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46 Seton Hall L. Rev. 189 (2015-2016)
Sriracha Shutdown: Hot Sauce Lessons on Local Privilege and Race

handle is hein.journals/shlr46 and id is 195 raw text is: Sriracha Shutdown: Hot Sauce Lessons on Local Privilege and Race Ernesto Hernandez-L6pez* ABSTRACT In 2013, Huy Fong Foods, maker of the trendy hot sauce sriracha, fought in court to stay open. The Los Angeles suburb of Irwindale tried to enjoin all sauce production, arguing that offensive chili odors created a public nuisance. This was an unexpected development because Huy Fong was recently invited to relocate to Irwindale and air quality regulators found no problems. Sauce lovers and the media closely watched this spicy legal drama, dubbed the sriracha-apocalypse. Originally created for Vietnamese ph * soup, sriracha is extremely popular worldwide. This conflict points to a suburban racialized exclusion, sourced in municipal legal powers. With a population that is over ninety percent Latino, Irwindale was incorporated to capitalize on racial divisions. Mining companies sought these divisions in order to benefit from low taxes. Incorporation created a legal privilege in municipal powers to exclude outsiders. Irwindale's public nuisance lawsuit to shutdown sriracha exemplifies such a tactic. Eyeing this food conflict, this Article uses critical approaches to race and geography to illustrate the influence local government law has on race relations in the suburban United States. This Article also illustrates how municipal legal powers result in racialized exclusion, despite race neutral legal positions and a lack of racist animus. INTRODUCTION .................................... ........ 190 I. SRIRACHA BECOMES A LOCALLY-SOURCED AND GLOBALLY- ADMIRED HOT SAUCE ...................... ......... 201 A. Sriracha's Local to Global Growth .... .......... 201 B. Sriracha Moves to Irwindale................... 205 II. LOCAL NUISANCE BOILS INTO THE SRIRACHA-APOCALYPSE AND THE WORLD WATCHES........................ 208 A. Sriracha Smells in a Small City ........ .......... 208 B. Protecting Local Interests: Irwindale Takes Sriracha to Court ...................................... 211 C. Irwindale Uses a Public Nuisance (and Race Neutral) 189

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