Wed 3/18 @ 6:00PM
Labyrinth Books, 122 Nassau Street

Food justice activists have worked to increase access to healthy food in low-income communities of color across the United States. Yet despite their best intentions, they often perpetuate food access inequalities and racial stereotypes. In her new book Food Justice Undone, Hanna Garth shows how the movement has been affected by misconceptions and assumptions about residents, as well as by unclear definitions of justice and what it means to be healthy. Focusing on broad structures and microlevel processes, Garth reveals how power dynamics shape social justice movements in particular ways.

Drawing on twelve years of ethnographic research, Garth examines what motivates people from more affluent, majority-white areas of the city to intervene in South Central Los Angeles. She argues that the concepts of "food justice" and "healthy food" operate as racially coded language, reinforcing the idea that health problems in low-income Black and Brown communities can be solved through individual behavior rather than structural change. Food Justice Undone explores the stakes of social justice and the possibility of multiracial coalitions working toward a better future.

Hanna Garth is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Princeton University, author of Food in Cuba: The Pursuit of a Decent Meal, and coeditor of Black Food Matters: Racial Justice in the Wake of Food Justice.

Bonnetta Adeeb is founder and President of STEAM ONWARD, Inc, a Non-profit 501(c)(3) organization in Southern Maryland, as well as the projects Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance and Ujamaa Seeds. In addition, she works with the Cooperative Gardens Commission to distribute free heirloom seeds to communities in need, serving 300 seed hubs nationally. Ms. Adeeb, a retired teacher, was an educator for 37 years. She taught social studies and Career Research and Work- based Learning, a school-to-work educational program.

Ruha Benjamin is an internationally recognized writer, speaker, and professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, where she is the founding director of the Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab. She is the award-winning author of Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code; Viral Justice; Imagination: A Manifesto; and editor of Captivating Technology, among many other publications. Her work has been featured widely in the media, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, The Root, and The Guardian.