Peace!
Today was quite an interesting day...
I got a phone call this morning from the extended fam saying they were heading into Detroit and asked if I wanted to come. Of course! With me leaving to go back home in just a few days this would be my last chance to experience my (only) favorite place here in Michigan.
So she comes through, scoops the Seed and I up and long story short, the task at hand come to find out was to swing through the Eastern Market to purchase some.....
........wait for it.......:
Chitlins.
Yes!!! *retch*
Oh My Gawd it was like walking into a morgue. Hog maw, pig heads, pigs feet, and every other unidentifiable body part scooped out of the deceased was all out for display and it was PACKED full of people (mainly older folk) trying to squeeze through the crowds and place their order.
To me it didn't reek too much in there. I guess because it was such a big building and it was very open, and plus I'm used to the smell of death (sadly). Had I been pregnant I would not have made it through the door.
However, tucked all the way in the corner of this one particular section of the market was a very cozy and quaint health food store. I was elated! I hung out there for a bit while the fam made their purchases. I bought some aloe vera gel (woot!), coconut water to drink on the way home and some coconut oil for my hair.
Unfortunately I did have to ride an hour and a half in the car with like 10 lbs of chitlins in the trunk (in an SUV so the funk just flowed freely throughout). 0_o
What is it about slave food that our people hold on to?
I mean these folks were excited to get their hands on these chitlins. Who wants to spend 3 hours out of their day cleaning fecal matter out of their food? I just cannot fathom that.
Is it that they believe they are paying homage to their ancestors who didn't have a choice in what they ate? Or is it that they have yet to have been liberated? I mean, the people around here are seriously about 25 years behind. You would think the elections might have unlocked some 'freedom' within these folks but obviously not. Must've been the wrong key.
They still talk about who has good hair/bad hair or what parent gave their child his light 'skin-did' complexion on a daily basis. The concept of 'Asiatic', 'Original Man/Woman', or 'Supreme Being' has not permeated any town north of Detroit. It's a damn shame. We're still battling amongst ourselves after all this time.
I wanted locs done before I left and I asked this girl if she knew how to start them and she looked at me completely puzzled.
......locs.....?
......................dreadlocks?........'oh!!!!! no.......sorry.'
Of course I'm asking a chick who is rocking a wig on top of a wig (word is bond) so I should've anticipated her answer but who doesn't know locs?
But I digress.
I never grew up with slave food, nor anything that could be constituted as 'soul food' neither. It's a heart attack on a plate. I don't know what's so good about it.
Watch people indulge in this type of food and how their body reacts shortly thereafter. It's like that scene in Sugar Hill when Roemello and Raynathan's father took that very last hit. A slightly dramatic analogy but shit, this slave food is just a slower method with the same end result.
Break free from the shackles of oppression and let that mentality (and awful eating) go!!
5 comments:
I so know how you feel. My family knows there way around the hog and are proud of it. I recently went to a party (non-family members)and there were cut up chitterlings in the pasta salad! You can't make this stuff up.
Peace
To answer your question it's both. They think they're paying homeage to the ancestors, because they're not liberated. Little do people know, most slaves had to raise they're own food, which was mostly veggies and fruit, hunt wild game or was given a very poor amount of "feed" from the master. We should not be fooled, since most white master's came from Britain eating pig intestines is considered a delicacy in their culture, they call it faggots, because of the way they cooked the hog intestines in a bundle. (nothing to do with homosexuals). Eating pig was forced on our ancestors during the many Maroon wars misnomered Indian Wars. Since we are a very thorough people we did not let any part of the animal go to waste and this may be the reason the enslaved and formally enslaved people here ate the intestines of a pig as they ate the intestines of buffalo, deer or any other large game that was killed. Either way, we are no longer being starved due to a war with the government, so its ignorance of the people and the false stories of slavery that have the people trapped and still enslaved thinking they're paying homeage.
Peace.
Wow chitlins in the pasta salad...oh my. lol
Deep build Ensayn, thanks for posting!
As soon as I read the post title on my blogroll (before coming to your site) I knew you were talking about pork, well the whole hog.
I have stories of going to my granny's and she's cooking chit'lins. I never ate it because it smelled too horrible. When I was a kid I asked my granny about growing up on a farm and being raised eating fruit and veggies. She had to admit that they did not eat a lot of meat because they preferred the veggies. When I asked why was she cooking that stinky stuff, she said "people expected meat and someone requested chit'lins."
Black folks got to stop this madness.
I have the pleasure of saying that I have never in my life smelled boiling chitlins. The fresh ones sealed up in a bag was more than enough for me.
Yuck.
No one could ever pay me enough to prepare them that type of meal. I tell my folks I will not contribute to their imminent demise and if they want something not 'right and exact' they need to buy it themselves!
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