Duke Researchers Say food charity & farmer’s markets are "white supremacist" food culture

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"Everyone in the United States is impacted by White Supremacy Culture,"

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A lecture series by Duke University researchers focuses on a racial framework to food issues, claiming elements such as food charity and farmer’s markets are part of "white supremacist" food culture. The lecture, broadcast online as a webinar and provided at a Washington State University summit, places race as the most prominent factor in issues of food scarcity and how society attempts to resolve it. Jennifer Zuckerman and Alison Conrad, both white, of the Duke University World Food Policy Center claim that "whiteness" has shaped every part of food culture, even labeling "good" and "bad" foods as an expression of racial power dynamics. Unlike other areas of racial discourse such as workplace dynamics or education which derive mainly from social science, food and nutrition can derive from a more strictly scientific foundation. Zuckerman and Conrad’s research is entirely based on a cultural framework and does not touch on any potential scientific understanding or interpretation of nutrition that might help discuss the topic.


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Zuckerman defined "White Supremacy Culture" as the idea that white people and their ideas, thoughts, beliefs and actions are "inherently superior" to those of people of color. She insists that this has been "reproduced by all the institutions of our society." "Everyone in the United States is impacted by White Supremacy Culture," Zuckerman stated during the webinar. She insisted that it is an "adaptive" framework, creating the potential to shift what the "culture" includes as time passes.


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They argue that food charity creates "narratives" that minority communities "can’t take care of themselves" and need help. Particularly, the "mobile produce market" is "white-led" and takes advantage of "majority BIPOC neighborhoods," creating greater dependence on "white-led institutions."


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Even if you're not intentionally acting from a white supremacist standpoint, the system is white supremacy, and you have to learn how that whiteness impacts the work that you're doing," Conrad said. "There's a lot of these sort of nuances that I think we tend to ignore. And a lot of these things have to do with white supremacy and structural racism that's built into the system."

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