Many people are shaking their heads in bewilderment after Whole Foods announced it was opening a restaurant at its Long Beach, California location called Yellow Fever, reports Raw Story.
Many Asian Americans associate yellow fever with the sexualized and passive stereotype of Asian women. White men with a passion for Asian women are often said to have “yellow fever.”
“Yellow fever” is also the name of a tropical disease spread by mosquitoes.
The grocery chain opened the restaurant in partnership with Korean American chef Kelly Kim who founded the California eatery, reported the Daily News.
I think it’s been silly, and I think it’s a bit funny that it’s all of a sudden a big deal,” co-founder Kelly Kim said to the Daily News.
Reaction on Twitter has mostly been negative.
Yellow Fever is an existing chain owned by Korean American chef Kelly Kim…wish she’d change the name, but she personally sees no issues with it. ??♂️https://t.co/VnotRXzKvh
— Jeff Yang (@originalspin) April 28, 2018
Whole Foods named an Asian restaurant in one of its new 365 stores YELLOW FEVER. In 2018. How did NO ONE put a stop to this? https://t.co/F493QcrEl0
— Maribel Molina (@marimolina385) April 27, 2018
This is not a joke. Nobody @WholeFoods or @amazon noticed the problem with calling an Asian restaurant “Yellow Fever.” This was okayed all the way up the chain & actually got built. https://t.co/KMgR0Ck3Ga
— Laura Seay (@texasinafrica) April 28, 2018
Whole Foods, which was recently purchased by Amazon, has so far not commented on the controversy.
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