Black Americans have always borne the highest costs of the sugar economy

Evidence

Since sugar came to these shores, there hasn’t been a time when Black people weren’t getting the short end of the cane stalk. From plantation to farm to table, African Americans have always paid the highest costs for sugar cultivation. — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 313

Categorization

• XREF: This is the chapter’s thesis compressed: continuity from plantation slavery to dietary health inequality — the reframing argument instantiated in one crop. Connects to the reader’s case study of origin stories as infrastructure.