A recognition and appreciation of diverse cultures is developing a cultural self-awareness, exposing yourself to new cultures, and accepting other cultures for their differences. It requires you understand other points of view. Appreciation means celebrating our differences, and by practicing appreciation, we open ourselves to those different from us. We gain valuable perspective, and we grow from mistakes as we make sense of these differences. Through appreciation, we validate the humanity in ourselves and others. Attached is a paper I wrote in my cultural communication course, COM 440. In the assignment, I analyze the relationship between segregated cultural spaces and food insecurity. After research, I found that the complexity of food insecurity as a social, economic, and political issue intersects racial inequalities through segregated cultural spaces where access to food is restricted for non-dominant groups. While caused by varied socioeconomic and political factors, food insecurity is mainly driven by poverty. I concluded that food insecurity is such a complex, pervasive issue because we are not doing enough to address the racial inequities that exist. In doing so, I recognize the inequity faced by marginalized groups and minorities. Completing this assignment allowed me to become more self-aware of my privileges and exposed me to a different culture which was the impoverished and food insecure.
The Relationship Between Segregated Cultural Spaces and Food Insecurity
Kennan Martin
COM 440
September 30, 2018
“Hunger is not an issue of charity. It is an issue of justice.” -Jacques Diouf
Food is a basic human need in order to survive. When this need is continually met, we often forget that food is a finite resource. Privileged people with easy access to food do not always realize that food is not easy to come by for everyone. Even in industrialized societies like the United States of America, this problem still persists. Food insecurity is the term the federal government uses to denote the condition of households that are sometimes unable to acquire enough food for all members due to lack of financial or other resources to food. Food insecurity is not contained in any one area of the United States, rather, it is a nationwide issue that targets the poor. While race and cultural spaces lie at the intersection of poverty and class stratification, the issue of food insecurity is just as much a social issue as people of color are systematically disadvantaged in access to healthy, nutritious food.
In the United States, while there is a systematic proliferation of wealth for some, but many households are left without adequate financial resources or access to healthy nutritious food. According to How Hungry is America? by author Joel berg, “fully 16.6 million households (10.9 percent of all households), containing 35.5 million Americans, suffered from food insecurity in 2006,” (Berg, 29). Out of these, Black, American Indian, and Hispanic households are disproportionately low income and poor. This statistic does not even include the homeless. The pervasiveness of the disproportion of wealth is generated and maintained through a structured system of oppression. Segregated cultural spaces, or “the imposition and use of spatial segregation to maintain the hegemony of the dominant group and to restrict and control access of nondominant groups to power and resources,” are linked within this system (Sorrells, 91). These segregated cultural spaces stem from a historical inequity.
Based purely off of socioeconomic status, it is likely that if you live within a wealthy community, you are White or have been absorbed in a “cultural whitening.” Those who do not are most likely people of color who have been affected by the inequities of the past as “First, systematic inequities and injustices of the past continue to impact the present and the future. Second, while laws that blatantly led to segregation, such as the Jim Crow laws, have been abolished, other formal and informal practices support de facto (by practice) segregation today...in the context of neoliberal globalization, race is recoded as class. Given the legacy of colonization and the history of systematic discrimination, the contours of class segregation are closely linked to race” (Sorrells, 92).
Thus, we see that issues of food insecurity disproportionately affect people of color. High prices of nutritious food and the prevalence of food deserts make accessibility to healthy food difficult for impoverished families. In turn, they are pressured to consume cheaper and less-nutritious options. Consequently, this leads to a rise in obesity in their communities, compounded by multiple influences in the media to eat high-calorie, unhealthy food. Through an emphasis on calorie intake, the food industry pressures especially low-wage families to consume unhealthy and excessive high-calorie diets instead of wholesome, nutritious diets. This environment leads to an increase in obesity as consumers are encouraged to eat more unhealthy food more frequently. As these communities turn to convenient and cheap food options, they suffer more health risks.
Not only does food insecurity threaten the health of these communities, but also their productivity. According to the Nutrition-Cognition National Advisory Committee, “under nutrition impacts the behavior of children, their school performance, and their overall cognitive development” (Berg, 47). As children do not receive necessary sustenance, they are unable to get the most out of their education.
To link this issue with segregated cultural spaces, “segregation is typically segregation by both race and poverty. Black and Latino students tend to be in schools with a substantial majority or poor children, but White and Asian students are typically in middle-class schools” (Sorrells, 92). Adults suffer consequences in mental health and productivity as well. A study found that “adults in food insecure households were more than twice as likely to suffer depressions as adults in households with adequate food” (Berg, 49). If working individuals are not eating regularly, they will be deprived of energy to work productively. An entire portion of a community workforce might suffer. Food insecurity negatively impacts children’s education and working adults productivity, creating a less than optimal community output. Subsequently, within these segregated cultural spaces, a system of inequality serves to make it harder for people of color to escape their food insecurity situation financially or educationally.
In the United States of America, poverty is the main impetus for food insecurity and impoverished and low-wage families are at increased risk of food insecurity. Lack of financial resources increases this risk; however, there are other societal issues ingrained in the problem of food insecurity. While race and cultural spaces lie at the intersection of poverty and class stratification, the issue of food insecurity is just as much a social issue as people of color are systematically disadvantaged in access to healthy, nutritious food. These segregated cultural spaces stem from a historical inequity. As these communities turn to convenient and cheap food options, they suffer more health risks and stay stuck within their restricted access.
The city of New Haven, Connecticut provides a good example of a segregated cultural space in regard to food insecurity. Russell and Heidkamp (2011) have studied the New Haven area specifically. Their research focuses on food desertification in New Haven, Connecticut after a key supermarket located centrally in New Haven closed down. They examine the significant role of the supermarket in the creation of urban food deserts, noticing a detrimental effect on geographical food access in New Haven. The researchers found that “certain parts of the city with low income, high poverty, and low vehicle access to exist in hardship outside the service areas of nearby stores” (Russell & Heidkamp, 2011). Their study raises concern for the New Haven food system and seeks new solutions for access to health and affordable food. While in parts of New Haven, residents remain extremely wealthy and worry not about where their next meal is coming from, a few block away, an impoverished community of people of color lacks resources to access healthy, nutritious food.
Within these segregated cultural spaces, a system of inequality serves to make it harder for people of color to escape their food insecurity situation financially or educationally. While in parts of New Haven, residents remain quite wealthy, nearby an impoverished community of people of color lacks resources to access healthy, nutritious food. The complexity of food insecurity as a social, economic, and political issue intersects racial inequalities through segregated cultural spaces where access to food is restricted for nondominant groups. While caused by varied socioeconomic and political factors, food insecurity is mainly driven by poverty. Perhaps the reason we have found it so difficult to attack the issue of food insecurity through charitable solutions is because we are not doing enough to address the racial inequities that exist.
Work Cited
Berg, J. (2008). All You Can Eat: How Hungry Is America? New York, NY: Seven Stories.
Russell, S. E., & Heidkamp, C. P. (2011). ‘Food desertification’: The loss of a major supermarket in New Haven, Connecticut. Applied Geography, 31(4), 1197-1209.
Sorrels, K. (2016). Intercultural communication: Globalization and social justice. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE