By: Salena Braye-Bulls (’23), Staff Writer
For many, soul food is synonymous with the American South. People think of large round tables topped with fried chicken, cornbread and collard greens with glasses of sweet tea on the side. These dishes are homey, comforting and the epitome of “Southern.” Beyond being the South’s staple cuisine, soul food is Black food. Over generations, soul food has been cultivated by Black culture, Black tradition and the transatlantic slave trade. Enslaved Black people were given meager rations of pork and chicken leftover from their masters’ households. They also incorporated vegetables like okra and leafy greens into their meals, as these foods have been staples in African cuisine for centuries. Though in recent years, non-Black people have been gentrifying soul food and attempting to strip away its Blackness.
Generally, gentrification is defined as making something more refined to draw more capital and positive attention. In practice, gentrification often aims to make things more palatable to wealthy white people and erase significant aspects of culture within marginalized communities. Most people think about gentrification within the context of housing, but it has always spilled over into other sectors, like cuisine. Sarrah Segdi of Paste Magazine writes how after the Civil Rights Movement, white southerners used fast food – via fried chicken – to rebrand to a friendlier and more modern image. Recently, this has taken shape within upscale Southern restaurants. White restaurateurs have appropriated this cuisine and haven’t given due credit to the Black people and culture that have given it life. White chefs may be incredibly skilled, but as Segdi writes, “whoever has access to the capital controls the narrative”. In cities like Nashville, Birmingham, Charleston and Durham, white-owned establishments have been serving up the same down-home foods with uptown prices. These menu items are expensive. They cater to an exclusive, elite and often inaccessible experience – exactly the opposite of soul food’s essence. White audiences are accepting soul food now that it’s being served, publicly presented and depicted in media by white faces. As soul food has become more mainstream, white restaurant capitalists have been painstakingly slow in giving credit to Black people for their culture.
There’s no amount of artisan breadcrumb fried chicken or gourmet tomato pimento cheese that can cover up the white-washing of southern food. People want to enjoy this cuisine in gentrified spaces that have replaced Blackness with minimalist designs and sleek lettering. It is also no coincidence that cafeteria-style restaurants serving soul food primarily to working-class people (Picaddily, Morrison’s, etc.) have phased out as refurbished southern food restaurants have risen to prominence. While soul food is rightly described as delicious and significant to southern culture, it also needs to be recognized as inseparable from Blackness. It’s time that white chefs, restaurateurs and consumers alike have a seat at the table to discuss how they are causing harm to the Black community.
Source: https://www.pastemagazine.com/food/the-potlikker-papers/the-gentrification-of-southern-food/
