Ladee Hubbard Knows the Truth About Food Histories and Anti-Black Racism
In her sophomore novel, ‘The Rib King,’ Hubbard investigates caricatures and consumption
With her 2017 debut novel The Talented Ribkins, New Orleans-based writer Ladee Hubbard pulled inspiration from W.E.B. Du Bois’ “The Talented Tenth” — the essay that argued for “developing the best of [African Americans] that they may guide the mass away from the contamination and death of the worst, in their own and other races” — to look at a family of Black superheroes. Her latest historical fiction novel The Rib King (out now via Amistad) takes an ancestral figure from Hubbard’s debut and allows readers to get a more complex view of the character beyond the stories passed down by his descendants. Through Mr. Sitwell, who becomes a controversial food icon known as The Rib King, the novel explores themes of racial trauma, anger, and the ways in which African Americans have been exploited and caricatured for capitalistic gain.
During a recent Zoom interview with ZORA, the New Orleans-based writer sat in front of a poster of her late mentor Toni Morrison (from the 2019 film The Pieces I Am) while discussing the inspiration behind The Rib King, as well as its relevance to our current national conversations about race.
