In this book, Ashante M. Reese makes clear the structural forces that determine food access in urban areas, highlighting Black residents' navigation of and resistance to unequal food distribution systems. Linking these local food issues to the national problem of systemic racism, Reese examines the history of the majority-Black Deanwood neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork, Reese not only documents racism and residential segregation in the nation's capital but also tracks the ways transnational food corporations have shaped food availability. By connecting community members' stories to the larger issues of racism and gentrification, Reese shows there are hundreds of Deanwoods across the country.

Reese's geographies of self-reliance offer an alternative to models that depict Black residents as lacking agency, demonstrating how an ethnographically grounded study can locate and amplify nuances in how Black life unfolds within the context of unequal food access.

BIO

Ashanté M. Reese is assistant professor of anthropology at Spelman College.

REVIEWS

"Black Food Geographies offers a deep examination of the history and present of Deanwood in Washington, D.C., drawing important connections between the food system of this particular urban locale and what is happening in other important sites of food justice work around the country. A compelling read." --Teresa Mares, University of Vermont

"In contrast to the barren emptiness implied by the term food desert, Reese also captures the resilience, creativity and dynamism that exist in the historically Black community of Deanwood in Washington, D.C. . . . [And] offers something more complicated and more radical in her telling. Not quick fixes, but imaginative possibilities for a new kind of urban food system - one with liberatory potential." -- City

University of North Carolina Press  /  April 29, 2019

0.6" H x 9.1" L x 6.1" W (0.65 lbs) 184 pages