Vanilla Ice Cream

I like vanilla ice cream.


There, I said it.


I’m not supposed to say it but I am saying that I prefer one flavor over all others.


Looking at the data, I know there are no empirical reasons to prefer one flavor over another. There is no measure of meaningful quality that belongs to one flavor more than others. People who say that one flavor routinely does better than others and therefor it is actually best and we should stop wasting time and money trying to prop up failing flavors seem to have misapprehended how flavors are created and judged.


But I prefer vanilla. I am comfortable with vanilla... And I am a little afraid of chocolate... maybe more than a little. But more than that I am afraid of saying that I am afraid of chocolate or that I am more comfortable with vanilla.


Even if all of us are to some degree.




Even if the most cursory of cultural examinations would show that we, as a culture, prefer vanilla, it is still a taboo to confess and if I said it in public, I might be pilloried.


The neighborhood I grew up in, the schools I attended, the places that I worked; they all served primarily vanilla ice cream. Most of the time there were one or two servings of chocolate but not as many as you might expect when you look at the ice cream census data. I even hear some people claim such token examples of flavors exist so people can say they have a wide flavor selection but even a little investigation will show that such tokenism does not nurture the development of a diverse pallet.


It’s not my fault but it is my responsibility. It is all of our responsibility to try a serving of ice cream before we reject it because of how we expect it to taste. 'Chocolate' is not a label that defines all chocolate! There are some really bad chocolate ice creams out there with harsh flavors and toxic ingredients. But there is also ice cream that gets ignored and neglected. People look at the shade of frozen cream and assume it will disagree with their delicate constitution.




Pretending we don’t do this hurts ourselves and really hurts the makers of chocolate ice cream. We rob ourselves of a wider flavor experience (except those parts of chocolate ice cream we co-opt and pretend belonged to vanilla ice cream the whole time because flavor shouldn’t matter (apart from when it comes to choosing schools, employees, law enforcement, or pornography)) and some incredible flavor combinations are rejected on sight before an ounce of the reality even melts on our prejudiced tongues.



I would like to try more flavors. I would like to expand the range of flavors I can appreciate and invest in the makers of ice cream I have been afraid to try. I am still most comfortable with vanilla. I am still afraid of chocolate. I probably will always have these biases but I would like to minimize the caustic effects they have on my life and the lives of others. I would like to minimize the harm that pretending I don’t have these preferences is causing me and my community.

Thank you for understanding,

Sincerely,

A Stupid Jewish Woman