food and race

A customer approaches the window at Saartj, a pop-up food stall in New Orleans running a social experiment. Customers of color are charged the listed $12 price for a meal. White customers are told about the income gap in New Orleans between whites and Afr

Food Stall Serves Up A Social Experiment: Charge White Customers More Than Minorities

10:17pm March 02, 2018

by Maria Godoy

To highlight racial income disparity, a chef in New Orleans opened a food stall, asking whites to pay $30 and people of color to pay $12 for the same meal. How did it play out?

Thromentta Anderson, the owner of Pass Da Peas in northwest Milwaukee likes to greet customers by name and give them tokens toward free drinks. But he was glad to see new faces during Black Restaurant Week.

Black Restaurant Week: Across U.S., Events Remind Diners, 'We're Here. Support Us'

9:26pm February 14, 2018

by Alan Greenblatt

Blacks often struggle to raise capital to open and run restaurants, a legacy of discrimination. Over the past few years, promotions to help diners know which restaurants are black-owned have spread.

Ho Po, a Chinese labor contractor from San Francisco, sent 150 of his countrymen to build Buena Vista.

Chinese Laborers Built Sonoma's Wineries. Racist Neighbors Drove Them Out

5:25pm July 13, 2017

by Grace Hwang Lynch

Enjoying a chardonnay or cabernet sauvignon? In the 1800s, Chinese immigrants helped introduce those iconic varietals to California's wine country. But as vineyards grew, so did anti-Chinese fervor.

The Potlikker Papers: A Food History of the Modern South by John T. Edge.

Race, Class And Paying Down Southern Food's Great 'Debt Of Pleasure'

12:48pm June 11, 2017

In his book, The Potlikker Papers, John T. Edge tells the story of modern Southern history through food — which means "explicitly digging into issues of race, class, gender, ethnicity," he says.

Books
Arts

'Tar Baby': A Folk Tale About Food Rights, Rooted In The Inequalities Of Slavery

4:46pm May 11, 2017

by Nina Martyris

Versions of the story of Bre'r Rabbit outwitting Bre'r Fox exist around the world. At heart, a new book argues, they're really about who controls access to food and subverting the powers that be.

Freda DeKnight was Ebony's first food editor and author of a best-selling African-American cookbook in the 1940s. Her recipes presented a vision of black America that was often invisible in mainstream media.

Meet Freda DeKnight, A 'Hidden Figure' And Titan Of African-American Food

12:55pm February 16, 2017

by Donna Battle Pierce

DeKnight was Ebony's first food editor and author of a best-selling African-American cookbook in the '40s. Her recipes presented a vision of black America that was often invisible in mainstream media.

The few African restaurants in downtown Cape Town, such as Mama Africa, cater mainly to tourists.

Apartheid Is Long Gone, But African Food Is Still Hard To Find In Cape Town

7:00am December 12, 2016

by Alan Greenblatt

South Africa's capital is now a global food hot spot. But the lack of restaurants serving traditional dishes of the continent speaks to larger concerns about what this post-apartheid society values.

In his belligerently funny novel The Sellout, Paul Beatty eviscerates racial politics in the U.S. by aiming some of his sharpest stabs at that old and vicious shaming device: the food slur.

Watermelon War: America's First Booker Prize Novel Takes On Racial Food Slurs

7:00am November 16, 2016

by Nina Martyris

In his belligerently funny novel The Sellout, Paul Beatty eviscerates racial politics in the U.S. by aiming some of his sharpest stabs at that old and vicious shaming device: the food slur.

Liagnfen Of Happy Tears, an appetizer of cold, spicy starch jelly noodles served at MáLà Project. The New York City eatery is part of a new generation of higher-end Chinese restaurants that are catering not just to American palates but also to a growing

New Wave Of Chinese Restaurants Challenges 'Cheap' Stereotype

2:43pm November 14, 2016

by Esther Wang

Chinese food has long been seen as cheap takeout. Now a new generation of deep-pocketed immigrant restaurateurs aims to offer an updated spin on the Chinese restaurant, with prices to match the decor.

Michael Twitty wants credit given to the enslaved African-Americans who were part of Southern cuisine's creation. Here he is in period costume at Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's Virginia estate.

This Historian Wants You To Know The Real Story Of Southern Food

8:28am October 01, 2016

by Erika Beras

Michael Twitty wants credit given to the enslaved African-Americans who were part of Southern cuisine's creation. So he goes to places like Monticello to cook meals slaves would have eaten.