Black communities have fewer supermarkets even after controlling for poverty

Evidence

Though Black labor no longer plays a big role in producing sugar, sugar still plays a big role in the lives of Black people. Among all Americans, added sugar has been linked to growing rates of certain chronic illnesses, including those from which Black people suffer the most. African Americans are more likely to eat poorer-quality, processed foods with high amounts of added sugars. In 2013, public-health researchers at Johns Hopkins University used the U.S. Census and InfoUSA food-store data to analyze supermarket availability by census tract. As poverty increased, the number of supermarkets decreased, but the prevalence of junk-food-stocked convenience stores increased. And when poverty was held constant, the researchers found, Black communities still had the “fewest supermarkets.” — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 310

Categorization

• QUESTION: The claim that grocery availability correlates with race independent of poverty is striking — worth verifying the Johns Hopkins 2013 methodology.
• SHARE: The detail that Black neighborhoods still had fewest supermarkets when poverty was held constant is a sharp finding to send to anyone in urban planning or food policy.