Book review: Eric Mielants and Katsiaryna Salavei Bardos (eds), Economic Cycles and Social Movements: Past, Present and Future

Abstract

economically advantaged neighborhoods to struggle both financially as business owners and with the constraints of seeking healthy food that is only accessible by car and extensive drives to a different side of the city. The fourth set of experiences focuses on a group of upper-class Black business women and men who have the disposable income to seek out fine dining restaurants, but are not always welcomed in these elite dining environments regardless of their income. Within this group, hunger because of money scarcity is not an issue, but hunger still arises in the context of time scarcity as work schedules are a dominant force that limits the time for food during the day. It is within this context that the modern Southern restaurant offers traditional soul food dishes sourced from local farms and presented as fine dining cuisine. Although all four of these class groupings have distinct experiences around food, one of the main questions underpinning the book is the role of soul food in the modern South. Soul food is labeled as the source of poor health among present day African Americans. Historical food habits continue to shape understandings of what foods are good and bad, desirable or not. It is in this context that soul food is viewed as a historical touchstone for African Americans and also a present day plague on overall health and wellness. Yet, as Ewoodzie argues, this is an oversimplified, if not completely erroneous view of the foodways and decision-making process of modern day African Americans across class lines in Jackson, Mississippi. While it is true that historically soul foods were a staple of Southern foodways, the South is not, nor has it ever been a static or homogeneous entity. The modern South, the one inhabited by the men and women who stories are highlighted in this book, is not the same South characterized by home gardens and canning traditions, although for some families those habits still exist, the reality is more structured by affordability and convenience reflecting contemporary poverty. Not simply meaning starvation, hunger is joined by the quick and affordable promise of empty calorie foods, that while satisfying hunger can lead to other health crisis such as obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure. The reality of soul food in the modern South is that even when families have the historical memory of these foods, they are hindered in recreating these food traditions in their daily lives, and subsequent generations are even further removed from these soul food traditions. A more nuanced understanding of the constraining factors that surround daily food decisions from transportation and child care, to affordability and a developing food consciousness in a society that does not equally distribute healthy food is needed to understand what it means to create foodways in a society that remains structured by race and class, albeit in ways that are not static. Without considering such nuances of culture, structure, and agency, people will continue to stereotype the past, the food people eat and why, and then use those views to dismiss the inequalities facing families today; hardening these views and apathies that make creating a better tomorrow where food traditions are about families, community, and promise, not about a hunger straining the nation’s foodways and soul, even more challenging to achieve. Ewoodzie’s Getting Something to Eat in Jackson is an important step in embracing a better vision of the future by centering on the lives and foodways of Black communities today.