Veganism and Backlash
As long as human supremacy exists, veganism will engender backlash. Veganism puts pressure on the system of human supremacy, and backlash represents speciesist resistance to loss of privilege and human supremacy. (Read more...)
Lead-Free Gun Violence
In a press release
today, the Center for Biological Diversity proclaimed, "Non-toxic
Bullets Will Help Prevent Condor, Eagle, and Human Poisonings." (Read more...)
Challenging the Structure of Nonhuman Oppression
In his book The Heart of Whiteness,
Robert Jensen succinctly describes the dynamic of oppression: "The
primary force that keeps white supremacy firmly in place is the
material and psychological gains that come to white people, which are
bolstered by an ideological support system." The same sort of
oppressive dynamic is behind human supremacy. (Read more...)
Speciesism: It's Only Human
As humans in a human-supremacist society we're all privileged and
socialized by those aspects of society that attribute value to humans
and humanness and devalue nonhuman animals. We're all privileged by the
systemic, institutional, and individual practices that exploit nonhuman
animals. This is speciesism, and we're all speciesists. (Read more...)
Recalling Missed Connections
About six years ago I co-organized a panel discussion on the
connections between domestic violence, child abuse, and animal cruelty.
The panel featured a professor of psychology distinguished for his work
on the subject; an executive director of an ecofeminist and animal
defense organization who founded a program addressing the issue being
discussed; and a staff member of the area YWCA (where the discussion was held) who worked on domestic violence issues. (Read more...)
Veganism, Privilege and Liberation
In 1947, at the 11th IVU World Vegetarian Congress, Donald Watson, representing the Vegan Society, gave a speech on veganism
where he said "that the vegan believed that if they were to be true
emancipators of animals they must renounce absolutely their traditional
and conceited attitude that they had the right to use them to serve
their needs. They must supply those needs by other means." (Read more...)
Making Veganism Whole Again
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, veganism was undermined by the
breakdown of its important relationship between theory and action. We
can actually trace this by looking at the publications of the Vegan
Society (UK) and the American Vegan Society (US). (Read more...)
Veganism, Allyship and Solidarity
I was going to reply in the comments section to Noah's critical response to my Veganism: Theory and Practice post, but the challenges he makes are too important. So I've decided he deserve a full post in response to what he wrote. (Read more...)
Reclaiming Veganism from the Margins
Like
other forms of alternative knowledge, veganism is "routinely ignored,
discredited, or simply absorbed and marginalized in existing
paradigms." This is the case with how veganism is often treated by
utilitarian and rights theorists. (Read more...)
Veganism: Theory and Practice
Veganism
is a revolutionary praxis. It is the reflective-action of
non-exploitation. Freire writes that, "if action is emphasized
exclusively, to the detriment of reflection, the word is converted into
activism" – that is, "action for action's sake." When some use the term "veganism" to denote a diet or consumer activity they are converting the word into action for action's sake. (Read more...)
Animal Protection and Capitalism
Expanding
on what I wrote yesterday, Orientalism and nationalism are not the only
oppressive ideologies that rely on protectionism. Capitalism is another
oppressive system that is shored up by the appeals of protectionism. (Read more...)
Animal Protection and White Supremacy
Maybe you've heard about Brigitte Bardot's anti-Muslims comments? People are debating whether the comments are racist, or sincerely based on animal protection. And there's some justified anger on the Vegans of Color blog. (Read more...)
Vision of a Plant-Based Food System
An Associated Press article, "Veganic farmers work without animal fertilizers, byproducts,"
on Don Bustos, of the Santa Cruz Farm in northern New Mexico's Espanola
Valley, provides an example of what the MCL aims can look like. There's
also a video on-line of Bustos talking about his farm and Merging Traditional Farming Production with Modern Technology. (Read more...)
Veganism, Food and the Global Economy
The Guardian published an excerpt, "Our diet of destruction," from Felicity Lawrence's book, Eat Your Heart Out: Why the Food Business Is Bad for the Planet and Your Health. The article touches on what I called the food-to-flesh conversion as it relates to the capitalist system. (Read more...)
The Assumption of Universal Whiteness
On the Vegans of Color blog, johanna posted about "Engaging" POCs in AR Work? in response to the program for an upcoming animal rights conference
that includes sessions on "Engaging Ethnic Minorities
(African-Americans, Latin Americans, Asian-Americans)"; "Commonality of
Oppression (commonalities of oppressing animals, children, women,
others)"; and "Engaging Other Movements (health, environment, hunger,
women, justice, peace movements)." (Read more...)
