{"id":172,"date":"2021-06-10T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-10T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/chaimcentre\/2021\/the-time-is-now-lets-talk-about-racial-food-justice\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T13:03:21","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T17:03:21","slug":"the-time-is-now-lets-talk-about-racial-food-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/the-chaim-centre\/2021\/the-time-is-now-lets-talk-about-racial-food-justice\/","title":{"rendered":"The Time is Now – Let’s Talk About Racial Food Justice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n The Time is Now – Let’s Talk About Racial Food Justice\n <\/h1>\n \n \n <\/header>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

By Vinussa Rameshshanker, Carleton University Graduate Student<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u200bOn April 20th, 2021, former police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty of manslaughter as well as second- and third-degree murder of African American George Floyd last Summer.\u00b9\u00a0What began as another instance of institutional racism within the American policing system erupted into an unprecedented, powerful global movement to recognize and transform the systemic discrimination and institutional violence that has disadvantaged people of colour throughout history. Structural racism has been front and center in recent months, referring to the pervasive inequities within the political, economic, and social systems that shape our lives.\u00b2\u00a0Structural racism has repeatedly upheld \u2018white privilege\u2019 (both intentionally and unintentionally) at the expense of disadvantaging people of colour in terms of how they live, the opportunities they have access to, and ultimately their wellbeing and quality of life.
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Race \u2013 one of our strongest defining qualities \u2013 is a social determinant of health and wellbeing because of the systems we live in. We see racial inequities in all facets of life, whether it be access to safe and secure housing, quality education, or healthcare. We see it now as the COVID-19 pandemic rages on. One year into the pandemic, Canadian communities with the highest concentrations of visible minority populations have had roughly twice the mortality rates of communities with the lowest proportions of racial minorities.\u00b3<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u200bWithout a doubt, yet another aspect of structural racism integral to our wellbeing lies within the systems through which we access food. The time for racial food justice is now. Food justice necessitates questioning the inequities, including those related to race, that structure who produces food, who has access to healthy and nutritious foods, and the kinds of food we eat to nourish us throughout our lives.\u2074 We all have the right to adequate food, and the implications of having access to quality nutrition, from childhood to our later years, can be simultaneously obvious and complex. Not only does a healthy and nutritious diet allow us to grow and develop as children, but it also affects how we behave and learn in school, which in turn affects the employment opportunities and standards of living we have as adults. True to the insidious nature of structural racism, the ideal standard of upholding the right to food for all is not immune to racial inequities.
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 For instance, household food insecurity has a strong influence on the academic success of high school students and their transition to higher education,\u2075\u00a0an undeniable early foundation that paves the way for greater income security and subsequent food security during adulthood.5 However, PROOF (an interdisciplinary Canadian research consortium on food)<\/a> found that 1 in 8 Canadian households were food insecure in 2017-18.\u2076\u00a0Even more concerning, the prevalence of food insecurity within Indigenous- and Black-identified households (28.2% and 28.9%, respectively) was almost triple the prevalence of food insecurity amongst White-identified households (11.1%).\u2076\u00a0A host of factors might explain these disparities, including racialized differences in income, the accessibility of quality and affordable food retailers in the neighbourhood, and housing stability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u200bUnfortunately, COVID-19 has only exacerbated such inequities. Shortly after the pandemic began, Statistics Canada data highlighted a clear racialized unemployment gap<\/a>, with visible minority populations facing significantly higher (and in some cases, almost double) rates of unemployment than individuals not of a visible minority or Indigenous identity.\u2077 With greater unemployment rates impacting income security for people of colour, the domino effects on household- and community-level food insecurity are not far behind. And so the story of food injustice continues \u2013 racial inequities in one system, such as access to economic opportunities, perpetuate inequities in the availability of and access to nutritious foods essential to our health and wellbeing.
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Once we begin to recognize structural racism within the very systems we inhabit, the natural next step is to identify what can be done, especially given the apparent amplification of inequities tied to the current pandemic. Recognizing the complexity behind structural racism and food security in Canada is a good start, but the purpose of recognition is not complacency. Rather, we must interrogate why such racial inequities exist, whether it be disparities related to job security or the disproportionate levels of racialized communities living in lower income neighbourhoods that lack access to affordable healthy foods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u200bEven in the mere act of reading these words, there is an inherent privilege and power you hold. Whether you are a student pursuing higher education, or a working professional browsing the web on your downtime, you have a voice and the agency to bring attention to these injustices. As with other sociocultural inequities in health and wellbeing, racialized food injustice and insecurity is an evident problem, but it is also an opportunity. An opportunity to start talking, questioning, and finding ways to act to implement comprehensive solutions that can help push our society towards equitable outcomes in health, wellbeing, and quality of life for all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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References:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Levenson, E., Cooper, A. Derek Chauvin found guilty of all three charges for killing George Floyd. CNN [Internet]. 2021 Apr 21. Available from: https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2021\/04\/20\/us\/derek-chauvin-trial-george-floyd-deliberations\/index.html<\/a><\/li>
  2. The Aspen Institute. 11 terms you should know to better understand structural racism [Internet]. The Aspen Institute; 2016 Jul 11. Available from: https:\/\/www.aspeninstitute.org\/blog-posts\/structural-racism-definition\/<\/a><\/li>
  3. Statistics Canada. COVID-19 in Canada: A one-year update on social and economic impacts [Internet]. 2021 Mar 11. Available from: https:\/\/www150.statcan.gc.ca\/n1\/pub\/11-631-x\/11-631-x2021001-eng.htm#a4<\/a><\/li>
  4. Food Secure Canada. Food justice [Internet]. Food Secure Canada; n.d. Available from: https:\/\/foodsecurecanada.org\/community-networks\/food-justice<\/a><\/li>
  5. Anisef, P., Robson, K., Maier, R., Brown, R.S. Food insecurity and educational outcomes: A focus on TDSB students [Internet]. Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario; 2017. Available from: https:\/\/heqco.ca\/pub\/food-insecurity-and-educational-outcomes-a-focus-on-tdsb-students\/<\/a><\/li>
  6. Tarasuk, V., Mitchell, A. Household food insecurity in Canada, 2017-18 [Internet]. PROOF; 2020. Available from: https:\/\/proof.utoronto.ca\/resources\/proof-annual-reports\/household-food-insecurity-in-canada-2017-2018\/<\/a><\/li>
  7. Statistics Canada. Impacts on immigrants and people designated as visible minorities [Internet]. 2020 Oct 20. Available from: https:\/\/www150.statcan.gc.ca\/n1\/pub\/11-631-x\/2020004\/s6-eng.htm<\/a><\/li><\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    By Vinussa Rameshshanker, Carleton University Graduate Student \u200bOn April 20th, 2021, former police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty of manslaughter as well as second- and third-degree murder of African American George Floyd last Summer.\u00b9\u00a0What began as another instance of institutional racism within the American policing system erupted into an unprecedented, powerful global movement to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/the-chaim-centre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/the-chaim-centre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/the-chaim-centre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/the-chaim-centre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/the-chaim-centre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/the-chaim-centre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":907,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/the-chaim-centre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172\/revisions\/907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/the-chaim-centre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/the-chaim-centre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/the-chaim-centre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}