One of the more irritating aspects of political correctness is the hysterical claims of "cultural appropriation" that run rampant in newspapers, blogs, and university classes all across America.  

Hoop earrings have been called out for cultural appropriation of African culture. Small houses have even been called "poverty appropriation." And when Kendall Jenner, the least talented and interesting of the Kardashian brood, posed for a photo shoot dressed as a ballerina, she was accused of appropriating the art of ballet. Yes, really. I guess it should not be surprising that liberals also complain about food being appropriated for American audiences.

The New York Times recently thought this was a big enough problem that it asked, "Why Is Asian Salad Still on the Menu?" 

One Friday night at a bar in San Francisco, I took a look at the menu and found myself face to face once again with the curious modern-day ubiquity of the Asian salad. The “Asian Emperor Salad,” with its “31 ingredients representing the tastes, textures and flavors of Asia,” stirred something other than hunger in me.

I tried to identify exactly what that was. I made a halfhearted joke to my husband about just which Asian emperor this salad was honoring. I thought about its grand imprecision, which irritated me as a Chinese-American. And I wondered, who cooked up this thing?

I was reasonably sure it wasn’t anyone Asian, but I did some investigating to find out.

What did she find out? I don't know, because I don't care about the geographic accuracy of my leafy greens. Neither, it turns out, did the readers of the New York Times. Perhaps everyone is just getting sick of all the preachy, melodramatic pearl clutching of liberals who have been offended... by salad. The comments section for this piece might give you a little hope for humanity:

"Casual racism." Informal hatred. Easy ethnic cleansing. Let's beware of word salads. I'm a Jew. "Kosher-style" conjures something, but nothing of consequence. Living together in peace can mean not finding meaning in every word or custom. Breathe.

and

This is absurd. If this rises to the level that it actually bothers a real human being, that human being should get on their knees and thank God every day that the problems in their lives are so meaningless.

and

Perhaps Ms. Tsui’s essay is an example of protest procrastination—let’s complain about something symbolic because that is easy! Then we can feel like we’re doing something! 

Ban the veil! Ban the Asian salad! Well, just as getting rid of pieces of cloth doesn’t reach the hearts of those who are bent on terrorist jihad, so getting rid of tacky salads won’t reach the hearts of those who scorn Asian people. 

Here’s what I want to know: how do we get to a deeper level of discussion about the ways that we humans divide and hurt each other?

Here's the best:

I'm just going to go out on a limb here and credit the "white audience" with the smarts to know that the Asian salad isn't any more Asian than the Ortega tacos are Mexican or the SpaghettiOs are Italian. I'm pretty liberal and Asian, but this is the kind of crying wolf - whining wolf actually - that makes people tune out when we complain about actual racism. Gimme a break.