In the past few years I’ve tried to be a better ally to LGBTQIA and People of Color. In this way the vegan community has been frustrating. Aside from the local chapter of Food Not Bombs that feeds food to everyone who shows up, there doesn’t seem to be much to help people go and stay vegan. I had a conversation with someone from the Sacramento Vegetarian Society who didn’t have anything meaningful to say, they seem more interested in “Fat vs. Carbs” than in getting healthy food to people in need. People also seemed more concerned about a gorilla than they were about a toddler and his family who were villified in the media earlier this year. Instead of arguing that zoos are inherently dangerous for both animals and people, a lot of people were calling for the death of the boys mother. Do you think any people of color are going to read those kinds of horrible comments and jump at the chance to eat vegan?
There’s also the fact that “Thug Kitchen” a “ghetto” vegan book written by white people is significantly more well known than By Any Greens Necessary or Vegan Soul Kitchen both much better books written by people of color that I personally recommend.
This needs to change if we want to people to go vegan, because we are asking a lot of people to become a second, third or fourth kind of minority. That means we have to make veganism relavent to them. I try to be respectful by not refering to animal cruelty as “murder” or “slavery” because I don’t consider it murder or slavery. I consider it animal cruelty. So I no longer have “Earthlings” listed on my resources page, partly because of the slavery references, partly because a lot of people have seen it and I don’t think there’s a shortage of graphic video on the internet.
Below are links to other peoples’s sites and channels. If anyone has additional info others might find helpful please comment.
Dr. Breeze Harper http://www.sistahvegan.com
A Privileged Vegan http://www.youtube.com/user/Highonfuit1
vegsofcolor.tumblr.com
vegansofcolor.wordpress.com
Sac Veg 