The end of the twentieth century and beginning of the twenty-first have seen a number of works published on African American foodways in the form of both cookbooks and scholarly research. While cookbooks were the primary means of approaching any sort of African American food history, scholarly and academic attention began to turn to food history and the social consequences of racial oppression on food practices, and work emerged that treated the subject as a quasi-discipline rather than just another ethnic cuisine with interesting historical trivia. It is important to mention that not all work affecting the story of African American foodways has been done by culinary professionals or academics. Independent scholars, historic interpreters, and scholars outside of the food world have made a significant impact on how we understand African American food culture and history. The result has been broad and impressive as issues such as gender, sexual orientation, class, politics, folklore, the African origins of enslaved people, migration, Africanism, and assimilation have all come to move the topic beyond just okra, rice, fried chicken, and greens.