I heard from a reader last week who was deeply offended by my July 5 column.
I hadn't written anything political or racially inflammatory about George Wilson, the North Side's venerated barbecue wizard, so the rancor was unexpected. Wilson recently was recognized by syndicated radio DJ Steve Harvey with a "Hoodie Award" for 47 years of business in the inner city.
Award or no award, the caller said pork was a dietary no-no for black folks, listing a doctor's chart full of alleged health problems connected to eating pork. I was a sellout and an Uncle Tom for celebrating pork, said he and a couple of other callers, prompting me to wonder where this anti-pork movement started.
Monique Howze from the University of Pittsburgh's African Studies Department links pork's bad rap to slavery, when slave masters consumed the choice cuts of a hog, leaving fatty, less desirable parts such as the pig's feet and intestines -- known to slaves as chitterlings -- for the help.
"Chitterlings were basically garbage. They were high in fat and as a result, many African-Americans stayed away from pork because it was considered unhealthy," Howze said. Slaves coined the term "eating high on the hog" as a result of being left with the dirty, unhealthy lower portions of the pig, and a mistrust of pork remains with us today.
According to C. Eric Lincoln's "The Black Muslims in America," prohibitions concerning the consumption of pork by blacks were reinforced by the religious sect starting in the late 1930s. For many poor black folks who grew up on salty, pork-heavy diets, the low-fat Muslim diet was a revelation.
The dislike of pork among blacks is so widespread that when I served in the Army during the 1980s, I often found myself the only black soldier at my mess hall table readily scarfing down bacon during breakfast and pork chops for dinner. Most black troops would demand -- but not always receive -- alternative meals.
I could understand the Army's reluctance to honor what was a social and not a religious aversion to what the other black soldiers called "the filthy swine."
Despite aversion to pork, Howze says there's nothing particularly unhealthy about eating it, though the preparation of all meats is what should concern diners of all races.
"The main issue is poor nutrition and health problems that comes from eating fatty foods. Low-fat, white meat pork is just as healthy as beef or chicken," she said.
So if centuries-old slave tales are keeping some black Pittsburghers from enjoying Wilson's barbecue, maybe my callers should put aside their prejudices and start chowing down. Wilson, after all, has done a brisk business in the predominantly black Central North Side for nearly a half-century.
And I'll bet that even if Malcolm X were alive today, he'd have a hard time passing up a plate of Wilson's barbecued pork ribs.
