When American Racism Determined Who Ate Vanilla Ice Cream

One of the strangest ways Jim Crow affected Black people was in the taste and appearance of vanilla ice cream. 

Stamps native Maya Angelou noted that "it was custom not to sell vanilla ice cream to blacks in many parts of the South, except Independence Day."

Imagine working all week long to give a little girl like this one an ice cream cone only for her not to get the chance to select vanilla except for one day of the year. She doesn't understand the dynamics of why she cannot enjoy that particular flavor beyond July 4 but the idea manifests itself into a lifelong obsession with it as part of the American Dream:  red, white, and blue.

You know, apple pie, baseball, vanilla ice cream, upward mobility that leads to economic security, homeownership, and so forth - or so they said.

The racist hierarchy in the South manifested itself in several ways but most people don't know that racism even impacted what foods Black people were allowed to buy. This does not limit itself to shopping from the back entries of stores as darkening the front doors was deemed a no-no. 

Although it was a Black enslaved boy named Edmund Albius who perfected the flavor of vanilla ice cream, its white appearance and sweetness were seen as an authentic representation of the American Dream - which is why Black people were disallowed from consuming it.

Albius was 12 years old when he figured out the cross pollination process in 1841. The young man's family needs royalties in the worst way as slaves could not receive patents for their ingenuity. The irony is that vanilla ice cream has its origins in black vanilla bean pods from tropical climates like those in Tahiti and Madagascar where the world's largest vanilla plantations exist.

As a result, we have a generation of people who like the water across the tracks solely because it looks like it is colder than the glass nearest us. 

Eff those people, vanilla ice cream is trash - I'm a Yarnell's Woo Pig Chewy (now Chewy Brownie) kind of guy.🍦