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Eds. by HANNA GARTH and ASHANTÉ M. REESE, 2020, Black Food Matters: Racial 
Justice in the Wake of Food Justice, University of Minnesota Press, 302 pp. ISBN 978-1-51790-
814-0 
 
Keywords: Black Space, Food Geographies, Food Politics, Food Justice, Food Deserts 
 
Black Food Matters: Racial Justice in the Wake of Food Justice is an anthology consisting of 

articles by authors exploring phenomenon around Black food access, food geographies, and food 

justice, while challenging food justice practices that actively contribute to the cultural erasure and 

displacement of Blackness for the sake of what alternative food justice movements deem to be 

adequately “healthy” or “quality.” While explaining what food justice can mean from Black 

perspectives, authors make a point of including the historical persistence of Black food cultures in 

America’s food system that has not prioritized sustaining Black bodies since its formation. 

Mobility, entrepreneurship, cultural resilience, and Black ingenuity are some of the few concepts 

explored by authors as they define the varying means of how Black food matters in an anti-Black 

food system.  

 

To introduce the book, editors Hanna Garth and Ashanté M. Reese challenge the misconception 

that the only way to understand Black relationships with food is through its absence (p. 5). This is 

often defended with the history of soul food, however, it does not include forms of food access 

present in several Black communities that are often overlooked by non-community members. The 

post-slavery importance of Black entrepreneurship for economic security and stability in 

“Chocolate Cities” (cities with large populations of Black people) has a solid basis in growing and 

selling food. The formation of  “hucksters,” food trucks, and small grocery stores not only created 

food access in Black districts without chain grocery stores during the Jim Crow era, but also 

continued food cultures, built community, supported Black economics, and formed resilience. 

Different authors of the chapters exploring various food geographies provide similar accounts of 

entrepreneurship within Black food cultures. 



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Andrew Newman and Yuson Jung successfully evaluate common criteria for defining what must 

be absent for an area to be deemed a food desert. This includes consideration of how the words 

“access " and "quality" are perceived by outsiders that can overlook long-standing Black 

entrepreneurship which provides food for the community through alternative means other than 

large-scale grocery stores. Common overlooked methods include mobile grocery stores, and small-

scale grocery stores. The authors explain how “quality” in food justice often references the store's 

aesthetic appearance and environment while shopping. The lack of consideration for smaller-scale 

grocers while deeming an area a food desert directly discredits Black grocers providing food for 

the community (p. 141). When gentrification occurs, neighborhood markets unable to upkeep 

aesthetics against wealthier competitors can no longer survive, in-part, due to a perceived “lower 

quality.” 

 

Overlooked entrepreneurship is reiterated throughout the book, but significantly in Bill Hall’s 

chapter exploring the displacement and exotification of Black Food geographies in Miami. 

Marketable areas for Black food that provide the best aesthetic experience receive government 

funding to renovate businesses and bring in more tourists. The restaurants and shops able to 

provide this were largely wealthier gentrifiers who financially invested in businesses because of 

what the area's history could bring in tourism profits. Older, Black shops providing culturally 

significant food to the community are greatly affected and displaced by gentrification, as 

gentrifiers and tourists benefit from a romanticization of “Jim Crow era” Black food geographies 

in which the Black community of reference is no longer able to financially survive (p. 173). The 

gentrification of Black food geographies in Miami reveal the importance of food sovereignty 

within the food justice movements rather than only “quality.”  

 

Food can be a healing means of cultural longevity, and Hanna Garth highlights the importance of 

avoiding cultural erasure when participating in food justice. Garth was told to not reference her 

favorite food, macaroni and cheese, because her co-worker deemed it too “unhealthy” to mention 

to children in a food justice program and denied the food’s significance in Black food culture. The 

co-workers refusal of the food’s cultural importance for Black people and enforcement of her own 

ideologies of “health” are common anti-Black practices in food justice movements. The food 



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justice movement’s emphasis on “justice” fights for food access, but more importantly the 

restoration of choice for Black populations. The opportunity to choose along with food access 

allows people to participate in food cultures, build community, and/or health from cultural, 

psychologically based traumas (p. 84). The restoration of access, choice, and education provides 

food justice in the form of food sovereignty (p. 97).  

 

The Black Panther Party and Community Services Unlimited (CSU) are uplifted in several 

chapters for their inclusive and cultural proficiency when fighting for food justice. The Black 

Panther Party provided food for families and children experiencing poverty as a means of social 

activism. They were able to acknowledge the interdisciplinary aspects of what makes food 

culturally important and healing to the community that they were a part of. They avoided cultural 

erasure or whitewashing and brought food sovereignty to the community. CSU in Los Angeles 

originates from the initial Black Panther Party food justice program and continues the same 

cultural understanding of restorative justice through food sovereignty (p. 116). CSU attempts to 

holistically serve communities with the same mission as The Black Panthers, “serving the people, 

body and soul” (p. 117). The two organizations' understanding and incorporation of Blackness in 

food justice programs avoids the cultural erasure seen by Garth when participating in food justice 

and actively includes the community in each level of decision making. 

 

Growing food for self-preservation and survival is greatly valued by descendants with Gullah 

Geechee heritage in South Carolina. Gillian Richards-Greaves highlights community members' 

value of self-sustained food security due to the government’s historical forgetfulness of Black 

people in times of war or political conflict. Their access to land and horticultural knowledge 

created food sovereignty for individuals and for the community. Access to land greatly aided in 

the creation of food sovereignty in South Carolina, although land access is scarce in urban 

environments. Monica M. White details the activism to create urban agriculture in Detroit to 

increase food access and green space. The ingenuity and activism of Black Women to create urban 

gardening spaces is another example of resilience against the anti-Black food system. The constant 

continuation of community collaboration, activism, and entrepreneurship centering food lies 

within the beauty of Black food cultures.  

 



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The authors' research and interpretations of food culture, food geographies, and food justice were 

extremely enlightening in challenging common anti-Black missteps in food justice and changing 

how food justice should be approached in Black spaces. Its evaluation of differentiating cultures, 

geographies, and people reveal the common theme of the outstanding resiliency of Blackness and 

Black food cultures. Approaching food justice in Black spaces should encompass food sovereignty 

through choice, education, and access to avoid cultural erasure.  

 

Azure Fisher is an Environmental Science master’s student at California State University, 
Dominguez Hills. Her research focuses on empirical evidence of environmental phenomena 
alongside the experience of marginalization. She currently works in the CSUDH Office of 
Sustainability as an education intern, helping to educate community members on various 
sustainability topics including food justice, environmental injustice, and cultural sustainability. 
 

 

 

© 2023 Azure Fisher 

 


