Response to "Food as Radical Empathy" - Alison Alkon TedTalk

Alison Alkon mentions the underrated Civil Rights activist, Georgia Gilmore, and how she had a huge part to play in the connection between black women and their food, to the community around them. This was interesting to me because not only does Alkon have a great point regarding how strongly food connects people with their community, but also by teaching the audience something that they might not have otherwise known. In all my years of education and passively consuming food, I have never heard of Georgia Gilmore and her contribution to the Civil Rights movement. 

I admire how Alkon stresses the importance of recognizing that people of African American descent were dually responsible for the success in growing and selling crops, and that the achievement of that avenue should not fully be handed to white people. 

One concept that Alkon discusses that I found intriguing would be the fact that while food brings people together, it also separates us. The point that struck me the most was when Alkon mentioned how students from different cultures are destined to bring foods from their upbringing to schools, which often leads to bullying and separation of the student body from a young age. This type of separation and outcasting can hurt students outlook on their personal heritage and create harmful stereotypes that may inhibit children of culture to reach their full confidence and potential in themselves. 

Overall, it is important to recognize the influence that a variety of cultures have had on the aspect of food, and how it has brought people together for decades prior, and years to come. Not only this, but it is crucial to recognize the injustice of said food, and how it can also separate us from one another, as well as what we can do to stray away from these harmful stereotypes and work to make a more accepting community. After all, we all have one thing in common; Food.