Soul, Black Women, and Food

1
Soul, Black Women, and Food

• American womens search for identity in the 1960s
  coincided with the black quest through history
  for their origins
• One of the most symbolic tools in the search for
  roots is food-soul food.

2
Soul Food

• Roots like yams and potatoes symbolize stability
• Slaves brought and used seeds to preserve African
  culture
• Many of these foods have been adopted by white
  American culture
• -watermelon, okra

3
Pride Plumpness

• Black women express themselves and gain self
  confidence through food preparation
• Black women pride themselves on how they can make
  something out of nothing
• Black women takes pride in the plumpness of those
  who eat her food
• family, consumers and even white Americans
• In black culture big is associated with beautiful

4
Family Food

• Large families are intentional
• Children praise mother about cooking
• one way to experience the feeling of plenty
• Contribution to the black world
• Family stories shared at meals

5
Creativity

• Slaves were mostly illiterate so recipes were
• passed orally
• -room for creativity
• -rely on senses
• -snuck slaves tastes into masters food
• Cultural knowledge
• -Reject scientific progress and use fresh foods
  so no concerns about harmful preservatives

6
Why eat out?

• Less trips to restaurants doesnt just reflect
  economic status. This shows cultural preference
  for soulful home cooked meal
• -Black Americans in the suburbs drive to the
  ghetto to get soul food
• -Potlucks in the suburbs have the same foods as
  potlucks in the ghetto
• Also personal gardens represent African respect
  for land, living things and African spirituality

7
Soul food is soulful no matter who prepares it!

• Soul is the sapphire that shows when you peel
  back the human layers
• Human layers and differences represented with
  opposites in american culture
• -Beauty v Ugliness, White v Black, Smart v Dumb
• This shows intolerance and attempt to anglo-ize
• Americans rather than embrace differences
• -Black people recognize the power of labeling
• -Must not question the soulfulness of other
  black people or of any black food
• Soul food is soulful no matter who prepares it!

8
Black Women may enjoy cooking, but what is the
reality of cooking as a profession

• The prevalence of black women working as domestic
  cooks is a result of their role as cooks during
  slavery (historically acquired role definition)
• Many jobs held by black people still focus on
  nurturing white people and they are still destine
  for poverty. This is still a form of slavery.

9
Soul Food and Religion

• Restrictions on food such as scheduling or
  selection not common
• Eating during spiritual religious rituals is a
  special celebration and a black community
  gathering
• Black preacher always gets first choice
• -Black Preacher is responsible for passing on
  the oral history of the black community

10
Sharing

• Black Americans couldnt go into restaurants
  until the
• 1960s
• -pack a lunch and share with a friend
• The core of African American Food celebrations is
  the intent to share
• ex. Hog Killing
• -community gathering
• -men help with killing, skinning and making major
  cuts
• -women help clean the meat, do the trimmings
  prepare samples and give portions to neighbors
• One of few activities with clear gender divisions
  in black culture
• Relates back to African traditions

11
Gender roles

• Cooking is less gender specific because many
  black people are cooks as an occupation
• Economic circumstances lead black women to be
  more independent and autonomous and take on other
  roles
• Motherhood and dominance in kitchen still
  important

12
Expressions

• Whats for dinner Momma?
• - no perverse connotations when directed at
  ones wife
• -Momma implies that the food is nourishing the
  individual physically and spiritually

13
Typical Black Kitchen

• Breakfast Grits, homemade biscuits, ham or
  bacon, molasses or canned preserves, fresh milk
  and fresh eggs (may substitute ham or bacon for
  country-smoothered steak, fried chicken, fried
  chicken or porkchops)
• Dinner mess of greens with pot licker
  (collards, turnips, cabbage, beet green or
  mustard seasoned with pork skins, fatback or ham
  hocks), bread, potatoes, fresh squeezed lemonade,
  maybe a meat and a cobbler (canned peached, fresh
  apples, fresh wild fruits like huckleberries,
  blackberries, or dew berries). Desserts might
  include breadpudding or homemade cookies
• Supper Fruits cut up in creamy milk, biscuits,
  ice cream, fried chicken, creamed potatoes and
  buttermilk for farm families

14
Nutrition

• Inherited from Africa and emphasized by slave
  masters and is still prevalent
• -sometimes viewed as a purely economic decision
• Some people connect soul food to higher rates of
  hypertension in the black population in America
• -Hughes suggests that hypertension might be more
  directly related to social and economic stress

15
Stereotypes

• Stereotyped black female body is portrayed a big
  bosom with a round and fat body (like aunt
  Jemima)
• Stereotyped white female body is portrayed as
  thin and petite
• Hughess mother is concerned with her slimness

16
Pleasure in Eating and Feeding

• Stuffing the mouth with objects such as
  pacifiers, thumbs and cigarettes has been
  acknowledged as a psycological expression of
  emptiness
• Excessive eating as a coping mechanism for
  emotional stress
• The short term pleasure of eating and feeding
  ones family takes away the painful realities of
  oppression