Who Owns Southern Food?

When it comes to food and cooking, the American South is hot. Yet the stories and experiences of African Americans have been largely left out of the conversation. Is it a type of cultural appropriation, or just a sign of the times?

When I talk to a friend who is a white lifestyle doyenne about the notion of cultural appropriation in food, she says that I am being too sensitive. “After all slavery was a million years ago, and people don’t have maids and cooks anymore. Why hang on to the old stuff?” She tells me that Southern food is in a much better place now because it is mainstreamed. As you can imagine, saying this to a black woman doesn’t go

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