How Soul Food Has Become Separated From Its Black Roots

[George's Dilemma]

People became shamed of mentioning chitlins, ham hocks, pig feet, etc.

I can't imagine nor have I known anyone ashamed to mention their love of soul food. Not doubting you, just its shocking. I dont eat chitlins, cant get past that odor and I dont want to hear about it having anything to do with cleaning them. But I love ham hocks. I love that ham and skin when used for navy beans or greens. Nothing like it and could never see myself ashamed of it.

 

[IsThatBrothaMouzone?]

I'll give them a pass on fried chicken. The Scottish were frying chicken long before us....BUT, we actually made that shyt taste good with African and New Workd spices.

Sweet potato pie?? Potatoes are native to the Americas. I'm not sure Euros were getting down with SPP like that before they got here. Even if they were, Big Mama actually made it taste good so.....

Chitlins, hamhocks etc...we ate that out of necessity but swine is a white people thing. We just made due with what we had. We ate fish, goat, chicken etc. in Africa. Notice how white people love red meat like steak and pork but get all weird over some fish. I'll take my shrimp n grits, fish w/jollof rice and hot chicken with collard greens with some Louisiana Hot Sauce.

 

[DEAD7]

 

[GoAggieGo.]

I can't imagine nor have I known anyone ashamed to mention their love of soul food. Not doubting you, just its shocking. I dont eat chitlins, cant get past that odor and I dont want to hear about it having anything to do with cleaning them. But I love ham hocks. I love that ham and skin when used for navy beans or greens. Nothing like it and could never see myself ashamed of it.

Man, atleast in the circles I’ve been in, if you mention you eat any of the foods that we eat, you’re met with a whole bunch of “you eat that?” “We don’t do that no more” or “yea, we’re off that”

Meanwhile, my grandpa still consistently eats pig feet and rice on Mondays, and will take my grandma to the K&W on Sundays for some soul food (my grandma doesn’t cook anymore)

 

[Supa]

Greens looking like a salad

Collards are the easiest thing to make. And leave the hamhock out and it's healthy. I've even made them without any smoked meat and they're still good.

“I argue that chicken and waffles actually came from Europe,” he said, explaining that German immigrants brought the combination of creamedchicken and waffles to the U.S. When the dish reached the South, he said, the chicken was just fried instead of creamed. To Miller, when white chefs cook chicken and waffles, the dish isn’t being appropriated, it’s “just going back home.”

Fried chicken and waffles started in Harlem. Nobody is talking about no unseasoned creamed chicken.

 

[Wild self]

This why they fall behind

Overworked and spend more formative years in school over building domestic cooking akills and fixing things. Sacrificing those for an advanced degree really harmed the household and spending time with family.

 

[big bun]

Can’t be soul food without the soul...

And wasn’t most of you Coli knee grows talking down on soul food on here not too long ago? It’s people like you that give these white folks passes to ruin some more shyt.

 

[Captain Crunch]

I gotta get my mom’s recipes

 

[Zero]

Can’t be soul food without the soul...

And wasn’t most of you Coli knee grows talking down on soul food on here not too long ago? It’s people like you that give these white folks passes to ruin some more shyt.

It's unhealthy and unwanted until white folks start cooking it

 

[im_sleep]

There is a definite separation between “southern” food and “soul” food. It’s a reach to have Anglo/Scottish derived white folks make a claim on some shyt that looks nothing like they’re native shyt for the most part. It’s a reach to have them claim it when Soul Food got look-a-like dishes in Africa, in non-Anglo countries in the diaspora, as well as Anglo parts of the diaspora with minimal white population.

Most Black folks and white folks(when they’re being honest) know the difference. When Soul Food was being defined in the 60’s those Southern whites he’s speaking on weren’t objecting because they didn’t fukk with it like that. Wasn’t no hipster foodie craze back then, the less they could be associated with our culture the better. Acting like Soul Food came about as a result of Black folks being overly militant is some revisionist bullshyt made by a nikka(Adrian Miller) signaling to white hipsters that they can get a pass.

Some of us try to add white folks into the equation out of shame for Soul Food, or when they want validation. I see right through that shyt.

“Bu bu but they eat it too, it isn’t just us”.


And honestly I think Soul Food is pretty safe from being gentrified. As far as I’m concerned they can make imitation chicken and waffles, hot chicken, mac and cheese, and shytty attempts at greens all they want.


I ain’t trippin because I know they’re not fukking with oxtails, neckbones, beef tips, chitlins, okra, black eyed peas, greens cooked properly, etc.

All we need to do is keep the boundaries defined and the recipes passed down.