Day: September 20, 2020

Liming in Trinidad – My Intro to Afro-Asia

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Regarding my own experiences with Afro-Asia, I’ve been itching to write about a site visit to Trindad I attended with my architecture studio in Fall 2019. Every semester upper-year architecture students have the option to enroll in travel studios, which involve a site visit somewhere else in the US or the world. My studio that semester was visiting Trinidad to learn more about its environment, people and culture, political ecology, petrochemical industry, climate change, and incremental housing.

The best part was that our professor, Tao DuFour, was not only leading our trip but returning home. We met his university colleagues, walked around his secondary school and met his dad. Tao is Afro-Asian. His mother is from Barbados, and his father immigrated from China to Trinidad some time ago. I had learned this fact in a private conversation with Tao and a friend, who’s also in the studio and Chinese, and both of our initial reactions to this information was shock. Tao doesn’t look Chinese. His response was that Trinidadian’s can tell right away that Tao isn’t black or brown, that he’s definitely Asian. He added that in the US,  the opposite is true, and he’s assumed to be black or brown, his dark complexion seen first.

Tao’s experience of outsider perception was something I’d never considered before. Moreover, being in the environment of Trindad, an island where black, brown, and Asian, and any combination abound, was wholly new.

At some other time in the semester, I attended a talk by Richard Fung, a  queer, Trinidadian, Afro-Asian film maker. Following screenings of two of his documentaries about South Asian agricultural workers (Dal Puri Diaspora) and his multi-generational roots in Trinidad (Nang by Nang), Fung answered some questions. Although I can’t remember the event well, Richard Fung has a website, and his films were great to watch (they’re not long, perhaps around 30 minutes).

The 4 C’s of Seltzer in New York

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“‘Bring us some C. & C. ginger ale and be quick about it…’ Matthew went and brought Clicquot Club, the only kind they carried. Apparently the passenger did not know the difference. It was dinner time and he got a moment to site down in the end section and dozed off.'” (DuBois 69).

Matthew’s experience as a porter on the trains from Atlanta to Chicago to Cincinnati and around was not unlike Bong Joon Ho’s picture of a horrifically socially-stratified train at the end of the world in Snowpiercer (2013).  The structure of the train, segmented by purpose, care, berth, window, lends itself to difference and separation. As Matthew serves the train passengers, he must not exceed the outside expectations of his black physiognomy, remain servile and compliant. In this moment, a passenger demands a C&C ginger ale, which Matthew attempts to apologetically inform is unavailable, only to receive and angry slur. Matthew brings the group a different brand of ginger ale, noting that they “did not know the difference” anyways.

Looking into the history of both C&C and Clicquot Club, I found them to be Irish and American pop manufacturing companies, respectively. By the late 19th century and into the 20th century, C&C, standing for Cantrelle and Cochrane’s, was the largest pop exporter in the world, and among the largest Irish exports (“Company History”). Clicquot Club, on the other hand, started small on the East Coast and hiccupped its way to success with ambitious advertising endeavors from 1900-1920. The company’s rough beginnings and ultimate fame paid testimony to the American dream (“Clicquot Club”).

One begins to consider Matthew’s remark about the passenger’s ignorance of either C&C or Clicquot’s actual product, though they originate halfway across the world from each other. The fountain drink targeted customers who were on the move, like the train passengers, and did not shift to in store sales till later in the 20th century (“Clicquot Club”). A sense of transience, globalisation, and convenience arises, painting the presence of increasing entanglements of food systems within our daily lives. Just as the passenger noticed not the ginger ale brand, so the masses go about their days consuming this and that without much investigation.

*This is a late entry for the Week 1 reading* 

“Clicquot Club.” Bay Bottles: Mike’s Glass Bottle Collection and Their History, WordPress, 19 November 2019. https://baybottles.com/2019/11/19/clicquot-club/

“Company History.” candcgroupplc.com, c&c group plc, https://candcgroupplc.com/history/

DuBois, W.E.B. Dark Princess, New York, Banner Books, 1928.

 

Rehabilitating with Food

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Matthew’s time in prison this chapter really interested me because I have always been fascinated by food and how important it is toward maintaining and rehabilitating prisoners. Often time, people do not realize food’s quality and how that has a direct effect on sense of self and quality of life. Having the ability to plant, grow, pick, clean, and cook your food is something so ancient yet a luxury for most. In this case, Matthew’s imprisonment has stripped him of his own agency and knowledge of what he is putting in his body.

Prisoners have to entrust jail staff, often time underpaid and hired by a private corruption, to properly feed and sustain them until it is time for their departure. Additionally, solitary confinement is a major reality for many prisoners and a major part of eating for most people is the companionship that comes along with it. How do confined prisoners internalize their relationship with food? DuBois writes “Bells and marching, work and meals, meals and work, marching and whistles. Even, unchanging level of life without, interest, memory, or hope.” (DuBois 125)

Without the processes of making your food and/or eating it with a group of people, how are prisons properly doing their jobs of rehabilitating prisoners?

DuBois, W.E.B. Dark Princess: A Romance. Oxford University Press, 2007.

Would Matthew Towns buy baby carrots?

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“He was a politician who was directly and indirectly for sale. He had no business with a conscience. He had no conscience. But he had limitations. By God! everybody had some limitations. He must have them. He would sell himself if he wished, but he wouldn’t be sold. He was not a bag of inert produce. He refused to be compelled to sell. He was not a slave. He must and would be free. He wanted money for freedom.” (DuBois 156). 

The latter half of Dark Princess details the drama of politics, of justice versus power and money versus freedom. Matthew Towns, from informal messenger of Princess Kautilya to Pullman porter to rising political sweetheart, continues to follow the strings that pull him. Perhaps because of his disillusionment following his attempted train-wreck, confession, and incarceration, Matthew has become so subdued as to acquiesce to the wills of Sara. Yet in moment’s like this passage, Matthew’s passion for righteousness and justice rekindles, his self-respect renewed as he declares himself in metaphor no mere marketplace good, packaged and portioned, ready for picking. Although the reference to food reads generalized as bagged produce, the advent of grocery stores and supermarkets as we know them today is contemporary to Matthew’s own career, and provides a parallel allegory to the critique of private-leaning political machinations that Matthew’s experience provides.

According to the grocerteria website, the early years of the 19th century saw buyers at small box, family owned stores selling non-perishable goods and convenient shelf products, much like the function of drug stores or gas stations today. Customers requested their items and waited for them to be brought to the counter, rather than browsing and picking their own selection. By the 1920s, stores began to experiment with locations that provided a one-stop shop for grains, meats, and produce (“A Quick History of the Supermarket”). The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, or A&P, pioneered and domineered the grocery store trend, competing with independent, family-owned stores through lower prices and assuming the role of both seller and supplier through manufacturing acquisitions (“How the A&P Changed the Way We Shop”). Thus the road to chain-retailing and supermarkets was paved.

The rise of chain grocers like A&P,  a story of private business pushing out specialty stores and providing hourly wages a la Marx’s division of labor, reminds heavily of the repeated mentions of New York’s Machine. A named yet elusive power, the machine guides Sara and Sammy’s ambition, Matthew and Leftist’s frustrations, BIPOCs’ class struggles, and seated Democrats anxieties. DuBois’ insertion of Matthew into the fray of politics begins to pose larger questions about free will, intention, freedom, power and capital.

“A quick history of the supermarket.” grocerteria.com, Exploring Supermarket History, 4 July 2009. https://www.groceteria.com/about/a-quick-history-of-the-supermarket/ 

DuBois, W.E.B. Dark Princess, New York, Banner Books, 1928.

“How A&P Changed the Way We Shop.” npr.org, MPR News, 23 August 2011. https://www.npr.org/2011/08/23/139761274/how-the-a-p-changed-the-way-we-shop

Food & Incarceration

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“Bells and marching, work and meals, meals and work, marching and whistles. Even, unchanging level of life without, interest, memory, or hope.” (DuBois 125)

The miserable time Matthew spends in jail is encapsulated within these two lines. While it is not a specific ingredient, I wanted to take a look at the role that food plays in incarceration. Within my own experience, the most frequent time food and incarceration have come up in conjunction is in the discussion of an incarcerated person’s “last meal” on death row.

The last meal has allusions all the way back to the biblical “Last Supper” and typically, the last meal is the last “enjoyment” the incarcerated person will receive, while also being the last time the person can exercise some minute control over what happens in their life. However, I found in many places that the last meal, while being an important part of the execution ritual, is not at all enforced by law and is often considered an act of kindness by the jailers. I know that Matthew is not in a position to receive a last meal, but as I learn more about the carceral system, I am continually disgusted by the ways that prisoners are dehumanized. Most are given the same, formulaic, fuel-based meals day after day, and if they’re on death row, their enjoyment of the last meal isn’t even a guarantee, but a favor. The enjoyment of food is something that most, if not all, people share, and it is a joy denied to those in prison.

DuBois, W.E.B. Dark Princess: A Romance. Oxford University Press, 2007.

Levrier-Jones, G. (2014, May 23). The History of the Last Meal – A final compassionate act or an undeserved reward? – History is Now Magazine, Podcasts, Blog and Books: Modern International and American history. Retrieved September 20, 2020, from http://www.historyisnowmagazine.com/blog/2014/5/24/the-history-of-the-last-meal-a-final-compassionate-act-or-an-undeserved-reward

Cream Tea in Dark Princess

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In Dark Princess, Matthew has tea with Sara.  He describes: “[t]he tea was good, and the cream – he liked cream – thick and sweet” (137).  Many people have already written about tea, so I was interested in the cream.  At first, I thought it was just cream in the tea, like one would put milk or half and half.  But that interpretation didn’t quite square with the description of the cream as sweet.  Instead, the cream is clotted cream, a sweet British scone spread integral to the tradition of afternoon tea that rose to prominence in the 1800s (Dominion Tea).  The most interesting thing about this cream, though, is the controversy.  Yes – there is a huge controversy surrounding clotted cream.  Both Cornwall and Devon, counties in the UK, lay claim to the origin of clotted cream.  The two regions even have different styles of applying clotted cream – the Devon style is a split scone with clotted cream and then jam, while the Cornwall style has a bread roll upon which jam then clotted cream is spread.  This battle spread to the courts, with Devon applying for “Devon cream tea” to be a protected term.  Cornwall cream tea companies objected to this on the grounds that “[t]here is only one cream tea, and that’s the Cornish cream tea” (Guardian).  The regional rivalry over the origin of cream tea is a fascinating insight into how we tend to invest so much pride and meaning into our foods.

In the tea scene, Du Bois describes the flat as “machine made” (137).  The tea and its context is meant to invoke a sense of consumerist comfort.  It’s all very clean, new, and reassuring in its organization and comprehensibility.  Right before this, Matthew thinks of “glimps[ing] another life” (136).  He’s considering giving up his larger cause for good and simply taking joy in the small pleasures.  It’s a very appealing choice, to let himself be numbed.  He could have the sort of pleasant middle class life that would make him happy – and have the sweet (possibly Devonian, possibly Corwallian) clotted cream every day.

 

Citations:

Du Bois, W. E. B. Dark Princess: a Romance. Kraus-Thomson Organization, 1974, https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001020933?signon=swle:https://shibidp.cit.cornell.edu/idp/shibboleth.

Morris, Steven. “Devon and Cornwall Battle over True Home of the Cream Tea.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 20 May 2010, www.theguardian.com/travel/2010/may/20/devon-cornwall-cream-tea.

Tea, Dominion. History of Cream Tea – Every Tea Drinker Should Know This. 1 July 2017, blog.dominiontea.com/2017/07/01/history-cream-tea/.

The Unusual Roots of Sweet Potatoes

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When Matthew and Sara return home for lunch in Part III of Dark Princess, a “brown maid in a white apron smilingly let them into the apartment” and welcomed them with “some fine sweet potatoes” (Du Bois 113).

When reading about the history of this root vegetable, I was surprised to discover that Polynesians and people inhabiting the Andean region of South America traded food and animal products long before the arrival of European colonizers in the 1500s. Upon analyzing the DNA of “1,245 sweet potato varieties from Asia and the Americas,” scientists unearthed that sweet potatoes were traded between Peru/Ecuador and Polynesia in A.D. 1000 – A.D. 1100 (Doucleff). According to archeologist Pat Hirch, the Polynesians had successfully developed the technology to sail to South America. They “had sophisticated, double-hulled canoes…which could carry 80 or more people and be out to sea for months.” As further proof, the Polynesian word for sweet potato, “kuumala,” closely resembles the name for “vegetable” in Quechua (the language predominantly spoken by Andean people).

Moreover, according to the Omar Niode Foundation, the sweet potato is a crucial component of Papuan culture. In addition to its role as an essential food crop, sweet potatoes symbolize peace. Apparently, when a tribe cultivates sweet potatoes during intertribal wars, they attempt to demonstrate peace to the other tribes. In connection to Dark Princess, I wonder if W.E.B. Du Bois deliberately mentions this vegetable to highlight the Japanese man’s attempt to make peace with Matthew. As demonstrated by the Japanese man’s newfound willingness to note “the increased political power” of “Matthew’s people,” the Japanese man had learned to accept Matthew as equal to himself and the other characters who are a part of the “darker world” (Du Bois 110).

Works Cited:

Doucleff, Michaeleen. How The Sweet Potato Crossed The Pacific Way Before The Europeans Did. 23 Jan. 2013, www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2013/01/22/169980441/how-the-sweet-potato-crossed-the-pacific-before-columbus.

Du Bois, W.E.B. Dark Princess. Oxford University Press, 2014.

“Historical Background: Colonization of Pacific Islands.” Geriatrics, 18 Mar. 2014, geriatrics.stanford.edu/ethnomed/hawaiian_pacific_islander/fund/historical_background/pi_colonization.html.

“Sweet Potato: the Backbone of Life.” Omar Niode Foundation, www.omarniode.org/blogreads-115.php.

Dairy Usage in Tea

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Part III of Dark Princess sees a new evolution in Matthew Towns’ bildungsroman—from the introduction of Sammy and Sara and their political machine, to an eventual pardon and a marriage. In this evolution, Matthew often fluctuates being at mercy of other actors to finding some agency to craft his own future. One of the moments happens shortly after Matthew is pardoned and is thrusted into the political realm.

Tea is continually referenced in this story, but in the new context of The Chicago Politician, I believe DuBois’ description of a scene on page 139 necessitates a closer look. In this instance, Towns is having tea with Sara but internally grappling with a lack of control and reconciling a sea of even more complicated emotions. DuBois writes,

“Soon he was having tea in Sara’s flat. He began to feel more comfortable. He looked about. It was machine made, to be sure, but it was wax neat and in perfect order. The tea was good, and the cream — he liked cream— thick and sweet. Sara, too, in her immaculate ease was restful. He leaned back in his chair, and the brooding lifted a little from his eyes. He told Sara of a concert he had attended.”  (DuBois 139)

The last notable tea time that mirrors this scene was with the Princess in Berlin, but the insert of cream here set these scenes apart—be it a reference to Sara being biracial or just her overall changing disposition.

Diary in tea is shared culturally, from Taiwanese milk tea, masala chai, teh tarik but has mixed origins, speculating its usage. It’s purpose ranging from masking the flavors and acidity from poor quality, cooling down hot tea more quickly to shorten tea breaks in factories, delivering important nutritional value.

Works Cited

Du Bois, W. E. B. Dark Princess: A Romance. Banner Books, 1995.
“Should You Be Adding Milk In Your Tea?” NDTV Food, https://food.ndtv.com/food-drinks/should-you-be-adding-milk-in-your-tea-1783418. Accessed 20 Sept. 2020.
“Who Adds Milk to Tea and Why.” Tin Roof Teas, 9 Aug. 2017, https://www.tinroofteas.com/tea-blog/history-adding-milk-tea.

“Boys, Liquor, Prostitution” : Black Speakeasies in the 1920s

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In Part III of Dark Princess, protagonist Matthew Towns is pardoned from his crimes and becomes a prominent figure in Chicago politics through the agenda of crime boss Sammy Scott and his secretary, Sara Andrews. Sammy Scott is the charismatic head of the Black Chicago political machine, fluent in dealings with “the ‘boys’ [gangs], liquor, prostitution, and the corresponding parts of the white world” (97).

To understand the extent of Sammy Scott’s underground activity, one must be aware of the context surrounding alcohol in the 1920s. The following knowledge may be familiar to most who have taken an American history class: adamant opposition to alcohol consumption in the United States was prevalent since the mid-19th century, when religious revivalism movements advocated for temperance, ultimately culminating in the passage of the 18th Amendment in 1919. The 18th Amendment banned the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcoholic beverages, beginning the era of Prohibition. However, the alcohol ban was difficult to enforce, and alcohol sale moved underground to establishments known as speakeasies. The owners of speakeasies, which have become an icon of the 1920s, were likely involved in other forms of organized crimes as well. As implied by the “liquor” portion of Sammy Scott’s expertise, it is extremely probable that he funded or owned speakeasies himself. One can only imagine the importance of these technically illegal establishments to Black communities in urban areas. Although Internet articles focusing specifically on Black-owned speakeasies are not numerous, there are some detailing the popularity of Black nightclubs in major cities such as New York City and Pittsburgh. Black-owned speakeasies were often funded with non-legal methods when Black people where often excluded from traditional loan opportunities. Nevertheless, these establishments were visited by Black and White clientele alike, and some Black-owned clubs catered towards the upper class of all races. Much of the existing educational literature also acknowledges Black nightclubs or cabarets as places that fostered a rich era of performance, music, fashion integral to African-American culture in relation to the Harlem Renaissance. At the same time, there is a lack of attention to the Black crime bosses who may have contributed to the success of these Black-owned speakeasies. The existence of characters such as Sammy Scott reveals that Black crime bosses may have been active at the same time and location as their Al Capone-esque white counterparts, a reality which (like much of Black American history) has often been overlooked in general American education.

 

Works Cited

DuBois, W.E.B. Dark Princess, Oxford University Press, 2007.

Pitz, Marylynne. “1920 to 1939: From Speakeasies to Harlem Nights.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 18 Apr 2004, https://www.post-gazette.com/uncategorized/2004/04/18/1920-to-1939-From-Speakeasies-to-Harlem-Nights/stories/200404180144. Accessed 20 Sep 2020.

“Prohibition.” History.com, https://www.history.com/topics/roaring-twenties/prohibition. Accessed 20 Sep. 2020.

“A New African American Identity: The Harlem Renaissance.” National Museum of African American History and Culture. Smithsonian, https://nmaahc.si.edu/blog-post/new-african-american-identity-harlem-renaissance. Accessed 20 Sep. 2020.

Sweet Potatoes and their Relevance in the Discourse of Globalization

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“‘… I found some fine sweet potatoes for you and fried them.’ Mathew loved fried sweet potatoes.” (DuBois 155)

Sweet potatoes as they are prepared and enjoyed in America today have a long and interesting history. Sweet potatoes find their origin in South America and are genetically different from yams, which originate in Africa. Still, due to their similarities, they were understandably mistaken as such when enslaved African people were introduced to them in the West Indies. Thus, they prepared them in the ways they would have prepared yams – shredded, pounded, roasted, fried, etc., methods that were intended to curb the toxicity of raw yams. So, even though sweet potatoes don’t pose this threat and can be eaten raw, the widespread conventions of cooking them were born thanks to their likeness to yams, and the culinary knowledge of African women.  

Today, sweet potatoes are a “genetic muddle,” combinations of different varieties that Europeans helped spread around the world. Yet, scientists argue that an early pre-muddled variety of sweet potatoes provide compelling evidence of contact between Polynesians and South Americans, long before Europeans arrived on the shores of the Western hemisphere. Researchers discovered remains of sweet potatoes in Polynesia from around 1100 AD, a tuber that was only found in South America before this. Though they acknowledge that it’s possible the seeds could have made the voyage across the Pacific via a bird or piece of seaweed, when coupled with linguistic and archaeological evidence it is more likely that Polynesian people crossed the sea and picked up the potatoes themselves. Sweet potatoes provide a convincing counterargument to the common belief that Columbus was the beginning of movement of foods and plants across hemispheres, adding complexity to an otherwise unassuming potato. 

The amalgamation of the South American tuber and West African methods of preparing yams gives us the form of sweet potato that many of us are familiar with today, the form that Mathew enjoys for lunch with Sara in Dark Princess. Furthermore, though not directly related to the genealogy of sweet potatoes in the US, their movement across the pacific undercuts the recognition given to Columbus for introducing different foods across the world and instead accredits Polynesian people with making contact across hemispheres. 

Works Cited:

B., Du Bois W. E. Dark Princess. Oxford University Press, 2014. 

Doucleff, Michaeleen. “How The Sweet Potato Crossed The Pacific Way Before The Europeans Did.” NPR, NPR, 23 Jan. 2013, www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2013/01/22/169980441/how-the-sweet-potato-crossed-the-pacific-before-columbus.

“Sweet Potatoes.” American Cookery & A History of Its Ingredients, www.digitalussouth.org/vegetable/vegetable.php?vegName=Sweet+Potatoes.