The Spirit of Soul Food: Race Faith and Food Justice by Christopher Carter (review)

Reviewed by: The Spirit of Soul Food: Race Faith and Food Justiceby Christopher Carter Plaxedes T. Chitiyo The Spirit of Soul Food: Race Faith and Food JusticeChristopher Carter: University of Illinois Press, 2021. ix and 185 pp. , figs. , bibliog. , and index. 24. 95 paperback (ISBN 978–0-252–08617-5) The Spirit of Soul Foodillustrates the intricate complexities of soul food showing that it is more than just a cuisine for black people but is intertwined with other issues that include geography, growing, cooking, economy, race, and justice. Christopher Carter, a social ethicist, and a practical theologian delves deeper into why our current dominant food system is riddled with inequities and structural racism, both at local and global scale. This is not by happenstance, but by design where through slavery and colonialism as well as its social and psychological remnants, an industrialized food system with a racist foundation of slave exploitation was created and still exists today as seen by factory farms, exploitation of black and brown farm laborers, scarcity of black owned farmland, food insecurity and food apartheid in black and brown communities. This book's target audience are black Christians, providing a voice to this oftenmarginalized group, which complements work done by Black Food Geographies scholars, food justice movement, and grassroots activists such as Ashanté M. Reese, Jessica B. Harris, Laura Pulido, Julian Agyeman, Dara Cooper, Leah Penniman, Wangari Maathai, Monica White, Malik Yakini, and Vandana Shiva. The geographic connections of food between the continent of Africa trace the history of American food and how it became incorporated in mainstream America, while also highlighting African American challenges and ingenuity in creating a widely adopted cuisine (Harris 2011). Despite having a diet that was foisted onto them by whites during slavery, blacks were able to create "soul food" out of adversity. However, Carter redefines soul food and proposes black veganism instead as an anecdote to these historical food injustices (Carter 2021, 13). Black veganism decenters whiteness, challenges colonialism and capitalism, elevates black heritage, seeks justice for food workers, and protects the earth (Carter 2021, 19). It is also based on Jesus's teachings i. e. , " loving yourself as your neighbor" and the golden rule " do unto others what you would want them to do to you", challenging the black Christian community to apply these principles as key aspects of their ministry and moral obligation to commiserate with the exploited masses who look like them (Carter 2021, 11). By focusing on Black Christians who make up 79 % of the US African American population, (Pew Research Center 2023), Carter's book shows us the important role of religion and how its tenets can be utilized to promote food justice. The book is divided into four chapters with chapter 1 exploring the history and evolution of the African diet from West Africa to the US, including the present-day food ways. Embedded in this food way history is race, gender, and civil rights thereby yielding "soul food" in the process. Carter argues that to move forward and promote food justice, these food ways must be decolonized with blacks reclaiming their intellectual ingenuity, resist black food pathways racist ideologies, and redefine End Page 264 Chapter 2 critically examines our present-day political economy of food with a focus on African Americans and the global poor. Carter argues that injustices in black food pathways are a result of African enslavement and forced agricultural labor (Carter 2021, 58). Domestic and international politics created a structurally racist food system, that exploits African Americans and other people of color in the US and beyond but benefits white middle-class Americans and agriculture corporations. In addition, BIPOC communities both in the US and in the global south suffer from food insecurity, with issues such food apartheid prevalent in black and brown communities in the US, which is a clear example of environmental racism as food distribution is along racial lines. Chapter 3 provides a decolonized theological anthropology where white male superiority within Christianity is challenged. This perspective views blacks as less humans and it is both racist and sexist and has therefore resulted in justification of exploitation of nature, humans, and non-humans. Carter proposes. . .