Persistence: Black women’s experiences eating plant-based within African American soul food culture

This study focuses on the relationship between food culture and race. Specifically, I consider the intersectionality of Black food culture, veganism, and Black women. Veganism, defined as the practice abstaining from the consumption of animal flesh and byproducts, is oftentimes thought of as an elite, white, upper middle-class lifestyle (Greenbaum 2016). I examined cultural expectations for Black women to prepare and partake in cultural food traditions, which are meat-centric (Evans-Winters 2019), and the treatment of Black women that have opted for a plant-based lifestyle. The guiding question for this research is: What is the experience of Black women vegans within their food culture? This question is based on cultural epistemology, stratification, and the historical/traditional popularization of food culture (Collins 2000; Bower 2007; Harper 2010). I use the philosophical orientations of Black Feminist Thought, womanism, and intersectionality to explore the answers (Crenshaw 1989; Collins 2000; Evans-Winters 2019).