This week’s reading: Ashanté M. Reese’s Black Food Geographies: Race, Self-Reliance, and Food Access in Washington, D.C., dives into the harsh and imperfect realities of food systems in this country through the lens of a historically black neighborhood, Deanwood, in Washington D.C. Reese’s exploration of Deanwood is very intriguing as it gives a voice to one of the many communities that has dealt with setbacks stemming from the systemic racism throughout our country. Ultimately, Reese’s book does a great job of focusing on the community’s ability to overcome these issues through self-reliance. Reese highlights many ways in which the people of Deanwood are able to be self-sustaining through food, such as the presence of a community garden as well as the rise of “hucksters.” Most of these things may go relatively unnoticed, however they are vital ways for the community to unite and overcome the structural difficulties that they are forced to face. Overall, Reese’s book was eye-opening for me as I had never really thought about how involved food and food systems are in the racial and socio-economic issues that are prevalent in our society. Clearly food is something that has the ability to unite communities and help people overcome systemic issues that they might not be able to otherwise.
Week 6 Blog Post
