Why eating pork while Black is complicated.
on the weeks-long journey by ship from West Africa to the Americas. The only other option was to starve.of a couple pounds of dried, pickled, salted, or smoked pork along with a few pounds of cornmeal and a jug of molasses to the enslaved. Slaveholders relied heavily on pork to feed the enslaved because pigs were so easy and inexpensive to raise.
Even though it was forced upon them, the enslaved eventually embraced pork when they were free to choose what type of meat they were going to eat. After a hog-killing, the various parts of the pig that couldn’t be preserved were relished. This brings us back to pig’s intestines, also known as chitterlings or chitlins.
Another beloved pork eating tradition is barbecue. Although anything could wind up over the pit, from the 1600s to the 20th century, barbecue meant cooking a butterflied whole hog over a pit filled with hardwood burning coals. Enslaved African Americans were apt to barbecue any time there was a community gathering, whether that was after church or while just having fun with friends and family.
I know that, most of the time, people critique pork consumption out of concern for my physical and spiritual well-being, and they have valid points. That’s fine. The unkindest cuts for me are the critiques seasoned with the idea that eating pork somehow makes me less Black. Truth be told, I’m cutting back on the impressive amounts of pork that I usually eat because doing so has made me, well, kind of porky. Yet, I love swine nonetheless.
All I’m asking for is less judgment while I unapologetically dine on bacon, chitlins, ham hocks, pork chops, sausage, spareribs, and everything but the squeal. Group identity is fluid, especially when it's tied to culture and food. It’s formed by a complicated mix of good and bad things that happen over time. We, as individuals, repeatedly evaluate this mix and then decide how we connect our identity to the larger group’s.
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