A vital conversation about Race is happening now, and we want to acknowledge it and say that we are listening and learning. The chocolate industry was built on the exploitation of Black and Indigenous people. And this exploitation continues today. Meaningful change has been slow to come to this industry. Small improvements are made, yet overall the industry clings to its colonial era beginnings of inequality. There is definitely a lot of work that needs to be done towards making reparations, including within the craft chocolate world.
The Chocolate Project was created to educate consumers and to give them an alternative to commodity, and to showcase a different, better, way to make chocolate. We recognize that we have a lot of privilege to be able to do this, and that we need to examine our own biases and (to borrow from Lauren) ‘decolonize our chocolate shelves’.
We invite you to learn more about what you as a consumer and can do to help make the chocolate industry a fair place for the people who plant/grow/harvest the only necessary ingredient. We have included two resources for you. The first is a three part series of online panels organized by Megan Giller of Chocolate Noise (part three is taking place Friday, June 26 - today!). Part 1 features a panel with the few Black bean-to-bar chocolate makers in the US sharing their stories of starting their businesses and the chocolate they make. Part 2 has a diverse panel and discusses why the craft chocolate industry (both makers and consumers) is so overwhelmingly white. Part 3 will have a panel comprised of industry voices and will focus on accountability in craft chocolate and what actions we can take to change the industry for the better. The second was recently shared by our colleague Lauren Heineck of Well Tempered. Her words resonated with us, and we want to share them with you. It consists of a brief overview and ten slides with information and questions for you to reflect on.
Black Lives Matter.
Panel Conversation Series: Race/Privilege in Craft Chocolate
Megan Giller, food writer and author of Bean-to-Bar Chocolate: America’s Craft Chocolate Revolution, is leading a three-part online panel discussion about Race and Privilege in craft chocolate. Parts 1 and 2 have happened, and the recordings can now be viewed on Facebook. Part 3 is happening live on Friday, June 25.
Part 1 (Facebook link)
Part 2 (Facebook link)
Part 3 (Facebook link)
A Purposed Method for Reflecting and Acting Upon Inequalities and Whiteness in the Chocolate Industry
I’d venture to say that you’ve heard the adage “but, chocolate should be fun.” If we come out of this time in history having learned anything, it’s that we’ll never be able to go back to where we were before, and rightly, the argument will stand that we shouldn’t have been there in the first place. We are wholly changed, and it will be up to us if the systems that have coddled some and neglected many will be allowed to endure their reign. There is nothing fun about oppression and disparity.
Child labor, commodity trading schemes, farmers earning less than a dollar a day. As an industry we have been naming transgressions for years. It was not enough. It is not enough.
The (most) recent murders of Black Americans, police brutality caught on camera, violence raged on peaceful protestors, pandemic sized proportions of atrocities, and the wavering and unraveling of State leadership, have all created a devastating storm that has shaken millions to reckon with the crossroads we find ourselves at. Myself included. If we lean on the tremendous efforts of organizers, and the world decides we are indeed at an inflection point, change must be applied to all facets of our lives -- our work included. Can we be in chocolate passively, knowing not all have opportunity, peace, and equity?
With that on my mind, I set out to build a starting point for conversation, industry reflection, and deeper consideration; thinking long and hard about an ambivalence to systems and histories bound in inequality, exploitation, and abuse. If we cannot be hyper-aware of the state of the craft chocolate industry following a global pandemic and an uprising, then when? Our responsibility goes beyond selling and promoting (good, delicious) chocolate. It’s the bona fide weight of being stewards of a colonial era crop that is - on a whole - still chained to certain negligence and captivity.
I’ve given these writings a couple weeks to concede space to others, to allow time to reflect on the rage, unfairness, exhaustion, and sorrow I bore witness to since the start of these latest protests - especially being felt by Black folks, and to admit the privileges afforded to me. I write this as an individual who cares about community work and inclusivity. I say these things being present to the current “boom" of craft chocolate and noting the inherent whiteness of it -- the conferences, the resources, the barriers to entry, as well as the opportunities. Please do not confuse these statements as dogma, or my attempt to claim perfection or completion of the work. I am flawed and have made errors directly related to inherent biases and racism. I am on this journey too, I oblige to take it with you, to walk together. I am sitting with the fact that it requires more than being good and kind. Let’s teach each other new things, perform to higher standards, and authentically engage in making a respectable and fair industry from here on out.
The following is not an exhaustive list, nor specific to any country in particular, although my personal connection to the US (my birth country), the rise of the craft chocolate movement there, and the current civil rights events following the cruel public lyncing of George Floyd, were catalysts for its creation. This goes beyond borders and timelines however, it has always cross-pollinated, because chocolate has long been a global product “discovered”, beloved, and devoured -- still harvested by hand, carried on ships and via complicated trade routes, finding its way into our hearts and happiest memories, while millions are left with bittersweet realities. The desire for more cocoa built the foundation for myriad depraved systems in play today. What will our role in decolonizing cocoa be? In righting the wrongs; who is represented, who profits, who makes it, who can enjoy it? Can we commit that not another day goes by when we let the inequalities of our industry go on? Can we s.n.a.p. into action?
Lauren Heineck (Well Tempered Media)
Slides created by, and shared with permission of, Lauren Heineck of Well Tempered Media.