Category: Seminar Weekly

March 6th 2017

Triggering Passages:

“What emerges is a sense that that consuming, writ large, and eating, in particular, speaks to racial embodiment in such a way as to allow consumers to blur the borders of their racial selves, both consuming the other and becoming the other, if only temporarily.” (Tompkins: 2012, 167)

“If for generations the black body was literally, in the minds of many Americans, a commodity to be sold, then it is no surprise that after slavery the black body seems made to sell other things.” (Tompkins 2012:)

“Could one of the next great global contracts be the humble cassava? Also called manioc, mandioca, and yuca, this starchy drought resistant root vegetable is a major source of dietary energy for more than 500 million people, particularly in developing countries.” (Newman: 2013, 154)

 

News Media Context:

“I think that food really connects people. Food is about bringing something into the body. And to eat the same food suggests that we are both willing to bring the same thing into our bodies. People just feel closer to people who are eating the same food as they do. And then trust, cooperation, these are just consequences of feeling close to someone.”

“Pairs of volunteers were sometimes given candy to eat together or sometimes given salty snacks. And sometimes, one of the volunteers was given one kind of food and the other was given the other kind of food. When the volunteers ate the same kinds of food, they reached agreement much more quickly than when one person ate the candy and the other person ate the salty food.”

http://www.npr.org/2017/02/02/512998465/why-eating-the-same-food-increases-peoples-trust-and-cooperation

 

Response:

Reading Newman this quarter has been an interesting process. Though her chapters and word choice are light and airy when read alongside Tompkins, I find myself tempted to rush through the passages and often feel a sense of frustration finishing my readings, knowing that though the book has helped inform me on commodities, her writing fails to include anything but the predominant white narrative.

At this point in history, commodification is an integral part of the United States. But beyond the commodification of crops Newman is such an expert on, the commodification and consumption of the “Other” body has been an integral part in the strengthening of white supremacy since this country’s foundation.  As Tompkins states on page 167, “If for generations the black body was literally, in the minds of many Americans, a commodity to be sold, then it is no surprise that after slavery the black body seems made to sell other things.”

Throughout the book, commodities are addressed constantly, as well as the business suit-clad men trading them, but rarely are the farmers and peasants that worked to grow these profit makers mentioned. This trend is one that is all too familiar in the United States, the history of southern food being one of many. Southern food, as we think of it now, would not exist without the enslaved people that spent so many hours in fields, and kitchens of Antebellum America, but their stories are generally ignored in discourse about southern cooking because of the awkwardness in acknowledging the white south’s racist past. Despite black contributions to southern foodways, the face of southern food is a white one, just google “Best southern chef” to have this point proven, 17 images will appear in front of you, and just one black chef.

Triggering Passages:

“In the era of conspicuous consumption, the “too-muchness” of the black and Asian bodies as represented in these trade cards is of key importance. The affective excess and semiotic overload of these images encode the use of disgust to facilitate and accompany the white bourgeois consumer’s disavowal and enjoyment of commodity pleasure.” (Tompkins 2012: 150)

“Against the liberal tendency to look away from racism we must look at these images- classic examples of racial kitsch- not only to render their historical weight visible and material but also to recognize both sides of their terrible ambivalence… It is, after all, only by looking and listening, by paying close attention to these cards through and in the strangeness of our historical distance from them, that we can begin to hear their ambiguities.” (Tompkins 2012: 151)

“They claim the body of the colored Other instrumentally, as unexplored terrain, a symbolic frontier that will be fertile ground for their reconstruction of the masculine norm, for asserting themselves as transgressive desiring subjects. They call upon the Other to be both witness and participant in this transformation.” (Bell Hooks, 1992: 368)

“People do not eradicate the politics of racial domination as they are made manifest in personal interaction. Mutual recognition of racism, its impact both on those who are dominated and those who dominate, is the only standpoint that makes possible an encounter between races that is not based on denial and fantasy. For the ever present reality of racist domination, of white supremacy, that renders problematic the desire of white people to have contact with the Other.” (Bell Hooks, 1992: 371)

News Media Context:

“When we call a food ethnic, we are signifying a difference but also a certain kind of inferiority. French cuisine has never been defined as ethnic. Japanese cuisine is not considered ethnic today. Those are examples of cuisines that are both foreign and prestigious. There is no inferiority associated with them.”

How Americans Pretend to Love Ethnic Food

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/04/22/the-great-ethnic-food-lie/?utm_term=.d1d796b21775

 

Response:

While reading Eating The Other this week, the inspiration Tompkins has drawn from the works of Bell Hooks became abundantly clear. Bell hooks writing articulates many of Tompkins key ideas in a manner that is, to some degree, easier to process. In Eating The Other, we see the way the Other is used to represent spice, and potential danger, in the otherwise bland world of whiteness. Characteristics that, in moderation create thrill, and a welcomed sense of wildness into the lives of the white, but in excess veer into the “too-muchness” Tompkins addresses in Chapter 5.

As Bell hooks explores on page 370, encounters with Otherness are coded as more exciting, more intense, and more threatening. The lure then becomes the potential passion and the ability to be “more alive” that the Other supposedly possesses. In this context, the white body is given the chance to be changed by the Other in some way, through sex, food, consumption and advertising.

The commodification of the Other body, allows white people to consume the Other and experience a sense of imagined intimacy while believing they are rebelling against and rejecting white supremacist culture. The primitive fantasies and exotification of the Other body, enforce, as opposed to question white supremacist ideals, in turn, keeping the Other in a position of subordinance and upholding white domination.

Tompkins and Bell Hooks’ acknowledgment of the liberal tendency to look away from racism and the denial that exists in doing so, while we should be examining and recognizing it struck me in its veracity. In a day and age where so many claim to “not see race” and microaggressions and discriminatory jokes so often go unchecked it is essential to- despite initial discomfort- confront racism and understand the ways in which it is so intrinsically tied to upholding of white domination and it’s functioning.  

 

February 20th, 2017

Triggering Passages: 

“The indelible Grahamite link between body, home, and nation eternally bars Fun See from ever quite transcending the marks of Asian difference, although those marks do seem to stretch to enfold the new “Mrs. Tokio.”” (Tompkins 2012: 141)

“Rose amuses herself by imagining Annabel “going to Canton someday, and having to order rats, puppies and birds’ nest soup for dinner.” Dietary differences, in other words, mark the boundaries between the races.” (Tompkins 2012: 142)

News Media Context:

High/ Low Cuisine and Orientalism 

“With the separation of the Other as barbaric and weak, the West declared itself the civilized and dominant. This particular binary set the tone for the makeup of international – and national – society as we know it today. Whether it’s the police state, civil war or everyday microaggressive racism, the Other serves to both establish a status quo, and allow the status quo to conduct domination with impunity.”

“This trend of high/low cuisine is nothing new, it is merely Orientalism for Dummies. Place one thing that can be found from one world that you consider low and place it next to another thing from the world you consider high and have a good hoot over the hilarity of it all. Such innovation! Nothing like contrast to truly depict your notion of superiority, right? By placing things from the ‘Orient’ in the world of the West, it serves to elevate not the former, but the latter. The food industry mogul thinks that s/he is doing the Orient a favor by taking it out of the styrofoam box and placing it on the china plate next to a glass of champagne. The history of fried chicken, the cultural significance of Soul Food, would never have existed if not for the barbaric economic strategy of slavery. They know this but want to be the ones to dictate the new narrative, because knowledge of the Other is merely a party trick for the West to showcase its unquenchable thirst for grandeur that is mutually dependent on its need to belittle.”

https://catapult.co/community/stories/high-low-cuisine-and-orientalism

Response:

Tompkins’ chapter, A Wholesome Girl, explores the upper-class orientalist sentiment existent in Antebellum America and the whiteness central to Louisa May Alcott’s feminism. From Fun See’s physical form being paralleled to a teapot to his designation as a “highly satisfactory Chinaman”, we see simplistic, easily digestible depictions of the “other”, and their personal traits eclipsed completely by their ethnic and racial ones.

In Antebellum (and many current day American racial discourses) orientalist discourses, the western observer/ traveler/ historian maintains their place of superiority by continuing to confine the non-westerner as an observable anomaly, while failing to acknowledge their whole personhood. The constant consumption and colonization of the “other” ensure the subordination necessary to rationalize exploitation and lack of humanity, it is in this mindset that black and brown bodies turn less into people and more into “things”.

Though Fun See’s status as a “Chinaman” is accepted by the main characters, he is kept in his subservient position and accepted primarily because of his existence aligning with the “type” of Chinese man recognizable to the white American of the time. Annabel’s romantic desire and interest in Fun See can then, easily be interpreted as her “desire for pretty Chinese things”, Fun See’s body acting as a stand-in for all things desirable and foreign.

Whang Lo, on the other hand, is designated by rose as an “unsatisfactory” Chinese man because of his American costume, mastery of the English language, and failure to align with the limited scope of what it meant to be a non-threatening and palatable Chinese man. While reading the chapter I was struck by the American Upper-Class obsession with fine china. Traditional Chinese pottery, and its display as a sign of wealth, in the context of the Antebellum home, becomes a symbol of conquest and control of a “lesser” peoples culture hidden behind the guise of appreciation.

The Binary nature that is necessary for separation and conquest of the “other” is easily translated into food. Though roses simplistic scope of Chinese food as puppy dogs, rats and birds nests is obvious in its racist nature, the upholding of the same binaries exists in a multitude of ways today. In creating so-called “juxtapositions” in the restaurant world and framing one type of food/ culture as superior to another we continue to uphold the orientalist values that have been used historically to justify western colonialist rule (like the pairing of fried chicken with champagne at Birds and Bubbles, and the “Kebab Renaissance” being led by three white owners at Le Bab.) As Saïd wrote,“In a quite constant way, Orientalism depends for it’s strategy on this flexible positional superiority, which puts the Westerner in a whole series of possible relationships with the Orient without ever losing him the relative upper hand”.

Feb 13th 2017

Triggering passages: “To gain land on which to build the railroads and graze cattle, it was deemed necessary to push out the Native Americans who lived on the land, and exterminating their primary food source- the buffalo- was considered a prime means to that end. With the buffalo gone, cattle assumed greater importance as a food supply.” (Newman 2013: 96)

“The intent is hyper-acceleration of resource extraction and development, and these are on indigenous territories, and the way to accelerate that process is to create legislation, and to have that legislation part of the instrument through which poverty is utilized. This is the old colonial model, which is having the veneer of consent. It is to manufacture it. To manufacture poverty and then manufacture consent.” (LaDuke 2015: 137)

“The North American economy consumes a third of the world’s resources, with perhaps a tenth of the world’s population. That level of consumption requires constant interventions into other countries, and constant violations of human rights” ( LaDuke 2015: 138)

News Media Context:

Can Farming Solve Detroit’s Post Industrial Blues?

“Greg had never totally accepted Detroit’s label as a “food desert,” although he knew the phrase attracted foundation money. He saw Detroit as more of a “food labyrinth.” Good food was there; you just had to know where to find it (and have the means of getting there). Just a mile from his farm, for example, was an excellent independent grocer in Mexicantown with fresh produce and homemade tamales and guacamole. More to the point, the movement was not just about vegetables but about economy and restructuring society. He didn’t want to be just the guy who brought arugula to the ghetto.”

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/urban-farming-the-future-detroit-v24n1

Response:

Given the context of my current internship work and the words of LaDuke and other native activists, it is hard not to feel uneasy in regards to Newman’s rather simplistic view of the communities affected by commodities like corn, cattle, sugar, coffee and chocolate. Newman’s “strictly business” perspective, while straightforward and easy to understand statistically, creates a narrative in which the story of the colonizer is the only story that is told.

LaDuke’s simple but heart-wrenching stories of Native people across North America and Indigenous peoples worldwide create a narrative that is so often forgotten, one where we are reminded of the destructive nature of capitalist systems and the decimation of land and prioritization of portions of the population that is necessary for these systems to thrive.

Laduke’s writing’s on colonization, commodification, and resource extraction are a reflection of the principles upon which this country was founded upon, philosophies that place profit above the well-being of complex ecosystems and human lives.

Communities coming back to their lands is essential at this point in history. The voices of native fishermen, underserved communities fighting to feed themselves, and marginalized people must be heard. Creating and participating in systems that speak and act against colonialism and an awareness of the ways media so often skews projects of extraction as necessary “progress” is essential in creating inclusive and effective change. 

Feb 5th 2017

Triggering Passages:
“The average American consumes more than his own weight daily in stuff. We buy clothes, electronics, games and products at a rate where today, some 70% of the US economy is based on consumption.” (LaDuke, 2015: 107)

“When the actress sang the song “Butter and Eggs” she used “certain tones and gestures to convey that all dealers in butter and eggs were men of immoral and licentious character… and thereby hold [s] plaintiff and others similarly situated to hatred, contempt and ridicule.” (Newman, 2013: 72)
“Indigestion becomes the return of the repressed as the indigestible black subject pushes back against her consumer, upsetting the white body politic even as she is sold into death.” (Tompkins, 2012: 117)
News Media Context:

“Beyond these accolades, our country’s has a deeper history still of countless lesser-known black women, enslaved in fields and kitchens, who have fed children not their own and who have long shaped our most celebrated foodways, recipes and sustainable agricultural practices.”

A More Abundant Share- The Future Of Food Is Black
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/future-of-food-is-black_us_5895f081e4b0c1284f263d69

Response:

Reading LaDuke’s reflection on her time at the Taos Pueblo of New Mexico, I was deeply affected by her words on consumption, an act, that has become inseparable from the American identity. After noting that no one in the world consumes more than a North American, and going on to list Costa Rica and Vanuatu as two of the happiest countries in the world (one an Island with an 80% local economy and the other having no military), the United States place as a consumer in the world is abundantly clear.

Consumption in the U.S. goes beyond the use of energy and resources, the history of colonization and decimation of black and brown bodies that the foundation of this country has relied upon historically, is a form of consumption within itself.

 In this context, colonization= consumption. A country rooted in colonizing, is in essence, constantly consuming the “other”, and placing them in the position of subordination that is necessary to rationalize neglect and lack of humanity. The more “other” bodies are degraded, the easier it becomes for the oppressor to rationalize the degradation. As Tompkins states, the triple loss of “home” “rights”, rights over his or hers own body and loss of political status leads to social death and lack of humanity altogether, with that act the black and brown body turns less into a body and more into a “thing”, as stated on 118 of Tompkins, “the more Frado is tortured, the less human and more animal she becomes to the eyes of the domestic figure.”

The disproportionate physical, economic and psychological burdens placed on people of color in this country are not coincidental. Centuries of systematic oppression and intergenerational trauma are placed upon black and brown bodies from birth. If you care about bodies other than your own, it is necessary to make yourself unpalatable and indigestable to the racist, classist and misogynistic norms this country operates on. As Shakira Simley states in her article A More Abundant Share, The Future Of Food Is Black, the future of food is people, and “Our healing will come and bellies will be full when we dismantle corporate control of our food system by empowering our own communities.”

Triggering Passages

“In a more abstract sense orality gives the cook her access to power as well; while her mouth may be the subject to middle-class discipline, she has access to her employers’ mouths as well. In fact the cook’s entire worth hinges on her mouth: it metonymizes her essential value as a cook.” (Tompkins 2012: 49)

“Why was such value assigned to spices, particularly in the Old World? Although the answer is complicated (and entire books have been devoted to this subject), one answer is that spices were valued because they were extremely difficult to obtain.” (Newman 2013: 18)

News Media Context

Who Owns Southern Food?

“It is well documented that one of the significant jobs of the house slaves was to prepare the meals for the master, his family and his guests. Many of the recipes that have been passed down for generations in both black and white families and are the backbone of Southern cooking were born out of slavery. It is not the content of the recipes that is missing, but the context.”

 

“But their children didn’t always embrace the “good old days.” My mother didn’t see Southern food as a badge of honor, she was striving for middle class sameness. There were so many rules of what I could eat inside our home, but never out, especially around white people. We hid our culture in plain sight. It was as if eating lasagna and forgoing black-eyed peas was going to make or break our upward mobility. Food and race in this country are both powerful currencies.”

http://theplate.nationalgeographic.com/2015/12/04/who-owns-southern-food/

Response:

Reading Newman’s chapter on the spice trade I was brought back to a conversation had last week with classmates in regards to the designation of people of color as “spices” in the lives of the white. Newman emphasizes the difficulty in obtaining spices as a substantial rationale for the high value of spices, but given the context of recent discussions and research it is hard to not interpret part of the appeal as a desire for the “exotic” or “the other”.

In contemporary American culture it is not uncommon for “vanilla” to be used colloquially to imply blandness or whiteness, while terms like “spicy”, are used often in regards to latina women or “saucy” in regards to black women, acknowledging their exciting yet inherently disruptive “spice” as a potential threat to whiteness, only to be used in moderation.

Tompkins’s exploration of the hearth of Antebellum America and its symbolic and literal focal point for analysis prompted me to think more critically than I ever had before on the class implications of architectural layouts, particularly in regards to the kitchen and its placement in the home.

In the quoted passage, I was struck by Tompkins’s analysis of the power existing inherently within the black chef’s mouth and the chef’s being taught to “watch her mouth” while at the same time learning to inhabit the mouths of her employers. As Tompkins quotes on the following page “ The Cook’s power lies, here, in exercising orality: in eating and speaking. Both, by presenting the possibility of poisoning, project a sense of the unconscious power dynamic at work in the Antebellum household.” (Tompkins 2012: 50).

January 16th 2017

Triggering passages:

“Nationalist foodways- and the objects fetishized therein- in turn, become allegories through which the expanding nation and its abundant anxieties play out. What we see in the nineteenth century- as indeed we do today in such racialized discourses as obesity, hunger, and diabetes- is the production of social inequality at the level of the quotidian functioning of the body.” (Tompkins 2012:4)

 

“Rows of flickering computer screens replace the tables piled high with flour and grains. However, the exchange setting remains as dramatic as its late nineteenth-century counterpart… the physical commodities- the bushels of corn, the blocks and barrels of cheddar- are traded but nowhere to be seen.” (Newman 2013: 3)

 

News Media:

The Problem With Foodieism

“Foodie-ism and the narrow emphasis on eating organic/local/artisan food was not an act of protest or activism.In fact, it was pretty conservative. Foodieism reinforced and replicated systems of food injustice. Eat expensive grass-fed beef in your LEED-certified ivory tower and you might as well be dining on Chilean sea bass at the CPAC with Rush Limbaugh.”

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/food-politic/the-problem-with-foodieism_b_3345767.html

 

Discussion:

While re-reading Tompkins’s Racial Indigestion introduction I was struck by the physicality of the theories spoken on. When thinking of politics we often position ourselves in ways that either approach or distance ourselves from broader issues and happenings, in Tompkins proposal, the act of eating and the politics existing inherently within it are inescapable as they happen in our own stomachs and mouths. By the obligatory act of eating, we involve ourselves. As stated on page 4 of Racial Indigestion “The act of eating dissolves the boundary between self and other”.

 

In the Tompkins introduction, the author expands on Brillat-Savarin’s “Tell me what you eat and I shall tell you who you are” adding that it is not simply the “what” of what one eats, but the “where”, the “when” and the “who” is doing the eating (and who is not). Relating to the “who”, Freesia Mckee explores the trend of foodieism and its inherently bourgeois, classist nature, stating in her article The Problem With Foodiesm that the foodies “Want your fried plantains but don’t want you”.

Newman’s vivid description of the lack of physical food in today’s trading process struck me in contrast to Tompkin’s deeply physical writing. When these foods become part of international trade, they lose their identity as a plant or living thing and turn into a market reliant commodity,

Week 1 Seminar Paper Political Bodies