Two months ago, several women and people of color who had worked for and supported the Southern Foodways Alliance, an association dedicated to the study and preservation of the region’s food and to healing its tortured racist history, called on John T. Edge, the influential white man who heads the alliance, to step aside. On Tuesday night, a committee from the University of Mississippi, where the organization is based, gave them an answer in the form of a 1,500-word statement. It mentioned Mr. Edge once, but did not address his employment. Rather, it called for an examination, including an outside audit, of the how institutional racism and patriarchy affect both the university’s Center for the Study of Southern Culture — under which the Southern Foodways Alliance operates — and the alliance itself.

Source: New York Times September 02, 2020 16:07 UTC