Even when you try to eat healthier. Damned if you reach for the fried chicken, damned if you reach for the baked whiting. I'm not sure what media wants to happen here. It's been barely two years since the Times ran a series lamenting the incredible diabetes rates in East Harlem. Now they run a story lamenting the decline of ham hocks and red velvet cake. This game is rigged--either you play the tragic Negro, or you get ignored. You choose.
There is of course the gentrification angle, but that doesn't really explain much--Harlem is still overwhelmingly black. The diet change deal started years ago, when soul food joints started cooking their greens with turkey wings, and baked chicken became the move. Personally, I miss Ahira's. 116th and Lenox cats know what I'm talking about,
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You ain't never lied. I was just having this debate with some friends of mine. What is the tragedy here? Sure, it's awful for those owners but you have to adapt or die. If we don't take control of our health issues, universal health care won't mean a thing -- we'll just die with insurance.
First: Welcome! I'm so glad you replaced Matthew Disgracias.
As for the NYT article, I think you're overreacting a bit. This strikes me as a sign of the times trend piece that wouldn't be out of place in the Food or Business sections.
I can kinda relate, as deli food here in DC seems to be on the decline and my Jewish heritage goes out the window in favor of burritos and sushi.
Right?! I mean as the 'Stuff educated black people like blog tells us "uppity" black folks like to eat a lil healthier. LOL, but all jokes aside the "soul food" as cultural currency is overstated.
One of my many disappointments with CNN black in america program was the lack of coverage on the psychology behind eating soul food, as if eating greasy food is a black birth right. Also, in the south everyone eats bad, what northerners call soul food is what everybody eats. and thats why obesity is high in the south across the board.
But back to the story. Sorry to inform white america, but some black people like to improve their lives and get healthy when everyone in their family has diabetes or high blood pressure.
I think its clear that a lot of people want to change their ways; its hard to avoid that in all forms of media including black centered press and TV that eating better or trying different things would inform black folks as well.
Also gentrification also brings in more options. As someone who grew up in the south, the gas station with greasy breakfast, lunch and dinner was one of the few late night options. But when my lil' hometown got some chains, people started to eat there because it was a choice that they once i had to drive 30 minutes to find.
So i think its a constellation of things, and for the media to once again cast black people as a monolith is sad but not surprising. Although my ex told me Ahira was the joint.
PEACE
Media stereotypes produced for mass consumption. Are we suprised by this? When the "establisment" (for lack of a better term I don't want to be cliche) portrays the lives of those it doesn't understand it usually only has two angles either people are portrayed as heroic individuals overcoming adversity, or they are portrayed as the poor victims taken advantage of by circumstance.
As hard as we try to overcome it it seems that people always fall for simple manichean explanations of the way the world works. Why is that?
I grew up in the south but moved to southern California in my mid-twenties. I have spent at least 25 years adapting southern recipes that I like to healthier versions of what is basically the same thing. I'm not from Louisiana, but I definitely have a thing for Creole/Cajun food. So what if my gumbos, etc... do not taste quite as good as your great grandmother's? They are still pretty damn good.
What is the point in medical research if it does not lead to better health? We know a lot more now about what is causing many of our diet related health problems, and we need to "adapt or die" as commenter JR Shells above says.
Shouldn't it be a positive thing that black people are making healthier choices? Just upgrade the menus. It's 2008. Tastes change over time. The 60s are over. If the politics have changed, medical knowledge has advanced, and our black leadership is changing, why not modify the food?
And soul food really needs to be called southern food. That's all it is.
I, myself, really miss Pan-Pan - but that was a 135th and Lenox joint. Perhaps too far to trudge?
I think the Times was just documenting a phenomenon, so in ten years when Harlem is completely gentrified and European tourists ask where all the soul food places have gone, they can find an answer.
Personally I think fried food is the new smoking. Everyone knows it's bad for you, but people do it anyways because it tastes good and makes them feel vaguely bad ass. Here in DC I love Oohs and Aahs as well as Florida Ave Grill, both holding strong on the border of the gentrified zone.
I see similarities with the Mexican-American community, which I am a part of...
What is the deal with these whole wheat tortillas?
I have yet so see anyone at Walmart buying them.
It concerns me that we have lots of overweight amigos y amigas eating enchiladas and drinking lots of cerveza without working out...
You know that diabetes is rampant in our community also...
Its all about balance. Restaurants should cook what sells. Mexican-American consumers should eat one helping and then head to the gym!
Mr. Coates, congrats on your new position! I have enjoyed reading your blog, now I can read you and Andrew S. at the same site!
You had me at red velvet.
I feel you in a general sense, but I don't think this Times piece was all that bad..
They did note that some of the reasons may not be so tragic, and I think it's fair to document that many people have a strong attachment to these spots, and many of us who agree that this is more progress than tragedy still feel a pang of melancholy as it goes down. Rather than a tendency to portray the Tragic Negro, to me this piece just reflects our universal tendency to over-romanticize that which is beloved but no longer needed.. [insert analogy about older hip-hoppers here]
Maybe it could've been a little more cynical about that tendency, and no doubt the gentrification angle is often overestimated, and it's probably more of a generational shift among longtime residents and new ones alike.
I wonder if ascribing it to health-consciousness might also be a little romantic in its own way? For younger heads who lack their elders' attachment to this tradition and affinity for intestines and feet and such, they may be still down to indulge a yummy/greasy/bloaty meal but just have no reason to pay $12 for it when they can pay $4 elsewhere. Would've liked to see this piece mention whether there's a similar dropoff in Kansas/Kandars/Kennedy Fried Chicken spots and chinese Half-Chicken spots..
Really though, most of these places we lament just had more sentimental value than consumer value in 2008.. like Bobby's Happy House, we were all sad to see it go but how many of us ever had a reason to shop there?
(for the record: losing Copeland's was an unmitigated disaster)
Jay Smooth is on to something...all "soul food" from all cultures is food centered on the premise that given enough time and work you can turn the cheapest, low-grade food into culinary delicacies. See collard greens and pastrami. It used to be cheap - now, not so much. A Miss Maude dinner'll set you back almost twenty bucks, so will a single Pastrami sandwich at Katz's. This is no longer poor folks food, that crown goes to McDeath Burger. Nostalgia keeps you going to the old food, not budget.
Yeah, that and the fact that it's effing delicious!