Southern Cultural Identity Essay

There is practically no such thing as a singular Southern cultural identity. This may seem like a bold statement to make but when looking for the answer to the question of what southern cultural identity is it’s almost impossible to identify one comprehensive answer. Southern cultural identity is a vast identifier that can be based on ones religion, race, or simply their geographic location. Although many factors go into Southern cultural identity, the one that remains supreme is race. Racial identity plays a major role in Southern cultural identity because of its long ties within Southern culture. It is part of why a singular Southern cultural identity is hard to pinpoint because white Southerners and black Southerners have inherently different

Food is a major aspect of the overarching Southern cultural identity shared among all groups of Southerners, but the importance of Southern food is different for each of these communities. As a part of human culture food is an aspect of community and often times perseverance through hard times. It makes sense as to why food became an important part of Southern cultural identity because food is an aspect of human perseverance and community identity. According to Marcie Cohen Farris “Southern food reflects the abundance, beauty, and richness of southern culture, but also the dark underside of slavery and racial disfranchisement” (5). This quote shows that Southern food is a part of total Southern cultural identity but its roots in race are still present and important. For example, soul food, which is a type of comfort food, has its roots in black Southern culture but it has also become synonymous with general Southern food culture. While soul food is often associated with general Southern culture it holds more importance to black Southern culture that created it to serve as a central part of their racial community. For white Southerners, Southern foods created by the impoverished working class holds larger importance because of cultural aspect of Southerners being hard-working blue collared people. While southern food is important to both white and black Southern cultural identities, the type of Southern food and reason for its origin differ between the two races. Since race plays a role in almost every aspect of Southern culture, including food, Southern cultural identity is easily split into racial