Why are minorities suffering so much? An insidious but subtle form of hidden racism is harming their health and their communities, but few, if any, are asking the tough questions. It\u2019s a topic I address in depth in\u00a0Food Fix<\/em>.<\/p>\n When we talk of racism we think of white supremacists, police brutality, job discrimination, limited opportunities, and hate speech, but rarely do we think of food. Hundreds of thousands of African-Americans, Hispanics, and the poor are killed every year by a hidden form of racism, a silent and insidious injustice. Here\u2019s how:<\/p>\n You may have heard of food deserts\u2014where the closest grocery store is more than a mile away and it\u2019s hard to find fresh fruits and vegetables or other healthy food. About 23 million Americans live in these food deserts. But the problem isn\u2019t only food deserts. It is also food swamps, communities filled with fast-food chains and bodegas plying highly processed addictive foods.<\/p>\n Food deserts imply a natural phenomenon, like an unfortunate desert somehow just occurred. Nothing is less true. It\u2019s hard to find fresh produce but easy to find gallon cups of soda and other sugar-loaded beverages, and fast-food chains peddling burgers, fries, and fried chicken are on almost every street corner. These toxic food swamps are more predictive of obesity and illness than food deserts.<\/p>\n What makes this a form of hidden racism? Black communities have almost twice as many fast-food restaurants as white neighborhoods. Only five percent of African Americans have a healthy diet. That is a big change from the 1960s, when African American diets were twice as healthy as average diets, with more fruits, vegetables, fiber, and good fats.<\/p>\n Perhaps a better term is\u00a0food apartheid<\/em>, an embedded social and political form of discrimination. The history of sugar is closely linked to slavery. The slave trade served the growth of sugar production. Legal American slavery is over, although slavery still occurs on some farms with migrant workers. But today sugar, especially in its new form, high-fructose corn syrup, is connected to a new kind of oppression\u2014food oppression, which makes people of color sick, fat, and disabled. It is a form of apartheid in which the poor and minorities live in areas that lack healthy food and have an overabundance of foods that can kill them.<\/p>\n How did this happen? It\u2019s a combination of factors: poverty, social disenfranchisement, racial targeting by the food industry, and government subsidies and programs that support the most profitable foods for the food industry\u2014the very foods that also happen to be the most harmful to our health. This form of internalized hidden racism is not as obvious as limiting voters\u2019 rights and employment opportunities, the bombing of churches, or hate speech and hate crimes. But it is far more pernicious and destructive, in part because most of the victims don\u2019t know it\u2019s a problem.<\/p>\n Of all deaths, 1.1 percent are caused by gun violence. Seventy thousand people die every year from the opioid epidemic. Those problems are real and tragic and need to end. But 70 percent of deaths, or more than 1.7 million deaths each year, are caused by chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure, and stroke\u2014mostly the result of our toxic food system. More African-Americans, Hispanics, and poor people are killed by bad food than anything else.<\/p>\n Even when food is available to disadvantaged communities, fresh whole foods can be expensive, which leads to the purchase of cheap, unhealthy junk food. Those who are on limited incomes struggle to get enough food, so when the decision is between facing hunger and eating cheap processed food, the choice is inevitable. Yet we remain silent about the role of the food system in killing millions of Americans.<\/p>\n Food companies use cultural icons to influence minorities. Do you think LeBron James actually drinks Sprite? McDonald\u2019s uses Serena and Venus Williams and Enrique Iglesias in their TV ads to attract Black and Hispanic consumers. Is a Big Mac, fries, and a Coke really Serena\u2019s pregame meal? No matter, their dollars are well spent. Race-based advertising works.<\/p>\n Big Food\u2019s marketing ploys are amplified even more for minority children. In 2019, the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity published a damning report entitled, \u201cIncreasing Disparities in Advertising Unhealthy Food to Hispanic and Black Youth.\u201d The big food companies target Black and Hispanic youth with their least nutritious products, including fast foods, candy, sugary drinks, and snacks.<\/p>\n From 2013 to 2017, food advertising on black-targeted TV increased by 50 percent. Black teens viewed 119 percent more junk-food-related ads\u2014mostly for soda and candy\u2014than white teens. The top ads came from Nestl\u00e9, Yum! Brands (like KFC and Taco Bell), Mars, McDonald\u2019s, and General Mills. The average teen saw more than 6,000 junk-food ads a year just on television.<\/p>\n On top of that, our government is complicit in the perpetuation of these behaviors and the support of the production and sale of the very foods it tells Americans not to eat in its dietary guidelines. What may shock some is that government-guaranteed loan programs support fast-food outlets, which are far more prevalent in poor communities of color. Why do government loans pay for the expansion of food that kills Americans?<\/p>\n The work of transforming this system of hidden racism must come from multiple sectors. These include changes in government policies, regulations, nonprofits creating local programs to educate and empower people, and grassroots efforts of citizens working to change their communities.<\/p>\n Imagine if Black church leaders (or any affected minority group) collectively joined in a campaign to link the struggles of minority communities to food, to food apartheid, to racial targeting by the food industry, to the invisible form of oppression that keeps communities down, and created a call to action to change all that.<\/p>\n They might follow the example of Ebenezer Baptist Church, Martin Luther King Jr.\u2019s church in Atlanta, that started a two-acre urban garden where parishioners participate in growing food for the local community. Or they might learn from Ron Finley, the Gangsta Gardener from South Central Los Angeles. He started curbside gardens, turned lawns into food forests, and created raised-bed gardens in dilapidated vacant lots. These garden plots have helped gang members, ex-convicts, and drug dealers find a way out of their struggles.<\/p>\n In West Oakland, California, a very poor neighborhood of 30,000 with no grocery store but 54 liquor and convenience stores, community members started the People\u2019s Grocery. This mobile grocery store\u2014much like an ice cream truck\u2014brought produce to the local community for 15 years.<\/p>\n In the Bronx, Karen Washington founded Black Urban Growers to support Black urban and rural farmers and helped turn abandoned lots in the Bronx into thriving community gardens.<\/p>\n These stories, as well as those of Food Tank, Soul Fire Farm, Black Church Food Security Network, and The Bigger Picture Project, can provide inspiration for providing healthy alternatives and hope for communities of color. These pockets of redemption and innovation are happening all across the country. They are models for breaking the cycle of hidden racism in our food system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<\/span>Hidden Racism in Our Food System<\/span><\/h2>\n
![\"Assortment](\"http:\/\/media.yogauonline.com\/app\/uploads\/2023\/02\/27085729\/1_unhealthy_foods_compared_to_fresh_food_are_often_in_over_abundance_in_inner_cities.png\" "\\"Unhealthy")
<\/p>\n<\/span>Food Apartheid<\/span><\/h2>\n
![\"end](\"http:\/\/media.yogauonline.com\/app\/uploads\/2023\/02\/27085735\/2_vital_to_you_health_are_foods_rich_in_antioxidants_smart_carbs_minerals_and_vitamins.png\" "\\"Vital")
<\/p>\n<\/span>Why This Matters<\/span><\/h2>\n
<\/span>Marketing to Minorities: Hidden Racism in Advertising<\/span><\/h2>\n
<\/span>Fast-Food Subsidies<\/span><\/h2>\n
<\/span>Communities Must Come Together to End Hidden Racism<\/span><\/h2>\n
<\/span>How to End Hidden Racism and Build Community<\/span><\/h2>\n
![\"Early](\"http:\/\/media.yogauonline.com\/app\/uploads\/2023\/02\/27085740\/3_urban_gardens_are_necessary_to_urban_dwellers_heath_and_well_being.png\" "\\"Urban")
<\/p>\n