Look at the image below, and then answer the question that follows.
Is this meme:
a) racist
b) sexist
c) not appropriate for the vegan movement
d) all of the above
e) none of the above
Think carefully now.
You answered correctly (as I knew you would!), if you said: e) none of the above.
The scary part though is that this meme received a lot of negative feedback with different vegans chiming in that it was, in fact, sexist, or racist (because there's no such thing as white privilege), or not appropriate (why can't we just focus on the animals?) for the vegan movement. Wow, is all I can say. Okay, I CAN say more, snort.
Patriarchy is very much alive, despite the claim by some that equality between the sexes has already been achieved (right, what planet are they living on?), and despite the insistence by the men's rights movement that men are the real victims now, and even a minority, thanks to uppity man-hating feminists. (Did you see the eye roll?)
Others took great offence to the second line, because white privilege, apparently, is complete bullshit. And a figment of the imagination. Astonishingly, even some people of colour deny the existence of white privilege, adding that they enjoy more privilege than that of some of their white friends. But I think what can contribute to this confusion is a) not being clear enough on what white privilege actually means, and b) getting it mixed up with class privilege. For example, you can be white but not feel privileged because you grew up poor. An article that explains this really well is one titled Explaining White Privilege to a Broke White Person. A link in that article doesn't work (at least, it didn't for me), so here's a look back at a previous post of mine that does link to Peggy McIntosh's piece, as well as a few others. Oh, and at a follow-up post as well.
The not-appropriate-for-the-vegan-movement line ties in to the All Lives Matter debacle. Now, to give vegans proponents of this slogan the benefit of the doubt, of course all lives matter in a general sense, and the whole thrust of veganism is respecting all sentient beings. But the problem with countering the Black Lives Matter slogan with the All Lives one is that, among other things, you're negating the real issue of racism. It is, if you're aware of the importance of intersectionality, offensive. And here it can get a bit dicey. Because while all types of oppression are similar (the root being power imbalance), you can't casually compare sexism, racism, speciesism and/or other isms as if they're all the same. There ARE nuances, different experiences, and one of the easiest ways to conceptualize this is with the following image that I first saw on veganelder's blog, who by the way, is doing a lot of thinking and writing about these not-always-easy-to-fully-comprehend issues.
No, we're at a point where vegans need to better understand how these different but similar oppressions interact and reflect a fundamental power imbalance, and listen more closely to those with direct experience of those oppressions. Otherwise, tackling single isms isn't going to get any being very far.
This is a great post and the more thought I put into it, the more tricky it actually is. I think because of fence-sitters, things get sticky sometimes simply because our species IS so focused on (sometimes subconsciously) and entrenched in ideas/behaviors/characteristics that a fence-sitter about being Esther Approved (vegan) could actually be subtly or not so subtly influenced by things like tying it all together. It seems like tying it all together 'should' only be for 'advanced' minds. I mean, even the term vegan, which we've written about before...that already just as a simple word can turn someone off, fence-sitter or not. The sad fact is that because of the nature of our species, even well-intentioned ideas - facts - can hurt the movement to include our fellow beings as "one of us".
I still think that organized religion is to blame for most of these things, but that's a whole other mess and another one that is too inflammatory to be super helpful to us Friends of Esther. :) (I almost can't even write the word vegan anymore after loving and becoming used to Esther Approved). I guess I can't really speak for the other Friends of Esther who had strong reactions against the meme, but I do think that fence-sitters (I doubt anyone not on the fence would bother to even take notice) can get in a mental jam over putting all of that together. Sigh. We're quite a piece of work, humanity, aren't we? But thank goodness that there are enough of us to at least give a voice to and a chance for better things to come for all!
Glad to see you got a chance to post again! I hope your weather has cooled down. It's still been a tough summer here. :( I so hate summer. Snort!
Speaking of summer, last year when Spike started doing so bad in the heat and I looked it up, I guess it was an El Nino year and that meant this summer would be worse. Not sure if I'm remembering that correctly.
The best guess I can come up with about why "combining" all these forms of oppression is even difficult within the Esther Approved community is that many of us see it as "us versus them" as a whole. It would take a lot of thought to make the connection between it all, but human beings have been given the ultimate privilege by virtue of nothing other than out species and our species as a whole so absolutely does not deserve or respect or even recognize this privilege...maybe it's just sort of a "blah" feeling about what our fellow groups within our species go through. Wow - that made sense in my head until I tried to write it out. But there also are those of us who actually feel more like we belong in a group of another species. For example, I feel like I have way more in common with dogs, cats, birds than I do with my species as a whole, not friends like you and family...but with very few exceptions, I know I'm more like the dog tied outside the store that I see and communicate with than with the shoppers, cashiers, etc. But...that dog, will never ever have the same privilege that I do based on my species and so by that alone, regardless of how I feel...I still have it better in life than the ones I feel closest to. Maybe that's a good analogy to help folks understand the other paradoxes. I guess that to combine it all and put it in that context is too much for many of our fellow humans.
And once again I go on a ramble! You'd be surprised how much sense things make in my head and then when I'm writing I realize, I don't think I'm communicating this well at all!!! This was a very thought-provoking post. I'm wondering if there will be a good way to maybe one day get the point across. It will take another Esther to do it though, I bet! :) Or one of her "approved" ones. ;)
Thank you for writing this. (and thanks for linking to my blog)
One of the most profound things I've learned in the past couple of years is how often trying to do a "good" thing in one instance ends up contributing to a bad thing somewhere else. Let's say I live vegan...I eat plants...but...I buy some of those plants from a store and that store acquires the plants they sell from a corporation that runs "farms" that exploits their workers.
Whee...I'm doing "good" by not harming animals...but I'm adding to the profits of those who engage in harmful practices toward humans. Hmmm...I didn't mean to do that.
(the Food Empowerment folks recognize this and work to promote veganism as well as trying to interrupt bad behaviors in those who furnish food for vegans. http://www.foodispower.org/)
And...maybe that farm also does things that harm rivers and streams which in turn poisons wild animals. See what I mean? It's all connected and just picking out one aspect of it in which to "do good" also means I may, inadvertently, contribute to doing harm somewhere else. It makes my head hurt.
But...ya gotta start somewhere...right? Of course...but...if I think I can stop with just that one thing and be a "good person"...whoops...it doesn't seem to work that way. I wish to hell it did...then I could live vegan and sit on the couch and feel good about myself.
It seems to me we are seduced into playing this game where we can maybe pick which victims of harm we want to help...but...in those efforts to help we perpetuate or engage in unintended harm to other victims. That's ridiculous.
I'm wanting to figure out the game and do what I can to interrupt it instead of playing pick the victim(s). I'll live vegan...but I don't want to live as a vegan who does harm while trying to help. It's up to me to do the hard work of trying to grasp the bigger picture.
That's a pain in the ass...and...I didn't create this stuff but I have an obligation to try to stop it. I suspect maybe we all have that obligation.
One ray of hope I console myself with is that we humans created these systems of harm...and that means if we made them...we can unmake them. Maybe not soon...or easily...but it can be done.
Hi Friend,
One of the first books I read after becoming vegan is DR Will Tuttle's, The World Peace Diet. It is here that I learned about connectedness of our actions and their impact on the world at large. He says that until we stop taking in the violence that is inherent in ingesting the flesh and secretions of other animal species, humans will know no peace on this planet. We will continue to create other species abuse and extinction. war, poverty, injustice in all its forms, starvation, and planet and human health degradation.
Enlightenment is possible but not guaranteed, only when we stop paying for the death inherent in consuming other living, sentient beings.
Patriarchy is a construct of our herding culture which developed some 10 thousand years ago in Iraq. In order to continue subjugating and manipulating female non human animals for profit, profiteers needed to subjugate the feminine Sophia, thus giving rise to the modern day patriarchy.
Yes everything is connected. When we advocate for the emancipation of all species trapped in our various death for profit industries, we must recognize and advocate for the end to all forms of oppression.
Take care,
Anne