The Federal Writers Project worked hard to promote and represent the cultural diversity that is present in the United States. The writers that worked on the project made it a goal to showcase those who are underrepresented and discriminated against in the United States.
Let’s start off with something as simple as writing about food. In the project known as “America Eats,1” the authors wrote about different food cultures around the U.S. in order to represent the different food pathways of America and to discover if there are actual “American foods.” In doing this, they discovered that much of the underrepresented cuisines, most namely African American and Mexican cuisines, were quite delicious.
Previously, white Americans ridiculed African American cuisine and claimed it was “primitive” and “unrefined.” However, white Americans came to learn that their food was quite delicious because it didn’t fall under their “refined” taste. They were able to create many delicious dishes 2 that white Americans had not even thought of.
By refined I’m assuming they mean “bland,” but I digress.
In addition to this, white Americans began to also love Mexican food because if men could handle the spice, then that was a good indicator of the manliness they had.
Secondly, one of the most prevalent and impactful projects of the FWP were the ex-slave narratives. Through this, ex-slaves were able to tell their story in a government funded project. This project revealed another cultural difference in America, the dialect3. The interviewers of the project had some difficulty understanding what the interviewees were saying because of the difference in speech 4and lack of access to a formal education.
The ex-slave narratives brought light to the lives that were underrepresented and discriminated against for hundreds of years. America was able to see what kind of lives they lived and through the audio recordings, the feeling and emotion of the interviewee comes to life.
- “America Eats: Pioneers of Food Writing.” Single Explore Essay | What America Ate, https://whatamericaate.org/single.essay.php?kid=79-2CB-E.
- “Kerosene Charlie Eats ‘Taters,” Library of Congress,https://cdn.loc.gov/service/afc/afc1940003/afc1940003_afs03975/afc1940003_afs03975a.mp3
- Tilton, and Lauren. “Race and Place: Dialect and the Construction of Southern Identity in the Ex-Slave Narratives.” Current Research in Digital History, 1 Jan. 1970, http://crdh.rrchnm.org/essays/v02-14-race-and-place/.
- “Interview with Uncle Billy McCrea, Jasper, Texas, 1940 (part 2 of 2),” Library of Congress,https://cdn.loc.gov/service/afc/afc1939013/3524b2.mp3
