Shared ancestry connects the African diaspora. It also makes understanding each community’s food traditions worth the effort.

A debate over who can claim soul food raises a question larger than any social media argument: When does a shared cultural inheritance become a distinct tradition?

People across Africa and the African diaspora have foods that evoke home, family, comfort, and belonging. Recognizing that connection is valuable. But using “soul food” as a general description of comforting food is different from identifying the cuisine historically known by that name.

Soul food is a distinctly African American culinary tradition with African roots, shaped by generations of Black life in the United States. Recognizing its American development does not erase Africa. Recognizing Africa should not erase what Black Americans created.

African Roots, American Development

Enslaved Africans arrived with agricultural knowledge, cooking skills, and food traditions. They adapted those traditions to unfamiliar surroundings and unequal access to food, drawing on available ingredients and encounters with Indigenous and European foodways.

Okra, black-eyed peas, and vegetable-centered cooking offer important connections to African traditions. Corn and cornmeal reflect Indigenous American agriculture. These ingredients and influences became part of an evolving food culture rather than remaining unchanged copies of dishes from another continent. [1]

The distinction is between ancestry and development. A cuisine can descend from older traditions and acquire its own identity through the experiences of the people who preserve and transform it.

More Than a Story About Scraps

Slavery and deprivation belong in this history. Enslaved people supplemented restricted food supplies through gardening and other means, and used small amounts of meat to season vegetables. But telling the entire story as “making something out of scraps” understates their knowledge and creativity.

Black food history also includes seafood work, farming, skilled cooking, and enterprise. The Smithsonian’s account of Black foodways, for example, documents African Americans’ extensive involvement in harvesting, processing, and selling oysters. [2]

These were people with expertise. Their contributions deserve recognition as culinary work and cultural creation.

Why the Name Matters

The food traditions are older than the widespread use of the name “soul food.” The term became prominent during the 1960s, amid movements asserting Black identity and cultural pride. Smithsonian histories describe the soul food movement as celebrating foods that mainstream America had often disparaged. [3]

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That context gives the name meaning beyond a meal that tastes good or brings comfort.

For some families, a pot of greens or a pan of cornbread carries memories of relatives, church dinners, holidays, and recipes learned by watching someone cook. Calling those foods “soul food” places them within a particular cultural story.

Southern Roots Traveled

Soul food also developed beyond the South. During the Great Migration, Black Americans carried Southern food traditions into new cities and neighborhoods, preserving familiar dishes while adapting their cooking. Smithsonian programming connects that movement directly to soul food’s development. [4]

That helps explain how a cuisine rooted in the South became part of Black community life across the country.

It also makes geography an imperfect test of authenticity. Soul food cooked in London can still be African American soul food. A cuisine’s cultural origins do not change simply because someone prepares it elsewhere.

Shared Heritage Does Not Mean Identical Cultures

Africa is a continent of many food traditions. The diaspora is similarly diverse. African American, Afro-Caribbean, Afro-Latin American, and Black British identities encompass different histories and relationships to food.

Someone may use “soul food” figuratively to describe a cherished family dish. That emotional use is understandable. The difficulty arises when it becomes a historical claim that all Black cuisines are versions of the same named tradition.

Shared ingredients and ancestry establish connections; they do not make distinct cuisines interchangeable.

A useful conversation would ask which dishes are related, what techniques survived, and how different communities adapted them. That approach gives people more history to appreciate.

Respect Through Recognition

Defending soul food’s African American identity need not become an attack on Africans, Caribbean people, or Black Britons. Equally, celebrating connections across the diaspora should include respect for Black Americans’ particular contributions.

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Anyone can cook, enjoy, study, and share soul food. Cultural recognition does not require closing the kitchen door. It requires crediting the people and history behind the cuisine.

Soul food’s African roots and African American identity belong in the same sentence. Both deserve to be remembered.

What dish connects you most strongly to your family’s history—and who taught you to make it? Share your story in the comments.

Explore more food stories and culinary traditions in STM Daily News’ Food & Drink section.

Sources and Further Reading

1. African and Native American Foodways and Resilience: From 1619 to COVID-19 — Research on food traditions, adaptation, and cultural resilience.
2. Black Foodways and Cuisine — National Museum of African American History and Culture.
3. African American History Highlights — National Museum of American History, including the soul food movement.
4. Cooking Up History — National Museum of American History programming on migration and soul food.

Last Updated on October 13, 2026 by Daily News Staff

The Knowledge | National Debt Explained, Part 2

When discussing debt, ask: Who borrowed the money? That question helps distinguish a family’s finances from the federal budget. Our first episode explained why your credit card balance is separate from the national debt. Now comes the next question: What does the federal government spend money on?

Much of it pays for retirement benefits, health coverage, national defense, public services, and interest on previous borrowing.

Social Security was the largest individual program in fiscal year 2025, costing approximately $1.6 trillion. But combine the major health care programs—including Medicare, Medicaid, and health insurance subsidies—and their spending reached about $1.8 trillion, exceeding Social Security alone. cbo.gov

The figures below cover October 1, 2024, through September 30, 2025.

These are selected expenses, not the entire budget. Medicare spending is shown after premiums and other offsetting receipts. The combined health care total already includes Medicare and Medicaid, so it should not be added to those rows. cbo.gov

The government also supports veterans’ health care, transportation, education, housing assistance, courts, law enforcement, scientific research, disaster response, and environmental protection. Nondefense discretionary spending totaled approximately $980 billion in 2025, covering many of these services. Some funding for these areas falls elsewhere in the budget. cbo.gov

Federal spending falls into three broad groups:

• Mandatory spending: Payments governed by existing eligibility rules and benefit formulas, including Social Security and major health programs.
• Discretionary spending: Funding lawmakers control through appropriations legislation, including most defense spending and many public services.
• Net interest: The expense of servicing publicly held federal debt, minus government interest income. cbo.gov

Interest deserves attention because it pays for borrowing already undertaken. In 2025, net interest exceeded discretionary defense spending. Congressional Budget Office

A program’s cost does not automatically translate into an equal increase in national debt. Taxes and other receipts finance much of federal spending. Social Security and Medicare’s hospital insurance program receive dedicated payroll taxes, while Medicare also collects premiums.

In 2025, federal spending totaled approximately $7 trillion, compared with $5.2 trillion in revenue. The roughly $1.8 trillion shortfall was the deficit, requiring borrowing. Understanding national debt therefore means examining both what government spends and what it collects. cbo.gov

Explore more explanations behind the headlines at STM Daily News, home of The Knowledge.

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Sources for this episode

• CBO: The Federal Budget in Fiscal Year 2025 — Overview of spending, revenue, deficits, and debt interest.
• CBO: Mandatory Spending in Fiscal Year 2025 — Breakdown of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other benefit programs.
• CBO: Discretionary Spending in Fiscal Year 2025 — Defense spending and services including transportation, education, and veterans’ health care.
• CBO: Overview of the FY 2025 Budget Infographics — Highlights the largest expenses and broader budget trends.

Related reading

• U.S. Treasury: Understanding the National Debt — What federal debt represents and how borrowing works.
• U.S. Treasury: Understanding the National Deficit — Explains the difference between an annual deficit and accumulated debt.
• U.S. Treasury: Federal Spending — Additional context about where federal money goes.

Last Updated on October 11, 2026 by Daily News Staff

The Knowledge | STM Daily News

When you hear “national debt,” do you picture everyone’s credit card balances added together? The name can create that impression, but the national debt and household debt measure different borrowing.

The U.S. national debt is money the federal government owes. Your personal credit card balance is not included.

Federal debt versus household debt

The Treasury defines national debt as the federal government’s total outstanding borrowing accumulated over the country’s history. Household debt covers borrowing by individuals and families, including mortgages, credit cards, auto loans, and student loans.

|Type of debt  |Who borrowed?           |Examples                                          |
|————–|————————|————————————————–|
|National debt |Federal government      |Outstanding Treasury securities                   |
|Household debt|Individuals and families|Credit cards, mortgages, auto loans, student loans|

Putting a $500 purchase on your credit card increases your personal balance. It does not add $500 to the national debt.

How does the national debt grow?

When federal spending exceeds tax collections and other revenue, the government runs a budget deficit. Treasury sells securities to borrow money to cover the gap.

Consider a simplified, hypothetical example: the government collects $5 trillion and spends $6 trillion in one year. That leaves a $1 trillion deficit requiring financing.

A deficit measures a shortfall over a period, usually a year. Debt measures outstanding borrowing accumulated over time. Repeated deficits generally increase that debt. Interest on existing borrowing is also a federal expense.

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Does paying off your credit card reduce the national debt?

Paying off a card reduces what you owe your lender. It does not directly repay Treasury borrowing. Household debt and government debt can influence the same economy, but they remain separate obligations.

When discussing debt, ask: Who borrowed the money? That one question helps distinguish a family’s finances from the federal budget.

Find more explanations of the ideas behind the headlines at STM Daily News, home of The Knowledge.

Sources

● U.S. Treasury: Understanding the National Debt

● U.S. Treasury: Understanding the National Deficit

● Federal Reserve Bank of New York: Household Debt and Credit Report