Nothing Blacker Than A Cookout In This Black-Ass Life
Welcome to the seventeenth installment of This Black-Ass Life! This week, we’re talking about the origins of maybe the Blackest experience: The Cookout. Given the three-day weekend, we figured we could either write about the history of African Americans and their sacrifices in American wars or barbecue. We decided to go with the latter option after an unnecessarily heavy news week.
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I. The Facts
Cookouts are as American as Indigenous people and enslaved Africans coming together.
Cookouts have their roots in the cooperation between Black and Indigenous peoples “struggling to get or keep their freedom from colonialists.”
During the slave trade, Indigenous people, people from the West Indies, and Western and Central African people all found themselves needing food while marooned on islands. They found common ground in cooking by roasting meat over fire and using dirt or leaves to control the burn.
The term “barbecue” originates from “barbacoa,” which means to roast over hot coals.
Later, the best barbecue was always found at “Blacks Only” restaurants.
Why is this important?
Barbecue is just one of the ways Black people have turned tragedy into celebrated artform. We are masters of turning discarded things into something joyful and artistic.
Aside from barbecue, Enslaved Blacks also made beautiful quilts from scraps, feed sacks and other materials discarded by slave owners.
Even Hip Hop has its roots in piecing together and sampling overlooked speeches, compositions and music.
For example Public Enemy’s song “Can’t Truss It,” a song about Black people learning their past in order to understand the present, samples Richard Pryor saying, “It started in slave ships,” Alex Haley describing the Middle Passage and Malcolm X advocating for violent resistance.
What can my Black Ass do?
Don’t get barbecue twisted. If you show up to a cookout and there are only hotdogs and hamburgers, then the food cannot actually be called barbecue. (Editor’s note: Jumoke and Mitu are both pescatarians and even we understand this fact. Don’t confuse people with misleading paperless posts.)
From properly preparing the Kool-Aid to picking the right Spades partner, here’s a handy guide to surviving and thriving at your next cookout.
II. Other Things
FYI: Black people literally created Memorial Day. I guess like everything else, credit to Black folks got “lost in history.”
Please calm down on inviting non-fam to the cookout. Looking at you Gary Owen. And you, too, Michael Rapaport.
Speaking of folks performing Blackness that shouldn’t be invited to the cookout, Kim Kardashian defended Ye against RhymeFest accusing him of not fulfilling his commitments to the nonprofit formerly known as Donda’s House. While she and Ye could be in the right, after these events, even I (Mitu) have to admit we can remove the Obligatory Kanye Update section of the newsletter for now. Though I want to add still that all.of.your.faves.are.problematic.
And on the subject of problematic faves: Kendrick threatened to pull his music from Spotify after they pulled abuser XXXTentacion’s music. In case you forgot, XXXTentacion beat up his pregnant girlfriend so badly that she almost lost an eye.
Also, Leslie Uggams said known pervy pres Lyndon B. Johnson tried to get her into Lincoln’s bed.
And NFL players and their fans are currently fighting for players’ basic First Amendment Rights.
Our Black-Ass song of the week (Jumoke):
The anthem: Frankie Beverly and Maze’s Before I Let Go.
Things we are looking forward to / things we are not looking forward to:
I (Mitu) look forward to Serena’s epic comeback after sexist fools dropped her ranking to no. 453 in the world after having a baby.
I (Jumoke) am and am not looking forward to summer humidity. On one hand, my melanin gets a glistening glow as the ancestors intended, on the other hand, frigid offices and back sweat.
III. Text from a Black-Ass Mama
Keeping this submission anonymous: Someone’s Black and African-Ass Mama wanted to do her duty and support future Georgia governor Stacey Abrams, but needed to check in on the name first.
Stay Black, stay beautiful and we’ll hit your inbox next on June 11.