Tag Archives: Racial Justice

Racism in the Food System

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Systematic racism is the basis of every aspect of the USA and the food system has no exception. In the 1600s, the first enslaved people were brought from Africa to America and were forced into labor. This included working on sugar, cotton, rice, and tobacco plantations. This brought on a sense of superiority to the white Americans, seeing anyone who is different from them as less than. The exploitation of many people of color were used to keep the social hierarchy going and it kept money in the white man’s pocket. This past of the United States has helped create the racist laws, actions, and institutions that are here today.

Now that forced labor is seen as immoral, even though it is still happening in the present, people have found a more covert way of keeping people of color oppressed. This is shown through wage gaps, the job market, the housing market, and so much more. A majority of minorities cannot find good-paying jobs with the only reason being simply that they are not white. Because of that, they find themselves working in factories, farms, and other jobs seen as undesirable and underpaying. This means that all the food being put on people’s tables are most likely being harvested or packed by people of color. While they are doing all of the hard labor, it is usually the white people that are in charge, gaining massive amounts of wealth.

Because of the unjust treatment of minorities, it makes it more difficult for them to support their families. It is harder to buy basic necessities, which can lead to a multitude of problems. This cycle continues on through generations because nothing is there to pass on to their children. However, most white people have the privilege and wealth to live healthy and have opportunities to pass onto generations of their families.

These disparities have magnified during the pandemic. For example, the wealthy have enough money to stop working while the poor continue to work in factories, farms or other underpaid jobs to keep food on America’s table and to keep their families afloat. Along with that, the systematic racism in the health care system keeps a lot of people of color from getting access to testing for COVID or getting treatment. 

Racism and oppression are at the very base of what America was built upon. With that, the food system cannot be ignored in this equation. It is often looked upon as a basic process of the way it gets to your fridges and pantries, but it is not that simple.

A Systems Approach to Racial Justice

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      I want to talk about the racial issues and tension going on right now. I think it speaks to the systemic approach of this class and how there is no such thing as an isolated event. When I think about racial tension, racism and the current protests there is a historical tie and overall a timeline of injustice. 400 years of oppression and the single event of George Floyd’s murder are intrinsically connected, it’s never just one bad cop it is the system that has fueled and allowed for these actions. Specifically when slavery was abolished the police force was created as a patrol to control freed slaves and was also used to maintain slave labor by imprisoning Black people for “crimes” and then forcing them to work as prisoners again. This shows that while it looks like police violence are isolated issues they actually are connected by the fact that the system was created as a racist oppressive force to control Black people. The protests while happening right now, are rather the culmination of 400 years of oppression, government disregard for its most vulnerable citizens, and the final straw of the murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others. These events are all connected and show the importance of considering all these factors when talking about racial justice. 

      I think that the food system is actually one of the worst offenders of racist actions. It started with the taking of Native Americans food, and using slave labor to tend to the fields. This doesn’t even stop when the 13th amendment is passed, because convicts can still be forced to work on fields because they’re considered “criminals.” While this practice isn’t used today, there are now migrant laborers who are paid the lowest wages possible. A final problem is the disparity in diet related diseases such as diabetes and obesity. This is primarily because of the lack of healthy resources available in food deserts and low income neighborhoods. To honestly change the food system for better the racism and disparity in resources needs to be addressed first. 

4 Not-So-Easy Ways to Dismantle Racism in the Food System