When people ask what your favorite food is, make sure to say something exciting like mango-lime flavored African porridge, something where white people can go “that’s so cool! Tell me more.”
One of your most consequential cardinal sins as a Black, African student, is being honest about the significant ways in which you are similar to the white people that you will encounter. That means, you have to play into the fantasy that you are from a far off- land that has never experienced the life-saving grace of white American magic in all its forms. That is, you are probably going to be a less exciting African black girl if you understand American pop cultural references. You have to pretend to be shocked and awed by the subtly self-congratulating nature of cultural practices that insist on their fundamental uniqueness. That is, you HAVE to be excited about eating an American cheese-burger for the first time and squeal about how much bigger and better everything is in the United States.
This rule has the underpinning philosophy that you are not allowed to be too similar to white Americans because otherwise, you lose your novelty. The best way to signal this difference is through the way you answer the question: "what is your favorite food from back home?"
Usually, this question is meant to gauge insight into the kind of world that you have left back home. This curiosity is also, more often than not, a gnawing to understand what characterizes the context of "the other." I understand that this take sounds discouraging and even pessimistic. However, human beings find their belonging in identification - both individual and collective. Insight of “the other” helps us to solidify our own perceptions of the self. When the other seems to be closer to who we are than we initially thought, a fundamental component of our world view is shattered. This explains why you need to muster up and perform as much difference as possible from the white folk at your school. The best way to do that? Respond to the question of your favorite food by describing the most exotic, “aromatic” meal that you can think of. Make sure you include a tropical, seasonal fruit. My personal favourite is a non-existent food I like to call "mango-lime flavored African porridge." It doesn’t exist and it makes no conceptual sense, but it gets the job done - you remain in the comfortable domains of exotic fantasy and the inquirer gets to maintain a solid sense of group identification.
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