Unearthing Inequities: A Review of Black Food Geographies
Author - Emerson Hunger Fellow, Shanella Palmer
Reflections on “Black Food Geographies: Race, Self-Reliance, and Food Access in Washington, D.C.” By Ashante M. Reese.
In recent years, Black scholars and activists have re-imagined the word “food desert” and its meaning within a structure that flattens and strips the experiences of Black people in America. From this re-imagining, the term “food apartheid” was created by Karen Washington – borrowing part of its name from the political, racial, social, and economic separation and subjugation of Black South Africans. Replacing the term ‘food desert’ with ‘food apartheid’ was vital to challenging the long-held, racialized belief that Black neighborhoods experiencing food injustice are barren wastelands while changing the psychic imagery ‘food apartheid’ elicits when we speak its name. The term ‘ food apartheid’ begs the question: how do Black people living under food apartheid navigate and access food? Author Ashante M. Reese explored this question in her book “Black Food Geographies: Race, Self-Reliance, and Food Access in Washington, D.C.”
In Black Food Geographies, Ashantee M. Reese wove history, memory, and story into her ethnographic research of the food structure in Deadwood, DC. She described the genesis of Deanwood as farmland worked by enslaved people to the expansion of its population during the mass exodus of African Americans from the South during the Great Migration, who brought along with them agricultural skills and a desire for self-reliance under anti-black racism. In the spirit of self-reliance, early Deanwood residents often sold produce from their homes and food carts, traded and bartered to meet their needs and promote social cohesion, and owned local markets. However, as Reese puts it, there was a disconnect between those Black-owned food stores/sellers and the needs of residents. For one, many Black-owned stores were likelier to be operated out of renovated homes.
Additionally, as supermarkets emerged as the essential component of the national and local food systems, the grocery gap in D.C. widened over time due to redlining, economic disinvestment, and deindustrialization. The built environment in D.C. also drastically changed post-1968, which influenced supermarket closures in neighborhoods like Deanwood, which were structured and labeled as “black ghettos.” While the book focuses on Deanwood, these changes have not been localized only to that area but, instead, have been mirrored across America - especially in Pittsburgh, highlighting the far-reaching hand of systemic racism and disenfranchisement.
In defiance of these injustices, Reese explains how Deanwood residents took to their community gardens to fill the gaps left by continued disinvestment. These gardens were multi-purposeful as they fed, connected, and educated people while beautifying their neighborhood, showing signs of its historical neglect. The residents featured in this book spoke to their creativity, agility, and ingenuity in accessing food. Some traveled to get food, some opted to support local businesses, and some opted to utilize their homes and neighborhoods to grow what they could. Much like the Deanwood residents who saw the needs of their community and planted a seed in response, many community leaders in Pittsburgh have started urban farms and are working on food cooperatives, showing that though distance separates these places, their struggles for food access are inextricably linked.
