Food and Race and History and Culture
This past summer I worked as a
health officer at Pretty Lake Camp (PLC) in Mattawan Michigan. The camp
operates on a no-cost basis and offers access to an outdoor, overnight camp
experience for kids in Kalamazoo County who would not be able to afford a camp
program otherwise. In addition to activities that are typically found at your
basic U.S. summer camp (swimming, field games, arts and crafts, etc) PLC is
partnered with a farm program on the property that produces food to subsidize
campers daily meals. Helping out at the farm is a daily part of each camper’s
routine and campers participate in garden and livestock maintenance as well as
food harvest. Similar to the purpose of many programs that are geared towards
connecting communities with the origin of the food they are consuming, the purpose
of the farm program at PLC is to foster in youth a hands-on understanding of
the process of growing the food that ends up on their plates at dinner.
How this
falls into my job description of medical staff I do not know, but I spent a
great deal of my time last summer resolving conflict and supervising meal times
for kids who were misbehaving. Often the kids at my table refused to touch the
food on their plates. When I asked why, the response I got most frequently
second only to “it looks nasty,” was “that’s white people food.”
WMU’s catering
company prepared camp meals. When he spoke with staff at the beginning of the
summer the head chef, Nick, stressed his belief that all kids should be running
on fresh, healthy, mostly unprocessed foods. He was also very excited about the
resource of the camp farm and was very enthusiastic about subsidizing camp
meals with farm produce. He also spoke about the importance of connecting kids
and communities in low-income areas (i.e., urban-residing people of color) with
food education and access to healthy foods. Listening to what Nick had to say
at the beginning of the summer, I felt nothing but positive about the PLC farm
program and the opportunity that PLC offered to connect kids to their food and
its origin. But at the summer progressed the phrase, “that’s white people food”
stuck in my mind.
In her
article, “Bringing Good Food to Others: Investigating the Subjects of
Alternative Food Practice,” Julie Guthman does a pretty thorough job of
shredding my early summer optimism about the benefits of the PLC farm program
and the many programs with a similar mission in the area. Although I think that
some of what Guthman has to say comes off slightly harsh and does not speak to
the intent or the success of many food education and food access programs in low-income
urban areas, she makes a number of points about the movement towards alternative
food systems that spark an important dialogue about specific aspects of the
alternative food movement that render it a space of whiteness. Particularly,
Guthman talks about the white social view of knowledge, access, and cost as the
primary barriers to good food, as well as the historically white desire to
enroll African American people in a particular set of values (in this case,
food values).
Bringing Good Food to Others article (if this link doesn't work just google the title with the author Julie Guthman):
In the past
I have talked about and thought about the whiteness of the alternative food
movement in terms of the physical whiteness of spaces such as Whole Foods,
Michigan farmers markets, and CSAs, but I have not spent a lot of time thinking
about the demographics of the food movement from a historical perspective. Guthman
offers thought provoking ties, connecting the language and imagery that we
often associate with local farming and healthy foods (getting your hands in the
dirt, being a part of the growing process of your food, etc) to the raced and
oppression-soaked reality of America’s social and food production history. The
role that culture plays in the demographics of the alternative food movement is
a conversation that I think is most likely not had often enough.
So, next
Thursday I would like to start a dialogue about the relationship between race
and the alternative food movement that explores any of your personal
experiences working with programs similar to the PLC farming program or the
Woodward gardening program, along with Guthman’s article, our understanding of
race relations historically, and the presence of this history and the
historical self that each of us carries in every space we inhabit today. Why do
we think the food movement is white dominated? What factors are at play here?
Can this change? If this is currently a white movement, can current white
players be the catalysts for its diversification? How?
I also
included a link to a brief article about the demographics of outdoor recreation
participation that I think presents a similar connection to history as a way of
understanding white dominated outdoor spaces. Take a read if you have the time
but I know its kind of a lot with the Guthman article so no worries if you
don’t get to this one. Thanks!
Outdoor recreation demographics article:
I think there are a few different factors that contribute to the whiteness of alternative food movements. I think it has a lot to do with privelege. White people often have the economic privelege to see "organic" and "local" as the biggest issues at hand while many communities of color struggle with the problem hunger. I think having organic and local food is a huge solution to feeding communities where hunger is a problem, however, I think the way these solutions are approached can be very problematic. When white people don't take the time to understand that hunger is the most pressing problem, alternative food movements can't be connected to these underserved communities of color in meaningful ways, making them unsuccessful. Gardens and farms just can't be plopped into communities. They need to be integrated into communities in ways that actually serve the community.
ReplyDeleteSecondly I think the history of agriculture in this country is very racialized and tied up in capitalism. African Americans are tied to agriculture by way of the trauma of slavery. This has turned many African Americans in this country away from agriculture. Malik Yakini spoke about this at K a few years ago. This history of slavery is also tied up in the capitalist system that made our society a highly racialized. Blacks never had opportunities to have there own land, they were always the capital, and working the capital of white people. In this light it is easy to see why white people are so blind to this history and why agriculture has been tied to whiteness.
Additionally, when thinking about capitalism it is important to think about why these movements need to exist. Capitalism has ruined our agricultural system, making it unsustainable and unhealthy, it has oppressed and continues to oppress people of color. If we are building alternative food movements, they need to be alternative this capitalist system that created all these problems. The article spoke about small amounts of customers at a farmers market supplied but a community farm. In my opinion, if community farms and gardens were truly being "alternative" they would function (as much as possible) outside of capitalism. The food would be grown by the community for the community. Time and energy would earn people food, no money would be needed.
If we want to change this white narrative around alternative food movements, we need to understand that we aren't being an alternative to factory farming, we are being alternative to the capitalist system that has created the deterioration of our earth AND the oppression of people of color in this society. If people took more time to understand the history and structures behind different communities, they would come up with more food movements that were empowering and that actually served communities of color.
To this day, one of my favorite parts about going home to Grosse Pointe for a weekend or holiday break is the Saturday morning trip to Eastern Market in Detroit. It is the oldest and one of the largest farmers markets in the nation, and there is indeed a strong sense of community when one walks through the sheds, chats to various farmers and vendors, and listens to the varying talent levels of street performers. I have been going to the market since I was young, but it wasn't until recently that a jarring thought occurerd to me.
ReplyDeleteThough Eastern Market is practically in the heart of Detroit, a city that's population is over 80% African American, the majority of its visitors are white. As soon as I realized this, there has always been something mildly unsettling about the market's representation of Detroit. How can one of the city's most-talked-about highlights be truly representational of its greater culture if the racial majority of Detroit is not there?
I have found that a great deal of the market's produce, meat, poultry and fish is of better quality and price than at a commercial grocery store, not to mention most vendors accept bridge cards. So is it really an economic privilege that makes Eastern Market a white-dominated space? One could argue that to a degree, yes, because of the transportation factor. Detroit is a geographically vast city with poor public transportation, and so unless you live close or have a car, it is hard to get to. And so residents from many of the white-dominant suburbs have easy access.
But I think a lot of what Guthman's article talks about is more of the reason. White consumer appeal to the "organic" label, as well as US agricultural history being shaped by white (often abrassive and unjust) ownership are large factors.
I am interested to hear what other people's experiences have been in similar environments, and how food can be a unifying rather than segregational conversation across different cultures, classes and ethnicities.
I really appreciate this conversation because I think it should be central to any conversation and work that is done on food justice. Before coming to Kalamazoo College I had never considered the impacts of whiteness on food systems or food justice movements. Then my first year at K I worked with the Club Grub program at Woodward elementary school. The group of students was majority black and it became apparent to me that we had different relationships to food. Unfortunately, as facilitators of the group we didn’t have any conversations about this and I think our program struggle because of it. I stopped working at Woodward, but participated in gardening program at El Sol sophomore and junior year. I think there was more of an awareness about race, but still no intentional work on the implications of race on our work. Again, I think this limited the effectiveness of the programming.
ReplyDeleteDue to these previous experiences, I really enjoyed reading Guthman’s article. I think she did an excellent job of identifying the underlying narratives of a white dominated food movement. I completely agree that overwhelming assumption in the food movement tends to be “that knowledge, access, and cost are the primary barriers to more healthful eating” (Guthman, 432). Thinking about my journey in food justice, I know that I have often engaged in conversations centered on these characteristics. However, after learning more about racial construction and its systematic implications, I believe it’s really important to be critical of why the food movement engages in certain work. I do see the tendency to believe that white people can simply ‘educate’ people of color and then the food system will be just. Even on our first day of class the idea of education and raising awareness was brought up numerous times. Of course those are important, but in my opinion it is just as or even more important to first ask people what they know and then address why people might not know in the first place.
I do think that positive change around these issues is occurring. I think there are beginning to be a lot more people actively thinking about what it means to engage in anti-racist food work. Thinking about the food movement at Kalamazoo College, I know addressing and really engaging with issues of race was a struggle and I think we could have done a lot of things differently. Yet, I also know that I learned a lot from the work that was completed and it has challenged me to think critically about the way I approach anti-racism work now. I think that it’s really important to start conversations about race and the structural issues around food from a young age. I think incorporating honest conversations about the structural issues, not just normative conversations about food, can be helpful in allowing people to make connections and to understand their context. Then, I think it also becomes especially important to have these conversations in higher education settings, where the next group of educators, policy makers, etc is developing their consciousness. Like all anti-racism work, these conversations are never-ending and require action.
The mainstream food movement is a white space due to privilege and a desire to maintain the focus on "white people problems" and ultimately maintain the status quo. Both the privilege to be ignorant of the injustices that exist and the privilege of having the agency to choose to eat whatever you want play into this as well as the role of the media and corporate interests that try to emulate progress with trendy health foods and consumable forms of charity for white upper middle class consumers.
ReplyDeleteI think it is interesting that we focus on one conception of the food movement, the white one, because there have been historically, and are still today, so many powerful movements around issues of food access and food sovereignty within communities of color. I think the question is not why is the food movement white, but why are we only focusing on the white food movement?
I think this has a lot to do with the capitalist and white supremacist nature of our society. The food movements fought by people of color address issues of systemic racism, the disenfranchisement of whole communities, the conquest of neoliberal capitalist systems, and complex histories and relationships with food that transgress the borders of white normative ways of knowing.
I think by learning from the work of organizations like Detroit Black Community Food Security Network and Indigenous food sovereignty movements in the US and all over the world, we can focus our attention being allies to movements that look to address our failing agricultural system in a more comprehensive and just way through a focus on the interconnecting issues of human health, environmental sustainability, cultural heritage, and sovereignty, through a critical social justice lens.
I’m really glad that we will be discussing this in class on Thursday as we have had two classes already and have only lightly touched this subject. I have two experiences that I can draw upon in relation to this discussion. One of the first experiences that I had in relation to this discussion on the overwhelming whiteness of alternative food movements is something that you, Hannah, brought up in your post. I live in a predominantly white suburb right outside of Detroit and when I first heard about a Whole Foods coming to the city most of the people I spoke with living in the suburbs were ecstatic. It wasn’t until I had a few different conversations with people at K about the Whole Foods coming to Detroit that I realized there was a major issue. Detroit doesn’t have enough grocery stores, but putting a Whole Foods, a store that is grossly expensive, into the city is not the way to help the situation.
ReplyDeleteAnother experience that I have had that relates to this discussion is working with Woodward Elementary in their gardening program in my freshman year. I heard many times from the children that I worked with what Hannah, you heard about the food and the gardening practices being white. In my opinion, the food movement being white dominated is more about privilege. When someone has the privilege to think thoughtfully about what they are consuming and others do not have that privilege that is a problem.
The food movement is white dominated because generally speaking, whites have more basic needs met in this country than people of color. That is a broad sweeping statement that has exceptions, of course. An example: my best friend growing up was black and his family ate cleaner, better food than most of my other friends. I think it has less to do with color and more to do with education level and economic means. His parents had good jobs and they could afford the good food. They were also college educated and had a good deal of knowledge on nutrition and health, and they decided as a family to make eating well a priority.
ReplyDeleteThere are tons of poor people in this country, and they have a variety of skin colors. There are plenty of whites in this country who are impoverished and unable to afford organic food just as there are plenty of people of color in the same boat. Regardless of color, if you are struggling to feed yourself and your family every day, eating organic food is not likely to even be on your list of concerns. It takes time and privilege to even think about these issues, and many poor people don't have much of either.
All of that being said, one cannot deny the fact that white people have it better in our culture than other people do. A capitalist society creates a dog eat dog kind of world and mindset. White people, having never been oppressed on this land, have been able to build themselves up for years, whereas minorities are still facing prejudice that makes it hard for them to climb the ladder.
I used to feel guilty about being white and privileged, but it didn't do me any good. Nowadays, I try to view my position of privilege as a platform on which I can try to reach other people and bring about some positive change. Hannah, when you said that kids would regularly say, "that's white people food," it made me sad because I just don't understand where they are coming from. The only experience I have is my own life, beyond that I can only speculate. I think the first steps to diversifying the food movement are to have conversations like these, but I think it is also of utmost importance to get direct feedback from the people we are trying to incorporate.
I took Dr. Katanski’s English class “Reading the World: Gardens” last spring, and for the service-learning component I had the chance to work at the Pretty Lake Camp Farm. That was my first real awakening to the notion that people of color have less access to fresh, healthy foods. People of color on average have a lower socioeconomic status, and often live in areas without grocery stores. Of course, there are white people with lower socioeconomic status, and people of color with higher socioeconomic status. But the disparity still exists.
ReplyDeleteDuring my time at Pretty Lake, I really learned a lot from Jenny Doezema, who is in charge of the farm. Jenny hopes to offer an expanded education program that includes older youth and brings more diverse leadership to the farm. Intensely aware of the food desert issue in many areas in and around Kalamazoo, Jenny had said that she wants to be part of the movement that is bringing more fresh local food into neighborhoods and corner stores in the north side, south side, and east side neighborhoods that don’t have it now. She hopes that getting these kids from lower socioeconomic backgrounds to the farm might eventually lead to the possibility of a mobile market whereby the kids take the food grown on the farm to their own neighborhoods to sell to people they know.
In our gardens class discussions, we talked a lot about the importance of refraining from imposing our own ideas on a community. Jenny seems to think that helping these communities to help themselves is a great way to avoid this issue. She thought there seemed to be a lot of community ownership, and that getting kids to the farm would be a way to do it that doesn’t feel like we are coming in from far away to fix a problem. I think programs like this have real potential as a solution to disparities regarding food access.
I’m really glad we’re talking about this because I think it tends to be left out of the conversation about the alternative food movement. Guthman’s article was clear, insightful, and honest, and really made me think about the relationship between race and the push for local, organic food. Although I’m certainly aware of my own privilege on an individual level, I hadn’t thought much about the problems with organizations “providing good food” to “underprivileged communities”. I’m putting these phrases in quotes because after reading the article, they don’t seem as clear-cut as I thought before, and bring up quite a few important issues.
ReplyDeleteGuthman’s article helped me realize that the input of community members is not just important, but necessary. Too often, organizations go into areas that don’t have access to fresh, healthy foods in an effort to “fix” their situation. Although I don’t think these organizations have bad intentions, they usually don’t take time to listen to the ideas and desires of people living there and rather follow universal guidelines. Each community has unique needs that must be considered to make real, positive change. Part of the issue is that people want to feel good about themselves, like they’re “making a difference”. It’s more difficult to think about the implications of their actions and how community members might feel about these actions. I think there is definitely potential for change, and those in positions of privilege need to be the catalysts.
I don’t have any personal experiences with programs like the PLC farming program, so I’m interested to hear what my class members have to say. One experience that might relate is when we worked with local communities in Thailand. Even though our program did a pretty good job of teaching us about community involvement, I still remember being wary about imposing our own ideas on communities that we were not part of.
Furthermore, since I’m signed up to start with the Woodward gardening program in a few weeks, our class discussion will provide ways for me to start thinking about these issues. Hopefully this will help me become more conscious about how to listen, teach, and work with kids in this program.
Thanks Hannah, what a comprehensive and helpful article. I thought it was especially relevant to us based on her in-depth citation of her students' experiences. I really appreciate the conclusion that the “focus of activism should shift away from the particular qualities of food and towards the injustices that underlie disparities in food access. “
ReplyDeleteThere’s so much push to move forward and create a new food system and figure out how to solve the problem of food access, but if we’re missing the context as to how we got to this point, our ‘solutions’ won’t be effective and might be detrimental, as she shows through her students’ experiences. As James Baldwin encourages us (holla at senior semn), we really must look at the history in order to understand where we are today and how to begin to move forward intentionally and beneficially. If I, as a white young student, am not fully aware of the context of the situation I’m working in, I will absolutely be disillusioned about the impact of my work.
I think the article also presents the ever-present complication of attempting to change an entire system, but also having to work within the system to make small immediate changes in the meantime. But if organizations don’t have the big picture shift in mind, their programming might be ignorant, ineffective and potentially offensive.
I’m definitely thinking a lot more about the position I just applied for and how that organization fits in with the authors points in the article… more on that in class!
I really enjoyed reading Guthman’s article because it gave an insightful overview on a conversation that is not often talked about within the alternative food movement. I believe that some of the main problems with alternative food movements are associated with white privilege. Large corporations produce ‘bad’ foods, with high contents of sugar and saturated fats, which are subsidized and thus often cheaper.
ReplyDeleteTherefore, there seems to be a push to increase organic and local sources of food in order to decrease the obesity ‘epidemic,’ hunger, and other problems within our capitalist society. In my opinion, however, this solution is completely elitist, classist, and racist.
While I think that organic and local food systems are extremely important, I realize that I have the privilege to say so. These systems are not accommodating economically or regionally to many communities of color that struggle with hunger-related problems. Many low-income communities of color are systematically deprived of access to healthy and sustainable food. They live in what is known as ‘food deserts,’ where fast food is more common than fresh food. The words “that’s white people food” was haunting to me; as it further established this separation within the ability and accessibility towards good, healthy food.
I mentioned in class that I worked at a hospital in Harvey, Il.—an area that has roughly 35% of its community living in poverty. It was extremely difficult to help patients, who were suffering with various heart-related diagnoses, try to find healthier alternatives to meals. I may know that purchasing produce from a local farmer’s market and cooking my own meals may be a healthier alternative but it is a privilege to have this knowledge and ability. Our patients in Harvey didn’t have modes of transportation nor did they have the time to cook such meals—they were working constantly to support their families.
I am really looking forward to this discussion on Thursday. Raising awareness is one thing—but I am hopeful that we can discuss possible solutions—perhaps like getting kids on the farm earlier to help educate them, like Amy had mentioned in class.
I feel so torn after reading this article! There are parts that hold a lot of truth for me. For example, the article got me thinking about the People's Food Co-Op in Kalamazoo, firstly because of the Co-Ops location, the North Side. The North Side represents one of the lowest income neighborhoods in Kalamazoo. The idea of moving the Co-Op to this area seems great on paper, however I did a small study regarding the Co-Ops presence in the neighborhood and even with the Co-Op trying to integrate itself into the neighborhood (being a proponent of snap benefits and offering community cooking classes) the area is still largely dominated by white consumers driving to the store's location as they are not from the neighborhood. Additionally the surrounding businesses near the Co-Op including such places as the Arcadia Brewery, have began to further gentrify this section of the North Side. The Co-Op for me is an incredible resource and I'm grateful of its existence, but its associated effects and role in the community cannot be overlooked.
ReplyDeleteThe article on the other hand was incredibly frustrating for me in that our food system is more than people's diets. The effects of our current agricultural system on anthropogenic climate change are apparent. Even if you ignore climate change on a macro-scale, the effects of agricultural runoff into the Gulf of Mexico and the subsequent dead zone that is created every summer is an environmental concern that needs to be addressed by this country. I can agree that the programs discussed in the article are ineffective in their purposes and end results, but I also think that we cannot simply sit back and do nothing until we can determine the best way to go about addressing our food system. With sea level rise and magnitude of loss of biodiversity that we are experiencing and will continue to experience it is important that we take action. One such way that I feel can help add a piece to the solution puzzle is through the work of CSAs. I felt that the statement made in the article about CSAs overcharging and servicing mostly rich white consumers was sweeping and untrue. From my experience working with a CSA I know that most farmers choose this style of farming because it is something they feel passionately about and believe in as a counter to the current state of agriculture in this country. For the farmer I worked with at least, this meant barely earning a livable salary at the end of the season.
Although I did not entirely appreciate Guthman's writing technique, I think the main ideas brought up in the article were very interesting and I think need to be considered more in the discussion of food and food policy in this country. I am looking forward to talking more about this in class, and it would be interesting if we could determine some sort of step forward that could be taken in rethinking conventional agriculture with this article in mind!
Guthman’s article as well as your anecdote from the summer camp really made me think about the importance of intrinsic motivation from community members who are being targeted by local food movement projects. Guthman’s asserts throughout the article that there is often a trend of disinterest from the targeted communities of concern. I really liked how she mentioned that many of these gardening, rehabilitation, and school food projects have the undertones of missionary work. Many of the scenarios she described followed a pattern of a white individual with an academic background entering a minority community. In these instances, the outsider is taking on a position where they assume they know what is best for the community they have just arrived in without having a full understanding of the local history. The outsider and the individuals within these programs are unable to reach a mutually understanding of food related issues because they have different relationships with food. This disconnect stems from the racial factors that surround our current food system. I do not think forcing interest in local, organic foods is the best way to engage a group of people in conversations on changing diets and shopping habits. The problem with disengagement with in these projects is that the issues at hand does not resonate with the community of concern. In our environmental studies senior seminar we talked about the need for a direct connection to the issues at hand in order for members of a community to want to take on a project. I think having local leaders who are immersed within the community and can serve as a voice for the community is a good place to start.
ReplyDeleteThere is an interesting paradox between being socially progressive while reverting to older farming practices and a ‘local foods’ mindset. On one hand we all want to strive for creating positive changes in food access and economic equality. However some solutions towards environmental issues within our food system involve an approach that contradicts current technological advancement. I think this quote demonstrates this paradox: “As several scholars have noted, localism as a strategy can be defensive, xenophobic and impervious to uneven development, as if all communities would want to stay as they are. Here, the romance of the backward-looking ‘local’ is usefully juxtaposed to African American efforts to be part of American modernity and technological progress” (436). This article raised many valid arguments and points of discussion. I look forward to pairing it with Sarah’s article in class and seeing where our discussion on race and alternative food movement takes us on Thursday.
Sorry I'm commenting so late, Hannah! So much going on on the farm right now makes it hard to keep up with indoor tasks :)
ReplyDeleteThank you for bringing this issue into our conversation through both your personal experience and the resources you've shared! I'm really glad we're going to have the opportunity to discuss this tomorrow. Because I've so recently read "Pedagogy of the Oppressed," Paolo Freire's work comes immediately to mind, specifically the idea that nothing truly revolutionary can come from one group of people imposing on another, even if that imposition is motivated by a sincere desire to help.
I'm curious about the disconnect Guthman sees between the "popularized . . . notion that direct contact with nature in gardening and farming provides a path toward healing and empowerment" and the "racialized history of agrarian land and labor relationships in the US." (This seems directly connected to the New Republic article as well.) I appreciate that Guthman goes on to note that the racial disparity in land ownership and labor persists. No, our agricultural system is no longer powered by African American slaves, but it is still powered by non-white labor earning far below a living wage and working in some pretty atrocious conditions for generally white land/business owners. Guthman's use of the term "agrarian imaginary" is spot on, in my opinion--there is a persistent idealism in the local foods movement about farms and farm work. Farming is difficult, painful work in the best of conditions. But it's one thing to own a farm and to engage in that work out of choice. It's another to be working for someone else and to have no other option. It makes sense to me that people who've been historically (and are currently) oppressed by our agricultural system might want to distance themselves from it.
Guthman's call that we should shift our focus to the underlying injustices that create disparities in food access makes a lot of sense to me too. I keep thinking about Michael Pollan's response to how to make good food more affordable for low income people: "Pay them more."
I loved this post and this is something I have also been thinking a lot about lately. I find it amazing and ridiculously sad and disheartening that healthy, unprocessed, and nutritious food is referred to as "white people food" by some children the black community. This is an effect of a problem that deeply rooted in the origins and birth of America. This statement implies that white-suprecemacy is still running America. If natural food that comes from the ground is considered "white people food" or in other words, a part of white culture, this implies that "junk food" and processed food such as fast food is a part of black culture, which we can see when there is three Mcdonalds and a liquor store on every corner of the ghetto and not a grocery store within 15 miles. I think this disparity in the health of food between white Americans and black Americans is a direct result of slavery and colonialism. It is engrained in American culture that individuals of African decent are "less human" than whites. During slavery and colonialism individuals of African decent ate food that was of less quality than that of what white people ate. Slaves ate the cheapest food that could sustain them the longest. After slavery was abolished, African-Americans were uneducated and concentrated in ghettos in the south. If we look at maps comparing the places with the highest black populations, the highest prevalence of heart disease, the highest percentage of the population without a high school diploma, the least amount of grocery stores, the most amount of fast food restaurants, we see that all these factors are most concentrated in the south in the same regions where Africans were stolen from their land and brought to. The same regions they were grouped into ghettos after 450 years of enslavement without resources or education. We are still clearly seeing the affects of this today and it manifests itself in food and agriculture today.
ReplyDeleteI think if we step back and look at this situation we can clearly see that the fact that "real" food is considered as a part of white culture and "junk food" is considered a part of black culture is a direct effect of colonialism and slavery and is a clear indicator that we live in a white-supremacist culture. There is a link from slavery to food deserts to the fact that African-Americans are at twice the risk of heart disease that white americans. The reason the American people cannot see this link is because this idea has been purposely bought out and demonized in the mainstream media and in our educational system. The lives the African slaves lived have been written out of history books and replaced with a white-washed, europeanized conceptualization of history, which is largely composed of lies and false truths used to put and keep certain people in power to ensure certain people are still profiting and benefitting from this system. Our culture has been created for the sole purpose of benefitting these people and it continues to benefit these people.
Hannah brings up many interesting points. During my entire time at K, every year our volleyball team would volunteer at Pretty Lake Farm for two days of our preseason. We worked hands with the master gardeners, harvesting, weeding and doing many sorts of actives planned for us. We also cleaned and washed down the cabins that the students used during the summer camp. These were just little things but being in the garden and working with these wise people was quite inspirational. I had to reflect on this because as much as I loved being outdoors and really interacting with the living natural world around me, not everyone would be able to say that they share those same values. Why should they? This is what is very interesting to me because as a child I was (in my eyes) privileged to have the opportunity to be outside with a vast amount of space in the wilderness and prairie which I believe contributed to my love for nature etc. Many children do not have those opportunities and find joy in other activities. This may relate to Hannah’s comment about outdoor recreation participation.
ReplyDeleteI recently read an article about the racial demographics of those who backpack and hike in national parks. The results were that it is MAJORLY a white dominated recreation and “hobby” if you will. Some believe that those who enjoy hiking are privileged and others may say, “Who would want to spend thousands of dollars to sleep on the ground and hike in the woods”. This ties into the economic system, which continues to oppress minority populations. Our capitalist and white supremacist society focuses on “white people issues” or “how can whites give back”. Our alternative food system may be whitewashed and it seems that it is a direct effect of this countries’ ramifications of history. How history was whitewashed to keep those in power and for those in power, will continue abuse it.
*****A side factor that I thought of is one which relates back to colonialism and slavery in the United States where those who were laboring away on the land and producing rich soil, “getting their hands in the dirt” were African Americans, not their slave owners.
I am excited to hear everyone’s thoughts.
I appreciated that Guthman discusses issues of race that often are not included in our conversations about the food movement. Due to systems of (largely white) privilege it is possible to be an advocate for organic, sustainable, local farming, without ever having to consider how the movement can recreate oppressive power structures. And even when we confront these issues, conversations I have heard seem to always be limited the idea of “food desserts,” which as Guthman points out is “layered with colonial codings.”
ReplyDeleteWhat really resonated with me in this article, as a few others already mentions, was the idea of ‘getting your hands dirty’ and feeling ‘fulfilled’ by growing something as it is an idea I am certainly guilty of romanticizing. This article however was a good reminder that historically people farming land, getting their hands dirty in the US, have not always been valued. Not to say that people who farm now are always given the respect they deserve, but this is different than the racist system that labeled people as lesser and forced them to farm land for no payment, and ironically little food (chattel slavery). In this light it is totally understandable that a person of color would not find value in ‘getting their hands dirty’. Can we really say that those farmers who are privileged enough to own their own land and have the knowledge/time/resources to grow sustainably deserve more than the colored bodies working for the cheap produce we bought and sold at the supermarket? Because we as privileged white people decide to buy food primarily from other privileged white people?
This historical connection in many ways mirrored Pollan’s reflection on how second wave feminism aimed to remove women from the kitchen, as cooking was seen as woman’s work, or in other words, unpaid/non-valuable work. Both women and people of color have historically been seen as lesser because they are ‘closer to nature’. Therefore when envisioning what a new food system looks like, rhetoric such as ‘returning to natural processes’ is problematic and exclusionary. I agree with Guthman, "activism should shift away from the particular qualities of food and towards the injustices that underlie disparities in food access. Activists might pay more attention to projects considered much more difficult in the current political climate: eliminating redlining, investing in urban renewal, expanding entitlement pro- grams, obtaining living wages, along with eliminating toxins from and improving the quality of the mainstream food supply" (443).