“It's the black girls that have the most”: foodways narratives and the construction of race in a women's prison

Resource type
Author/contributor
Title
“It's the black girls that have the most”: foodways narratives and the construction of race in a women's prison
Abstract
Prison foodways narratives can expand knowledge about cultural beliefs and perceptions of correctional systems. This exploratory analysis, based in qualitative interview data, seeks to initiate dialogue about the ways in which formerly incarcerated women in the US deploy racialized food narratives when describing the acquisition, preparation, and consumption of prison food. The participants’ food narratives construct prison as a non-white space that is better matched for African-American and Latina women, reinforcing and enacting larger cultural notions about incarceration. This opening analysis calls for more research and deliberation about how prison foodways narratives contribute to understandings about and perceptions of correctional systems and incarcerated people. © 2015, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
Publication
Food and Foodways
Date
2015
Volume
23
Issue
4
Pages
273-285
Citation Key
pop00400
ISSN
07409710 (ISSN)
Language
English
Extra
4 citations (Crossref) [2023-10-31] Citation Key Alias: lens.org/076-302-356-756-556 tex.type: [object Object]
Citation
Smoyer, A. B. (2015). “It’s the black girls that have the most”: foodways narratives and the construction of race in a women’s prison. Food and Foodways, 23(4), 273–285. https://doi.org/10.1080/07409710.2015.1102480