Strawberry-Melon Salad with Habanero Lime Lemongrass Syrup and Stigma

With the end of summer, start of school frenzy that has been the past few weeks, I have sadly neglected to document some of the non-frenzied things that have come out of my kitchen. Instead of trying to catch up on the past 3 weeks all at once, I'll start with the past week and hopefully work backwards as time allows.



After a frantic schedule reorganization at the beginning of the semester, I found my way into a class called "Practice with At-Risk Youth". The professor and syllabus seem interesting and engaging, taking a social work perspective to the exploration of the issue of juvenile justice and other "at-risk youth" (I hope to unpack this term later). The first book that we were assigned for this class was the classic "Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity" by Erving Goffman.

The book presents a fascinating investigation of personal and social identity, and the influence of stigma and stigmatization on various forms of identity and relationships. Published in 1963, the book occasionally reveals its age by dated word choice (or the absence of discussion of modern issues such as AIDS), but ultimately presents a completely relevant commentary on various forms of stigma and complicated identity politics.

Goffman utilizes examples such as individuals with physical disabilities, mental patients, deaf and blind individuals, and racial and religious minorities to demonstrate the complicated process of managing stigmatized identities in society. While Goffman only briefly mentions "criminal" as a stigmatized social classification, the observations of the book are easily applied to individuals who have been through both the juvenile and criminal justice systems. After system involvement, people are often physically and emotionally marked by the experience of incarceration. One of the most devastating effects of the stigmatization related to incarceration is the resultant difficulty in obtaining employment. All of the formerly incarcerated youth who I worked with last year identified employment as the key factor in successful reintegration or reentry into their home communities. They also asserted that due to the stigma of incarceration, gaining lawful employment was the major obstacle that they faced. Once labeled criminal, it is extraordinarily difficult to erase this label (and sometimes consequently, it is difficult to act as anything but).

One of the most interesting points that Goffman presents later in the volume concerns the fact that we often navigate between many identities, both personal and social, and that many people play the role of both stigmatized and normal. He elucidates:

"The normal and the stigmatized are not persons but rather perspectives. These are generated in social situations during mixed contacts by virtue of the unrealized norms that are likely to play upon the encounter. The lifelong attributes of a particular individual may cause him to be type-cast; he may have to play the stigmatized role in almost all of his social situations, making it natural to refer to him, as I have done, as a stigmatized person whose life-situation places him in opposition to the normals. However, his particular stigmatizing attributes do not determine the nature of the two roles, normal and stigmatized, merely the frequency of his playing a particular one of them" (Goffman, 1963).

It's interesting to consider the social situations that produce stigma, the repercussions of this stigma, and the various identities that we all navigate throughout different social situations. Overall, I'm excited to learn more from this class and read more authors that will hopefully help inform my perspective.

In celebration of the first week of classes, a few other social workers in my program decided to take some time away from our books and have a potluck. I was a little pressed for time (because I'd been reading this book...) and had leftover lemongrass from the Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken I made a few nights ago (I'll detail my triumph over meat cooking soon), so I decided to make a simple fruit salad with a fancy, spicy-sweet syrup dressing.


Strawberry-Melon Salad with Habanero Lime Lemongrass Syrup


Ingredients

1 quart strawberries, hulled, quartered
1 honeydew melon, chopped into 1" cubes
4 lemongrass stalks, bruised and chopped
2 habanero peppers, quartered, seeded
Zest and juice of 1 lime
2 cups sugar
2 cups water
Handful of fresh mint

Method

For the salad: Cut fruit, slice mint, place in bowl and set aside (I told you it was simple).

For the syrup: I should have believed the man who sold me the habaneros who said they were really spicy. He wasn't exaggerating. I actually ended up doubling the rest of the recipe to make up for the unexpected heat.



Get out some aggression and bruise the lemongrass before chopping it up. It's fun, especially if you've been reading all day. Place chopped lemongrass, peppers, lime zest and juice, extra mint leaves, sugar, and water in a saucepan and boil until sugar is dissolved.


Reduce heat and simmer until syrup thickens, approx 8 minutes (I think I got through 2 songs on my iTunes). Remove from heat and pour into a bowl (if you're feeling extra-fancy: set in a bigger bowl filled with ice to cool). Pour the cooled syrup through a strainer, and when you are ready to serve, drizzle over fruit.