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Abstract

This Capstone concerns the social problem of racism in the United States' food system. The present boom in popular food discourse (PFD) influences how Americans define and relate to the United States' food system. I reviewed critical race discourse analysis (CRDA) critiques of PFD to identify how racism presents in PFD and how it is challenged. Using Fraser's (2000, 2003, 2008) Social Justice framework, I found that dominant PFD caters to hegemonic whiteness by employing frames laden with white supremacist ideology that cause maldistribution, misrecognition, and misrepresentation for people of color (POC) involved in the U.S. food system. The racist frames of dominant PFD reflect and perpetuate the systemic racism in our food system and violate the racial equity aspect of social justice. Emergent PFD content challenges this systemic racism primarily through self-recognition which can subsequently lead to redistribution of resources and representation for POC, together amounting to Fraser's three dimensions of social justice. However, this strategy alone cannot disrupt systemic racism within the PFD industry or the broader U.S. food system because it does not alter the system of privilege and oppression established by white supremacist ideology. A parity of participation by all who participate in PFD creators and consumers, white and non-white is necessary to decenter whiteness, the ideological root of the problem, to achieve social justice for those oppressed by racism in the U.S. food system.

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