The meat-and-curry metaphor was, in my opinion, a poorly-chosen one

It appears that the NYT values diversity in theory, but aesthetically is still stuck on Northern Europe as the ideal.

In the "City" section this Sunday, there's a special focus on immigrants in NYC, accompanied (online, at least) by a picture of a multiracial, lesbian, Jamaican immigrant with a large Afro. The entire section celebrates the continual cycles of the struggles and joys of immigration to the city, and makes a point in including immigrants of a wide range of races and nationalities.

Then, moving along to this Sunday's "Sophisticated Traveler", one learns where one can go if one wishes to escape the wonderful but apparently less-than-beautiful diversity of New York: Copenhagen.

"Style in clothing reminds me of the original impulse behind adding curry to food: you only need to do it if the meat isn't good. And Copenhageners really don't need style at all. They'd look good if they were dressed like baseball infields during rain delays," writes Ken Chowder, adding, "But, of course, Copenhageners do have style."

What exactly is Chowder getting at here? In what part of the world are people stylish because they are naturally ugly? I don't want to read too much into this, but it appears that Chowder is asserting that Danes are naturally (read: racially) beautiful. (The meat-and-curry metaphor was, in my opinion, a poorly-chosen one.) Chowder also refers to "cool beauty" as being one of "the classical Nordic virtues" and seems to be referring to people as much as to architecture or landscape.

I'm sure that plenty of Danes are beautiful, and I do not wish to disparage those whose last names contain two consecutive "A"s. But no race or nation has a monopoly on beauty, and, while individuals are free to have aesthetic preferences based on whatever happens to turn them on, be it blondness, dark eyes, or tribal scar-patterns, a diversity-loving paper like the Times really shouldn't be printing pieces that embrace the idea of an objective, aesthetic, racial beauty ideal, and one that happens to evoke less-than-enlightened times.