Getting Something to Eat in Jackson uses food—what people eat and how—to explore the interaction of race and class in the lives of African Americans in the contemporary urban South. Joseph C. Ewoodzie Jr. examines how “foodways”—food availability, choice, and consumption—vary greatly between classes of African Americans in Jackson, offering new insights into the lives of Black Southerners and helping to challenge the persistent homogenization of blackness in American life.
“The neighborhood is no longer what it used to be. The experience of blackness is not either.” For PUP Speaks, Ewoodzie explains how talking to Jacksonians about their food choices helped him to understand more about their changing racial and cultural identities.
About the Author
Joseph C. Ewoodzie Jr. is associate professor of sociology at Davidson College. He is the author of Break Beats in the Bronx: Rediscovering Hip-Hop’s Early Years. He lives in Charlotte, North Carolina. Twitter @piko_e