Ethnoracism & White palatability: The erasure of Black African gastronomies in the global media

Abstract

The art of eating is political; food is political. Because food has linkages to a history, and identity, and is unique to your culture, it is a prime tool for othering. Every societal construct has White supremacy ingrained into it. Whiteness and White palatability have become the omniscient value barometer that determines and assigns worth. This article analyzes the representation of Black African gastronomies in the global media and emphasizes the complicity of the media in the calculated miscategorization of the cuisines to spotlight Whiteness. I show how Whiteness weaponizes food to further enact colonial violence and ethnoracial racism. I do this by analyzing the White hegemony of the culinary media; prestigious food lists; the concept of fine dining and restaurants at large; and the politics of spice and its enmeshed relationship with the Michelin Guide. To illustrate White palatability, I anatomize the Michelin guide as it is the most prestigious food list and argue that by excluding African chefs and African and non-Western cuisines from positions of prestige, they are purporting racism, being anti-black, and courting White palatability. I assess the forceful, mostly unneeded domination of Whiteness in the culinary ecosystem as it has been in other spaces for centuries and the innate desire to extirpate other cultures.