I grew up in one of the food deserts that Gibran Muhammad describes in his chapter. When I think of the food closest to the house I grew up in, it was either high-fat fried food or high-sugar convenience food. That seemed normal. Grocery stores were scant and devoid of fresh vegetables. I think this chapter helps underscore how none of that is an accident. That not only did few BIPOC people run or profit from sugar businesses they toiled in but the unhealthy products made from sugar were advertised and sold to low income black neighborhoods with the fewest resources. It’s all the result of racist policies.
I was so very surprised at what I thought I knew about slavery in America,compared to horrible information I am learning as I read!!!!! Sugar crops never entered our curriculum when I was a child! It WAS always cotton and tobacco! What terrible damage the sugar crop DID afflict on all of our healths, but to the slaves and future black persons especially! What a sad, horrific chapter!
I grew up in one of the food deserts that Gibran Muhammad describes in his chapter. When I think of the food closest to the house I grew up in, it was either high-fat fried food or high-sugar convenience food. That seemed normal. Grocery stores were scant and devoid of fresh vegetables. I think this chapter helps underscore how none of that is an accident. That not only did few BIPOC people run or profit from sugar businesses they toiled in but the unhealthy products made from sugar were advertised and sold to low income black neighborhoods with the fewest resources. It’s all the result of racist policies.
I was so very surprised at what I thought I knew about slavery in America,compared to horrible information I am learning as I read!!!!! Sugar crops never entered our curriculum when I was a child! It WAS always cotton and tobacco! What terrible damage the sugar crop DID afflict on all of our healths, but to the slaves and future black persons especially! What a sad, horrific chapter!