Anti-Racist Vegan Activism Part 3

April 19, 2008

This is the third part of my anti-racist vegan activism series examines Race and Ethnicity in Vegan and Animal Analysis from Sistah Vegan.

Summary of part 1 in my anti-racist vegan activism series: White animal advocates can be allies instead of leaders. We are allies to animals in animal activism and we are allies to people of color in anti-racist activism. It will require constant vigilance, not to silence ourselves in precarious race or ethnicity-based situations, but rather to silence the parts of ourselves that are acting like imperialists. We ought to be open to criticism, not from anti-animal perspectives, but from anti-colonialism perspectives. We must engage. We must not censor ourselves entirely; we must merely accept criticism and learn from it. If we do not engage, no one learns and no animal’s life is spared. But our engagement is as allies, aiding and inspiring, not dominating or demanding.

Summary of part 2: This is a true challenge: How to advocate for animals without causing new or remembered trauma? While I often feel that animals’ suffering is more intense I cannot know it for certainty, partially due to the blinders of white privilege and partially due to the human condition of being isolated from the world by our own minds’ subjective experience. The same reason I argue we should be agnostic about animal suffering and there’s no need to prove that all animals experience pain (and for the record, fish and lobsters DO feel pain - it’s a FACT) in order to abstain from causing potential pain, for they are similar enough to humans not to justify oppression of them simply because of our differences and the ability we have to oppress them, we should also be agnostic about the suffering in other humans created by some animal advocacy. So we should take people who say they’ve been traumatized at their word and we should listen to their voices. In all efforts for social change, as allies, we should listen to the voices of those whose lives we seek to improve. That includes listening to the screams and cries of caged and tortured animals as well as the screams and cries of people who say they are traumatized by certain animal advocacy demonstrations, analogies, and other efforts.

To see the entire reading list, go here. To read the first part, go here. To read the second part, go here.

Lastly before I being with my analysis, this is a learning process. I am not a teacher here; I am a facilitator. I’m processing these thoughts myself and inviting you to comment and critique if you, too, are interested in anti-racist vegan activism.

Sistah Vegan asks, in Race and Ethnicity in Vegan and Animal Analysis:

[H]ow does one address situations like the below and ignore “race and ethnicity”?:

“Wow, interesting that this Vegetarian festival is 95% white though the city is very ethnically diverse?”, or

“Interesting that a majority of black people disagreed with the PETA Animal Liberation Project”, or

“Why have all the top selling books that have been written about veganism, ‘ethical consumption’ and animal rights have been by whites (mostly male)?”

Sistah Vegan’s essay does a few things:

It highlights the fact that there are interlocking systems of oppression and that animal rights is only one kind of oppression. She wants vegans to concern themselves also with “classism, globalization, neocolonialism, racism and 1st worldism.”
It acknowledges that race is a social construction but that the construction has real life consequences.

The remedies are:

Vegans should ask themselves the kinds of questions above when doing and fostering vegan activism.
Vegan consumption should include fair trade and other responsible choices.

Here are my thoughts:

These are great questions to ask and they serve as a good reminder that when doing and fostering vegan activism, white vegans need to pay particular attention to people of color to include them, to listen to their voices and criticism, and to seek out their opinions and ideas. This is why we need to find websites like Vegans of Color, read them, and promote them.

I absolutely agree with Sistah Vegan regarding nonessentials like coffee or chocolate. Absolutely, these things should be purchased carefully and a responsible consumer should only purchase fair trade items or shouldn’t buy them at all. And I’m all for promoting sustainable, local, fair, organic, and otherwise ethical food, clothing, and other consumption choices.

However, I’m cautious about creating too much of an overlap between veganism and other ethical consumption practices. (And here I go into a tangent that’s got little to do with anti-racist vegan activism, but is relevant here.) Veganism is about animals, first and foremost. And already there is too much misinformation about veganism. I don’t want to confuse the issues too much. However, vegans can obviously be activists in other areas, too, like environmentalism, health promotion, feminism, anti-racism, etc.

Sistah Vegan does not suggest that we extend the definition of vegan, but others have, so I will address that idea here. First, the definition of vegan used by me and wikipedia:

vegan: person who seeks to exclude the use of animals for food, clothing, or any other purpose.

My definition is a shortened version of the definition provided by the Vegan Society, the people who coined the term ‘vegan’:

A vegan is someone who tries to avoid - as far as is possible and practical - all forms of exploitation of animals for food, clothing or any other purpose. This is for the benefit of people, animals and the environment. Vegan eat a plant-based diet free from all animal products, such as meat, animal milks, eggs, honey and gelatine. They also avoid animal products like leather, wool and silk for clothing or other purposes.

Regardless of the intent of veganism, whether it’s for animals, environment, health or whatnot, veganism describes a lifestyle absent of something. It is like atheism in that the word can only be understood in the context of a default lifestyle of something present. For many vegans, the word veganism describes a philosophy that regard animals’ interests as ethically relevant. But the basic meaning of the word is as practice (action) and not as philosophy (thought), and as practice, it is the practice of avoiding animal use for food, clothing, entertainment and so forth.

I’m wary about extending the definition of vegan to include sustainable, fair trade and other types of ethical consumption for a few reasons:

Veganism is about excluding animal uses whereas these other terms are about including particular types of actions.
The definitions of sustainable, fair trade, local, organic, and similar consumption practices are not concrete. They are not nearly as rigid or fixed as the definition of vegan and they are actually somewhat nebulous. Different organizations define the terms differently and there is not enough consistency.
When talking about nonessetials like coffee or chocolate, people are really just drawing their lines where they want. One could easily argue that a true ethical consumer wouldn’t purchase coffee or chocolate at all, much less fair trade. Personally, I’ll buy the fair trade stuff, but I shouldn’t fool myself into thinking that’s acting ethically. That’s merely acting as a “responsible” consumer.
It’s very difficult to tackle all the issues all at once. I think it’s fair to expect most people to only adopt one new consumption practice at a time, not all together.
Sometimes these types of consumption practices conflict. For example, should you buy the fair trade milk chocolate or the non fair trade vegan chocolate? The true ethical choice would be neither. But sometimes it’s not chocolate, sometimes it’s something you really need, like a warm, winter coat. Should you buy the fur coat made by well-treated adults or the vegan coat made by child labor? I think it’s more ethical to buy the vegan item because the harm caused by nonvegan items is direct, that is, there is NO possible way to create a cruelty-free fur coat. Fur, by definition, is cruel because it is someone else’s skin. However, the vegan coat could be made by well-treated adults instead of child labor. The coat, itself, is not the issue. The issue is how the coat is made. (These, of course, are absurd hypotheticals, and you can usually just go to a second-hand store and absolve yourself of all these controversies.)
Veganism isn’t about consumption. Veganism is about not participating in animal use. It’s often about respecting animals’ interests and about abolishing their status as the property of humans. In this way, it’s important to recognize interlocking oppressions, but none of these oppressions, except veganism, can be solved through ethical consumption practices. Our consumption practices when it comes to fair trade or sustainability are more about us having clean hands than about actually ending oppression. Other types of activism is needed for that, which is why anti-racists aren’t usually just asking people to simply partake in a boycott, but animal rights activists are often simply encouraging veganism. If everyone went 100% vegan and refused to partake in animal use, animal oppression would end.

Ultimately, I think animal advocates should embrace other forms of activism and should partake in anti-racist and anti-imperialist activism. But mostly, when doing and fostering vegan activism, white vegans need to pay particular attention to people of color to include them, to listen to their voices and criticism, and to seek out the opinions and ideas of people of color, as well as people working for social change in other movements. Their experience and perspectives are vital and, when working towards the same goals,* can foster great change.

—
*Vegans should not necessarily listen to the perspectives of anti-vegans working for social change in other arenas. Anti-vegans are not our allies.

Posted by Elaine Vigneault | Filed Under Racism, veganism

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1 Trackbacks to “Anti-Racist Vegan Activism Part 3”

More on Race & Veganism, & a Question « Vegans of Color on April 20th, 2008 6:05 pm
[...] More on Race & Veganism, & a Question April 20, 2008 Filed under: Uncategorized — vegansofcolor @ 5:04 pm Tags: arab, jewish, race Elaine Vigneault has an interesting series on Anti-Racist Vegan Activism. There’s a reading list, & so far parts one, two, & three. [...]

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