Free Breakfast and Taco Trucks: Case Studies of Food as Rhetorical Homology in Political Discourse

Abstract

This chapter examines examples from the last half century of food as a rhetorical homology—equating food culture and activism and political discourse. The Black Panther Party’s Free Breakfast for Children Program is compared to the contemporary indigenous group the I-Collective, whose identity and activism feature food-focused content both virtually and in person. The two case studies illuminate the power of food as a broader rhetorical tool brandished today by activists and politicians alike. While food has long been used as a political tool, the Black Panther Party’s Free Breakfast for Children Program is one of the most potent examples of food involving explicit political discourse. Their 1969 national anti-hunger initiative began as a way to make a positive difference in the lives of marginalised children, but also functioned to communicate values, intention, and political ideology, linking discourses and creating what Barry Brummett called a “rhetorical homology”. With the rising influence of social media, and the popularity of food on these platforms we see this happening again in modern discourse. The indigenous activist group I-Collective is a contemporary example of a group using food as political rhetoric in a similarly explicit way as did the Black Panther Party a half century earlier.