Caren White: ‘Stop Baking Bread’ Post Goes Viral

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View of bread on display during Chef Zachary Golper’s Baking Bread with Potatoes class at The 8th Annual New York Culinary Experience.

On Saturday, a post on Medium by Caren White titled “Why You Need to Stop Baking Bread” went viral. In the article, White made controversial statements about people unnecessarily baking bread during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic and causing a shortage of baking ingredients.

After the article went viral, White received a massive amount of backlash. She deleted the article from Medium, as well as her author page on the website.  White wrote the article after she went to the grocery store and wasn’t able to buy organic flour because it was out of stock.

White believes the reason for that is because people are bored at home “so they are baking bread to pass the time.”

In the Medium article, the author said, “Baking bread is a way of life for me, not a hobby.” White does all her own baking and cooking because she wants to know what is in her food. She said:

So when you buy up all of the flour and leavening ingredients for the sake of pretty photos on your Instagram feed you are literally taking food from my mouth. And the mouths of other families who also do their own their baking so that they can provide healthy food for their families.

White said that before the pandemic, very few people did scratch baking. However, since the coronavirus lockdown began, more people have started, which has led to baking ingredients being sold out. She said, “There [are] not enough [ingredients] now that we are competing with a bunch of dilettante bakers who care nothing for anyone but themselves.”

White said that if individuals want to learn a new skill during quarantine, they should start gardening or crocheting. She ended the article saying: “But, please, please, I’m begging you, stop baking bread.”

Social Media Users Respond to White’s Article Telling Them to Stop Baking Bread

After White wrote the article, it started trending on Twitter, and users shared their thoughts about the piece. One user posted:

She said, “To piss off #CarenWhite I’m gonna learn how to bake bread so I can stay home longer between grocery trips.”

Another Twitter user posted:

She said, “I hear #carenwhite has an issue with people baking bread! I think this loaf is pretty epic.”

One individual posted:

She said, “Fellow food writers, let’s not be like *cough*… Caren White. (TL;DR you shouldn’t make bread, because she was doing it first and now can’t buy organic flour for herself).”

One person tweeted:

They said, “Caren White is the most Karen of Karens by definition. The elitist notion that others must stop baking bread so she, who has the privilage of TIME & MONEY to make everything she eats from scratch, can find her ingredients is tone deaf classist bs.”

White Responded to the Backlash That She’s Gotten From the Medium Article

After receiving backlash for her “Why You Need to Stop Baking Bread” article, White responded:

If I am what is wrong with the world, then I’m in good company. The company of people you apparently have no idea even exists. I am not shocked by the response to what I wrote. I expected to hear from a lot of entitled privileged people. What shocks me is that no one seems to be aware of anyone outside of their own group. No one seems [to] know anyone who doesn’t look or live like them. They think that they are the only ones who exist and matter. Sorry, they are not. And they need to learn to share.

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