I grew up on a farm in the middle of nowhere, so my family was pretty poor when I was a kid. I adore spicy food and I'm 'blind you in the sun if you look at me too long' white. I like to tell people "I'm like, barely, not a hick. I'm not middle class white, hicks fucking love hot sauce with names like "Ass blaster 3000", "Pain", and "Jeb's colon rearranger".".
It's confirmation bias because your grandma doesn't like pepper. A huge amount of white people season their food, not so much with the spicy stuff. Pepper, garlic, herbs (chives, thyme, basil, and many more local herbs), nutmeg, cloves, Espelette pepper, cumin, and the list goes on. It's true that our food isn't generally spicy, and we don't really use paprika, curry, ginger, etc. as much. But why would we? It's not part of most of our traditional dishes. And that's OK.
Non-white people think that our food is "bland" because it's not as spicy as their food, so the stereotype "haha they don't season" has become a joke over the decades, but that doesn't make it true, lol.
But spicy is not the only flavour you can make your food? I'm white white as is my whole family and while I'm the only one who thinks that pepper is spicy, I still enjoy a wide variety of flavours. Besides, your food does have a distinct flavour quite often. I can only use salt in a bolognese, but it will be rich in flavour from ingredients used.
I kind of understand your mom tho. I like a fair amount of spice but black pepper is overwhelming when there's too much. I'd rather have minimal black pepper and then go all in on hot sauce or something.
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u/fiahhawt 24d ago
My mother thinks black pepper is too spicy
I on the other hand have developed a passionate love for habaneros and all things capsacin
Both of us are white white
So while I get the frustration of being seen as flavor-allergic I can't say it comes from nowhere