Black Food Matters

Racial Justice in the Wake of Food Justice

Hanna Garth, Ashanté M. Reese

• Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press
• Year: 2020
• Topic: Social Sciences
• eBook ISBN:
  9781452961941
• Subtopic: Agricultural Public Policy
• Index: Social Sciences

An in-depth look at Black food and the challenges it faces today

For Black Americans, the food system is broken. When it comes to nutrition, Black consumers experience an unjust and inequitable distribution of resources. Black Food Matters examines these issues through in-depth essays that analyze how Blackness is contested through food, differing ideas of what makes our sustenance “healthy,” and Black individuals’ own beliefs about what their cuisine should be.

Primarily written by nonwhite scholars, and framed through a focus on Black agency instead of deprivation, the essays here showcase Black communities fighting for the survival of their food culture. The book takes readers into the real world of Black sustenance, examining animal husbandry practices in South Carolina, the work done by the Black Panthers to ensure food equality, and Black women who are pioneering urban agriculture. These essays also explore individual and community values, the influence of history, and the ongoing struggle to meet needs and affirm Black life.

A comprehensive look at Black food culture and the various forms of violence that threaten the future of this cuisine, Black Food Matters centers Blackness in a field that has too often framed Black issues through a white-centric lens, offering new ways to think about access, privilege, equity, and justice.

Contributors: Adam Bledsoe, U of Minnesota; Billy Hall; Analena Hope Hassberg, California State Polytechnic U, Pomona; Yuson Jung, Wayne State U; Kimberly Kasper, Rhodes College; Tyler McCreary, Florida State U; Andrew Newman, Wayne State U; Gillian Richards-Greaves, Coastal Carolina U; Monica M. White, U of Wisconsin–Madison; Brian Williams, Mississippi State U; Judith Williams, Florida International U; Psyche Williams-Forson, U of Maryland, College Park; Willie J. Wright, Rutgers U.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Black Food Matters: An Introduction
• 1. In the Food Justice World but Not of It: Everyday Black Food Entrepreneurship
• 2. The Intersection of Politics and Food Security in a South Carolina Town
• 3. Nurturing the Revolution: The Black Panther Party and the Early Seeds of the Food Justice Movement
• 4. Blackness and “Justice” in the Los Angeles Food Justice Movemen
• 5. Good Food in a Racist System: Competing Moral Economies in Detroit
• 6. Soul Food Gentrification: Food, Racial Heritage Tourism, and the Redevelopment of Black Space in Miami
• 7. “Preserve and Add Flavor”: Barbecue as Resistance in Memphis
• 8. Sisters of the Soil: Urban Agriculture in Detroit
• 9. Race, Land, and the Law: Black Farmers and the Limits of a Politics of Recognition
• 10. The Mango Gang and New World Cuisine: White Privilege in the Commodification of Latin American and Afro-Caribbean Foods
• Afterword: Problematizing the Problem
• Acknowledgments
• Contributors
• Index