Why fewer black people are vegan

[Joe]

To be honest, I personally do not like to use the Holocaust analogy, not only because it can be seen as insulting, but also as it is IMO wrong. The Nazis did not want to "use" Jews, they wanted to "exterminate" them, kill them and eradicate them from the face of the earth.

I'm afraid I disagree. The concentration camps were work camps as well as death camps. The Nazis wanted to work them to death.

Slave owners, on the other hand, did not harbor any ill will towards their slaves. Many are reported to have treated their slaves "compassionately", they simply wanted to use them and did not think that they did matter morally. For that reason, IMO the slavery of people of colour has very many similarities to the slavery of nonhuman animals.

I again have to disagree. Read a book on slavery like Bullwhip Days.

The treatment of slaves by their masters runs the gamut. Many masters did treat their slaves decently. But many others were hideously and irrationally cruel to them.

 

[Andy_T]

@Amy SF and @Joe

I still think that slave owners did not want to kill off coloured people, just like owners of factory farms do not want to kill off animals.

The Nazis, on the other hand, did want to kill off Jewish people, but they wanted to do it in the most profitable way. There is quite a difference in that.

And to put one thing very clear, I wrote the word "compassionately" about the treatment of slave owners of their slaves that way, as I do NOT think that any slave owner was ever truly compassionate, just like no dairy or meat farmer ever is. I wanted to show the similarity to todays claim of "compassionate" agriculture, which is a farce.

 

[beancounter]

So what do Nazis and slave owners have to do with the lack of vegan blacks?

 

[Amy SF]

@Amy SF and @Joe

I still think that slave owners did not want to kill off coloured people, just like owners of factory farms do not want to kill off animals.

The Nazis, on the other hand, did want to kill off Jewish people, but they wanted to do it in the most profitable way.

Um, are you sure about that?

 

[Andy_T]

Um, are you sure about that?

I am quite sure that they act out of financial motives, and do not want to eradicate animals for reasons of ideology.
That is what I mean with "Kill off" (as opposed to simply "kill")

Yes, if they raise animals for meat, of course they are definitely clear that they want to kill the specific animals they raise for their meat, leather and other substances, as they can not get those any other way, but they want to keep a certain amount of animals ("livestock") to continue doing so, and actively breed them.

 

[Amy SF]

So what do Nazis and slave owners have to do with the lack of vegan blacks?

I think it goes back to American black history and culture. Because blacks for centuries had so little in the way of decent food, they had to make do with whatever they had. That's why, for example, they use every part of the pig from tail to snout in their cooking. I guess they tend to see a meatless diet as too extreme and unhealthy and blacks who won't eat meat are denying their heritage or something.

 

[Andy_T]

Yes, that is an often heard argument, but IMO it does not hold much more truth than the same argument that is made for most other ethnic groups (Germans eat all kinds of meat, Polish do love their sausages, you can not imagine Japanese kitchen without fish and so on).

Let's face it, people of all colours and nations like to eat animals because they taste good and they always did it, and they will find arguments to justify it.

 

[beancounter]

So the answer is that it's a combination of culture and education. I think the cultural aspect could have something to do with machismo, but you could argue that it exist in other cultures.

Veganism may just be seen as a " White thing". Also historical poverty may come into play.

Regardless, I doubt that Nazi's or factory farmers have anything to do with the lack of black vegans.

 

[Second Summer]

Here's an interview with Dr A. Breeze Harper who was mentioned in the article in the OP:
Why veganism has everything to do with race (22. Sept. 2016)

She doesn't really say anything about why there are fewer black vegans in the interview, but she's written a book (an anthology) about veganism and black females (Sistah Vegan: Black Female Vegans Speak On Food, Identity, Health, and Society), and is working on a second book about veganism and black males (Gs Up Hoes Down: Black Masculinity, Veganism, and Ethical Consumption (The Remix)).

 

[Joe]

Here's an interview with Dr A. Breeze Harper who was mentioned in the article in the OP:
Why veganism has everything to do with race (22. Sept. 2016)

I'm sorry, but I found what she had to say in the interview incomprehensible.

 

[Second Summer]

I'm sorry, but I found what she had to say in the interview incomprehensible.

Ah, glad to hear it wasn't just me! This part seems clear enough, though:

At the same time, the vegan mainstream literature was very ‘post-racial’ and didn’t engage with the realities of choice and socio-economic class when it comes to how ‘easy’ it is to go vegan, i.e. access to food, food apartheid, lack of transportation, etc.

(Food apartheid?)

 

[MadamSarcastra]

Veganism Is Being Redefined in Black Communities

 

[Skylark]

One of the most engaging thinkers on oppression of humans of color and oppression of non-human animals who I have had the privilege of meeting is Christopher Sebastian McJetters, who is a queer black man. Aside from being super fabulous and dynamic, he crystalized for me the huge overlap between white supremacy and human supremacy.

Here's one blog post Christopher wrote on the topic of this thread: Animal Rights and the Language of Slavery

 

[Second Summer]

Here's one blog post Christopher wrote on the topic of this thread: Animal Rights and the Language of Slavery

I'm not sure it explains why fewer black people are vegans, but it was an interesting read in any case.

 

[Andy_T]

I would like to point out that the author of the original article, Nzinga Young, is a black vegan. I have heard a very informative interview with her on the ArZone podcasts and I don't read the article in the sense that she is really arguing that there are no black vegan people (that would be quite easy to disprove), just that to "sell" veganism to black folks, activists possibly need to use a different approach (In the interview she also explains that she - and other vegans of color - had issues both with racism within "the movement" and, on the other side, with the accusation from people of color that trying to convince them to go vegan was somehow racist in itself).

I would even say that - like in all other demographies - veganism among black people has developed recently, and there are great ressources like Welcome now. Also - so what if there are fewer black vegans still? Some decades ago, there were very few vegans at all, it's growing...

Try to do your best to stand up to racism, sexism, homophobia amd other bad stuff in the vegan and other emancipation movements (which unfortunately does exist) in order to improve the situation.

 

[Skylark]

I'm not sure it explains why fewer black people are vegans, but it was an interesting read in any case.

Fine, it addresses one of several topics discussed here.

 

[Jinendra Singh]

More: Here's Why Black People Don't Go Vegan (20. May 2016)

well we need to encourage black people for veganism, through this article i understand that we can't blame thay are following there ancestors footprint the white also had the same impact on nature, in fact, they have given worst to nature as black always ethical about nature they were; lives in the forest in tribes and always protected the forest and white invaded their forest and for there profit they used forest resources and filled there pocket