizing nonwhite cultures in a racist way in order to make this point.