Since National Public Radio is a taxpayer-funded liberal sandbox, you can find examples nearly every day of NPR conducting a conversation with its liberal audience on all the liberal obsessions of the moment, like the new political-correctness theme of “cultural appropriation,” like being mad at Justin Bieber for wearing dreadlocks, because that’s a black thing.

This week, NPR asked “When Is It OK To Profit From Cooking Other Cultures' Food?” In other words, is it okay for an Indian-American to run a pizza joint, or an Italian to run an Indian restaurant? If you're a white guy cooking Mexican food, it is racist or "neocolonialist"? Apparently, to the Left, you should “stick to your own kind” when selling food.

NPR’s Maria Kodoy and Kat Chow (seriously, a food expert named “Kat Chow”?) went to Twitter to ask fellow liberals what they thought:

Recently, we started a conversation about food and race. Specifically, we wondered out loud, who gets to cook — and become the face of — a culture's cuisine? Our question was prompted by a recent Sporkful interview with Rick Bayless, who has faced criticism over his long career. Although he is an Oklahoman with no Mexican ancestry, he has become one of the most prominent ambassadors for Mexican cuisine in America.... As with many things involving race and class in America, there are no easy answers — and we're not expecting to find any clear-cut ones. We're more interested in starting a conversation.

This is mildly amusing, since Bayless loves feeding the Obamas some Mexican food in Chicago. Some thought it was fine, it's a free country, and some did not, so Bayless might want to watch out for protesters:

– “when white people do this, they're inspired. when others do this, they're knockoffs. that's the reality” – “And is it OK that people perceive the food the white chef adopted as worth more than they would pay for the original?”

Chris Beck at Splice Today took after this whole intellectual debate: