Food in the Black Community: Weapon, Tool, Elixir

 My parents always said this: food is a powerful weapon. Historically, it was a reward, a tool of obedience for Black people in this country. Soul food comes out of this tradition. Same is true for Native Americans and how food was used to subjugate them. To this day, it's why many sociologists and say Black Americans and Native Americans have disproportionate levels of diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Food is one of the unspoken tools of racism and oppression. If Maslow and Marx got together to design a pyramid of weapons used against enslaved communities it would be 1. literacy 2. food 3. guns 4. alcohol/drugs 5. religion 6. disease 7. property/capital. America's Black community has pretty much only dealt with literacy and maybe religion (a bit). Everything else is still weaponized and food is the biggest weapon.

Black communities not only have the most food deserts, they tend to have the most unhealthy, toxic, disease-causing foods. And then the worst healthcare as a follow up. Black communities have the least access to capital to build shops in their neighborhoods, which often leads them to be at the mercy of second-rate bodega groceries, fast food merchants, liquor stores, and high-sodium Chinese restaurants where things are fried hard and smothered in salt. These venues are mostly owned by outsiders and backed by white banks. 

 Unsurprisingly, the cleanest and healthiest Black food in Brooklyn tends to be Jamaican and Caribbean restaurants. Black people born in other countries (especially the Caribbean) are, at least, conscious of offering healthy alternatives on the menu. They are also more likely to own their own businesses and connected food to their spirituality and culture...so they make more conscious choices. 

It is possible for us to turns this generational curse around. It is possible for what was once used as a weapon to become an elixir, a tonic, medicine for the body. It may not be as radical as going full vegan...although that wouldn't be bad. It may be just making conscious choice of reducing harm and being more conscious.

Personally, food has been one of my biggest struggles. I'm now in my 40s. Yes, I'm officially middle-aged although it feels so weird to say that. My food habits have shifted. I can't imagine pizza as an actual meal any more. I know how my body would react. Soda? Gone. Candy? Just no. Never. There's no reason for me to eat candy. Since the start of 2020, I took processed sugar out of my diet. It's now been a year and a few months. I don't miss it...much. Occasionally I see gooey cookie on Goldbelly and my tastebuds have euphoric recall. But for the most part there is fruit and sugar free substitutes. I try not to have too much of the substitutes but they serve as fail-safe plans if I start slipping. Reading the back of labels is now mandatory.