By Andrew Mitchel (Department of Anthropology)
The Worlds in Contention conference’s presentations and discussion contained themes and arguments relevant to my research. As a PhD student in cultural anthropology, I am working on a dissertation concerning what I call the Latinx immigrant foodscape for Oaxacan immigrants living in Columbus, Ohio. I will examine the transnational flow not just of people moving abroad, but also the ingredients and dishes they buy, cook and eat in these communities. This includes passing culinary expertise and nostalgia across borders, as well as the balancing act between preserving foods from one’s homeland with the incessant Americanization of the immigrant diet. Neoliberalism has completely reshaped the reality for us all but has especially impacted immigrants. Arrivals to the United States from Mexico and Central America have been forced to seek employment abroad due to the breakdown of the local economies with losses to agriculture and limited manufacturing jobs. This has been caused by the expansion of global markets, centralization of economic control under a select group of actors, governments and corporations and free-trade agreements like NAFTA and its replacement, the new United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement. This conference was a valuable opportunity to see how other scholars write and talk about neoliberalism in their work and create more salient connection in my anthropological work on immigrant foodways and diet to our modern economic reality.
The Legal Subjection and Racial Capitalism panel addressed both limitations on minority rights and the economic niches for non-white immigrants. This work forms part of the historical context I must know before completing ethnography. Professor Valdez spoke about the repurposing of social control of Latinx subjects over the decades, as well as their collective degradation to benefit white supremacy. Her focus on the job niches of brown men and women is highly critical for me to understand when as it pertains to the foodscape. Another area she emphasized was the role of family, i.e., female, labor that is both informal and unpaid; this is a fact which should be considered in all studies of family and labor. Finally, it is important to consider not just gender-based job niches but racial ones as well, concerning for example what is seen as ‘Mexican work.’ This also appears in the enforcement of this vulnerability into these niches with limited ability for social mobility over time. Professor Ming-Francis also addressed this repurposing of social control, in her case of Black American through the use of Jim Crow and other racist measures following the defeat of the Confederacy. Many traces of the past remain: our current carceral system targets and imprisons Black and Latino men at disproportionate levels. The same forms of punishment re-used: for example, the convict lease has been repurposed as private prison. She added this note too: a system cannot fail those it wasn’t meant to protect.
The Violence at the Frontiers of Nature and the Domestic reveals that the global flow of all products, from foods to rare earth metals, follow a similar trajectory. Professor Riofrancos’ work on the globally lithium trade reveals the control that elites from the Global North have over critical resources. I asked if she saw a link to the language used around food with sustainability and free trade, and if such work presumes an imagined consumer who is concerned for the worker. She said there are parallels but there are protagonists herein, whereas in food labor they are hidden away. The dominant actors herein metabolize social protests into a particular form of branding. In this case, it is driven by militant groups at points of extraction, while in food work this ability to rebel is somewhat less prevalent. This shows these resources are moved about the globe and consumed with limited to no concern for those laboring to produce them for little pay and in hazardous conditions. Cameron Macaskill’s presentation looked at the performativity of humanitarianism as diamonds were certified as ‘free from conflict.’ She too fielded my question about appealing to an imagined consumer who is concerned for the worker, and she spoke about how diamonds, as a luxury good, looks at works in terms of fear of lost value, especially if the place is associated with conflict. The hearts and minds technique are utilized most about NGOs hoping to sell disaster and make an emotional impact to gain donations through racialization and othering these African subjects.
The Food, Logistics, and the Visibility of Neoliberalism addressed the role of racialization in hiring of certain racial/national groups, and neoliberal changes have impacted diet. Professor Chua’s research on global logistics uncovered this Asian racialization: there is a long historical trajectory that has led to certain nationalities serving as contracted labor on container ships. Filipinos are pushed to work abroad and send home mandatory remittances in various industries like on cruise ships and as nurses. This is rationalized as the only possibility for upward movement into the middle class, but Professor Chua dismissed this as cruel optimism. The choices for labor from the developing world mean certain groups are pushed to see themselves as fit for these jobs which pigeonhole them in these roles. This links to Latinx workers in the United States pushed into particular labor sectors they are apparently ‘best suited’ for, a cruel racialization that plagues these immigrants. Professor Gálvez’s research on the Mexican diet during COVID-19 examined the collateral damage to minority bodies caused by changes to the food system which have caused the deterioration to the Mexican diet. The food system in Mexico has been turned on its head: traditional food is pricy and for the rich, while fast food is widely available to the working class. I was intrigued by her statement that taking on indigenous foods should be classified as piracy; this is supplemented by ridicule of the blame indigenous people faced for their dietary and health issues instead of lack of access to clean and healthy foods nationwide. This reinforcement of individual behavior as the cause of diet-related health concerns is overly dismissive of the system as it is set up through NAFTA and other money-making endeavors that pump cheap processed food into Mexico’s cities and towns. Those who eat these widely available cheap foods are blamed for their health, as opposed to those who produce and market it.
This conference was a productive and intriguing exploration of many of the themes of my research and provided me the chance to pursue new leads in the areas that these scholars focused on. I was inspired to future consideration of the key role that neoliberalism has on both food culture across the world but also on food procurement, logistics and consumption.