University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School April 2021 How Race is Made in Everyday Life: Food, Eating, and Dietary Acculturation among Black and White Migrants in Florida, U.S. Laura Kihlstrom University of South Florida Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the Public Health Commons, and the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons Scholar Commons Citation Kihlstrom, Laura, "How Race is Made in Everyday Life: Food, Eating, and Dietary Acculturation among Black and White Migrants in Florida, U.S." (2021). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/8807 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. How Race is Made in Everyday Life: Food, Eating, and Dietary Acculturation among Black and White Migrants in Florida, U.S. by Laura Kihlström A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Anthropology College of Arts and Sciences Major professor: David Himmelgreen, Ph.D. Elizabeth Hordge-Freeman, Ph.D. Daniel Lende, Ph.D. Dinorah Martinez Tyson, Ph.D., M.P.H. Nancy Romero-Daza, Ph.D. Date of Approval: March 22, 2021 Keywords: foodways, dietary acculturation, immigration, racism, Whiteness, anti-Blackness Copyright © 2021, Laura Kihlström DEDICATION To Amos, who has taught me more than anyone or anything else. I love you forever, kuuhun ja tähtiin. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Completing a doctoral degree is a journey which feels lonely at times. However, I have never been alone during this process. From the University of South Florida, I want to thank with all my heart the five members of my doctoral committee: David Himmelgreen, Nancy Romero-Daza, Daniel Lende, Dinorah Martinez Tyson, and Elizabeth Hordge-Freeman. They have all been excellent mentors whose presence and support kept me going and provided me with direction and purpose throughout this process. I also want to thank faculty members Heide Castañeda, Kevin Yelvington, Tara Deubel, Rebecca Zarger, Karla Davis-Salazar, Christian Wells, Russell Kirby, and Jennifer Marshall for their guidance, teaching, and mentorship during various points of my doctoral studies. Several individuals working in administrative roles have helped me along the way: these include Erin Jensen, Sue Rhinehart, Brittany Vojnovic, Ana Torres, and Kelsey Wilkinson. I received financial support for my doctoral research from the Migration Institute of Finland as well as the USF Center for the Advancement of Food Security and Healthy Communities. I have also had the privilege to have been financially supported by several internal scholarships provided by USF (International Student Book Scholarship, Rod Hale Memorial Graduate Student Award, College of Public Health Student Honorary Awards for Research and Practice, Student Government Conference Travel Grant), as well as external scholarships (Finnish American Foundation, Better Living for Seniors Hillsborough County). I am also grateful for the institutional membership that USF provided for graduate students for the National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity (NCFDD). The writing group and mentoring sessions of NCFDD have been invaluable. Furthermore, the Paper Incubator Program organized by the Association for the Study of Food and Society also helped me conceptualize my research, and fellow food scholars Sarah Stembridge, Erica Peters, and Stephen Wooten provided me with crucial early feedback on my writing. Completing this research would not have been possible without the support and collaboration of several individuals in the Ethiopian and Finnish communities in Florida. I want to extend my gratitude to all the people in both communities who either participated in my research, helped spread word of it, or in other ways assisted me in pursuing it. Countless families and individuals welcomed me into their homes and community gatherings, often providing me with delicious food. While this dissertation protects the anonymity of everyone who participated, the work would not have been possible without you, and I will always remember my time spent with you all. Then there are family members and friends without whom I am not sure I would have made it. Four and a half years is a long time and all sorts of challenging things have happened along the way. We moved to Florida without knowing anyone in Tampa, yet our support system has still been there for us. My parents Anna and Lars: thank you for caring for me, encouraging me, and rooting for me. You have taught me both the art of critical thinking and the art of enjoying the little things in life. I love you. My father’s own archival work and research around our family history and its connections to White supremacy also played a huge role in how I approached my research topic and exercised courage during difficult moments. My sister Anna has been one of my greatest supporters for these past years. In her family’s home in Colorado, we found solace and community and built new traditions. Anna’s love and support has meant everything. All of my siblings in Finland: Mikko, Leena, Matti, and Antti, as well as their children, have brought moments of laughter and steady support during various points of this project. I also want to thank my parents-in-law Tuula, Juhani, and Kari for their unwavering support. My aunties Ilona, Taina, and Asta have to also be acknowledged here for the way to helped me during a particularly challenging time related to our son’s illness. Eventually, we were able to build a wonderful community of people in Tampa for which I am very grateful. Dr. Johanna Lasonen and Dr. Ulla Uusitalo were part of our family's support system locally. They kept us company, offered meals, and both of them have acted as “reserve grandmas” for Amos. The Fisher family has been a lifeline for our family, without whom we would have missed many adventures and moments of fun. Similarly, the Faraci family helped us feel at home in Tampa. Incredible teachers at the USF Preschool for Creative Learning have enriched our lives here, and I am especially grateful for Victoria Damjanovic for enrolling us in a program which made the preschool tuition more affordable for two international graduate students. Jodi Ray from the USF College of Public Health patiently sat down with me for hours sometime in 2018 to guide me through the complicated process of obtaining more affordable health insurance for our son. I have made amazing friends at USF and beyond. These individuals have inspired and encouraged me and validated the feeling that the struggle is real, man, but man, it’s your peers who make that struggle feel a bit gentler and more fun. Thank you Atieno ”Renice” Obure, Olubukola ”‘Bukky” Olayiwola, Sajjad Hussein, Laura Leisinger, Hadi Khoshnivess, Jacqueline Sivén, Sami Sivén, Ryan Logan, Kanan Mehta, Richard Bargielski, Jacquelyn Heuer, Sarah Bradley, Karen Serrano Arce, Paola Gonzalez, Dalila D'Ingeo, and Debra Thrower. For meaningful conversations, talks, and moments along the way, thank you Lisa Armstrong, Jackie Berger, Chris Eck, Dana Ketcher, Caitlynn Carr, Jeff Rowe, Edlin Veras, Breanne Casper, Katie Shakour, Kaleigh Hoyt, Whitney Fung, Spencer Bockover, Matthew Pajunen, Deven Gray, Gianpiero Caso, Guffran Rostom, Preston LaFarge, Keiko Hirosawa, Mecca Burris, Kaniqua Robinson, and Liotta Dowdy. Thank you also to my graduate student colleagues in the research and evaluation group at the College of Public Health, a group I looked forward to seeing every Thursday, first at the office and then virtually because of the pandemic: Blake Scott, Shanda Vereen, Davies Tolusi, Ngozichukwuka Agu, Joanna Mackie, Tara Foti, Skikha Darnal, Rafaella Stein Elger, and Vidya Chandran. Thank you Justin and Jessica Maiers for taking care of our cat so many times when we were away. I have also had the great privilege to mentor talented undergraduate students at USF. These students are Anneliese Long, Kaylie Simon, and Milan Chuganey, and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for you. And finally, towards the end of my graduate studies, I connected with several individuals who made it possible for me to imagine new research collaborations beyond the PhD: thank you Gwendolyn Reese and Kimberly Brown-Williams from the Black Health Equity Alliance. I must not forget to mention here a group of friends back home in Finland who kept me grounded and reminded me of my roots. For over 20 years of friendship, thank you Jenni Rahikainen, Aki Martikainen, Jussi Lasonpalo, Lasse Tuominen, Kimmo Numminen, Olli Pölönen, and Timo Norros. I will never not be the kid growing up in Vantaa, Finland with you all. Similarly, my friends Anni Helldán, Katri Hautanen, Eveliina Kuvaja, Essi Harjula, Kirsi Koskinen, and Esa Pottonen were positive forces in my life at various points of the PhD process. Finally, I extend my gratitude to the two persons who have loved and supported me every day of this process: Atte and Amos. In the summer of 2016, when Amos was only eight months old, we moved across the ocean from Finland to the United States so that I could begin my doctoral studies. With that decision, all of us became immigrants. Thus, the topics brought forward in this dissertation are not merely academic but matters which have been