Black South African Middle-Class Engagements with Social Media and Digitised Food Cultures

The tastes and consumption patterns of the black middle class of South Africa have long been of interest to both media and researchers. The majority of this interest has been disproportionately focused on the lower end of the black middle class, with few researchers exploring the black middle class as bona fide bearers of cultural capital or how they legitimise their cultural capital and social status. Prevailing perceptions portray a homogenous, irresponsible, vapid, shallow and materialistic group obsessed with status. Based on a study which took a phenomenological exploration of the black middle class’s negotiation of ‘self’ and identity, this paper presents an analysis of how members of the contemporary black middle class of South Africa use social media; food narratives; and messages about taste, culinary skill, and food knowledge to craft empowering self-images. Focusing on two compelling performances—‘eating without food’ and ‘the cultured palate’ (my terms)—I draw attention to the complex ways in which this group navigate classed and racialised worlds. The analysis reveals that by developing what may seem to be unremarkable performative acts related to eating, preparing, and displaying food, members of the black middle class craft group identity and create ‘selves’ that reveal ingenuity and thoughtful knowledge about food, taste, global culture and their classed and racialised social positions.