Reading Twitty’s “No More Whistling Walk For Me” really made me think about how history books leave out how badly Africans were treated. Sure the textbooks would talk about slavery and how it was bad, but they never went into detail about how white people mistreated them and all the pain and trauma Africans had to endure just because Europeans were lazy and did not feel like doing the hard work themselves. I feel like Twitty’s stories should be put in history textbooks to get first hand examples of how Africans felt when they were forced into slavery. Twitty stated, “In all my days, I have been asked to prove everything I have ever said, but I have never heard a single one of those docents challenged for using racist folk history as fact.” I feel like that is still a common problem African Americans or just people of color go through, having to prove the things they say so people will believe them. While white people usually do not have to prove every little thing they say, because they are seen as the dominant race which leads people to believe they are smarter as well.\u00a0 Putting Twitty’s stories in textbooks would show other African Americans how he grew up not liking soul food and also not liking being black, which could potentially help black kids learn what it means to be African American so they won’t grow up hating their history and believing it is all bad.<\/p>\n
Twitty also really made me think about southern and soul cuisines and how racial stereotypes, prejudices, cultural attitudes, and intercultural misunderstandings are connected. Southern cuisine is associated with white people, while soul cuisine is associated with black people. What I never really thought about before reading Twitty’s stories was the fact that food was and still is a gateway African Americans can use to feel their way into their past and open up conversations about individuals and group survival. As well as how much goes into cooking, Twitty brings politics and race, sexuality and spirituality, memory, anger, etc by using all of this twitty masters measurements, recipes, and things like that. This shows how helpful knowing your own past is, along with knowing the past of your people.<\/p>\n
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Reading Twitty’s “No More Whistling Walk For Me” really made me think about how history books leave out how badly Africans were treated. Sure the…<\/p>\n