Obed Manuel
Following Controversy, An Oak Cliff Resident Has Taken Over Corn Connection’s Instagram Account To Promote Traditional Elote Stands Around The City.
C’mon. Who puts sausage in a cup of corn? Well, local corn cart company Corn Connection apparently does, for some blasphemous reason.
But, all kidding aside, it’s actually the company’s social media presence that’s really been rubbing some members of the Hispanic community wrong in recent weeks. Last week, a Facebook post surfaced that drew the ire of some Dallas residents, pointing out some offensive language on Corn Connection’s Instagram account in which whoever runs that company’s social media referred to traditional elote carts around town that are sometimes set up outside of area Home Depot stores as being “roachin’ ass.” From there, things evolved into a total social media frenzy — complete with name-calling, multiple threats of bodily harm, the deactivation of Corn Connection’s social accounts and even one former Corn Connection employee saying that she hoped a local community organizer would “choke and on an elote and die.”
All that rubbed a lot of Dallasites the wrong way — and especially one Oak Cliff resident in particular.
After hearing from his wife about the screenshots of Corn Connection’s Instagram posts Friday night, a man who asked to only be identified as Junior thought, “Here we go again – another group of outsiders moving into an ethnic market and appropriating the culture.”
And so, on Saturday morning, he decided to do something about it. He logged onto Instagram and re-registered the then-defunct @CornConnection account with his own email account.
See also: Aw Shucks. // For Oak Cliff Residents, There’s Only One Elotes Cart That Matters.
At first, Junior says, he did it to keep the account away from its original owners. But then it occurred to him that the best way to react was to use the Instagram account for something positive. That’s when he decided to use it to promote traditional elote stands around the city, and to educate people about elote culture and the people who work the stands.
“There’s ignorance on both ends,” Junior says. “We don’t fully understand them; they don’t fully understand us. If we can open up the lines the communication, then it’s a good step.”
Junior says he has lived in Oak Cliff long enough to see many of changes in his neighborhood — mainly around Bishops Arts and Jefferson Boulevard. He feels that the Corn Connection controversy all comes back to gentrification and cultural appropriation, adding that he feels that it’s important for those visiting Oak Cliff and areas like it to understand why families and individuals set up elote carts.
“The people who work elote stands don’t do it just because there’s a market for it,” Junior says. “They do it out of necessity to provide for their families, and they work hard as hell to do that.”
So far, the reception to the repurposed Corn Connection account has been positive. Several people from around the city have been direct messaging Junior with photos and locations of different elote carts, which he has in turn using to fill his account’s feed. As of this writing, the account has 156 followers — not a bad following for five-day-old feed.
It’s enough to encourage Junior to keep up his efforts with the account, which he hopes will inspire people to go out and visit Dallas’ many traditional elote carts. We hope so, too. Encouraging people to experience the deliciousness of golden kernels swimming in queso fresco, crema and chile is a message we imagine everyone can get behind.