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[Guest guest]

Hello everybody. I am writing an article for an anarchist publication out of

Southern California about veganism and how it pertains to race/class/gender

privilege. I am coming from the angle that it is very difficult for many people

to focus on problems outside of their own lives because of constraints that are

put on them. For example, people in the animal rights community wonder why we

do not have many people of color among our ranks. From the people I have talked

to and the observations that I have made, I have learned a great many things

about this issue. The primary one being that white males are encouraged to

express individuality, this is why we have so many white males getting into

vegetarianism. It is socially acceptable for them to express themselves about a

subject and in a manner that is outside of the norm. For people of color who

are already outside of the norm and who are punished for that through constant

slanderings in Amerikkkan film and other forms of media (not to mention immense

police repression), it is much more difficult to stand out from society. This

holds especially true when they are joining a movement that sees objectification

of womyn, racist/culturally biased remarks, and other forms of oppression as

being acceptable to bring about victories their cause.

 

I am writing about this partially because I have observed a lot of the

following coming from the animal rights community (primarily from more

mainstream activists and organizations, but also from more grassroots groups as

well): racist/culturally biased stereotyping (in judging of dietary practices of

other cultures, especially indigenous peoples), blatant sexism (in portrayal of

womyn as well as in male dominated organizational practices), and classism (as

can be seen in conferences and get-togethers with mandatory admission prices in

excess of $100). It is because of these things that we have so few people

involved in animal rights activism... We are forcefully excluding people. To add

to this point, I have noticed that many animal rights organizations and

individuals involved in these organizations tend to be very much into single

issue politics, yet they expect people from other movements to drop what they

are doing to help out with AR activism. This is why people consider AR to be a

" wingnut " movement.

 

Please keep in mind that this is not being written to bash the AR community

as a whole, but rather to offer some healthy criticism and hopefully get some

people to wake up and realize the problems with our movement (and to change them

ASAP!).

 

If anybody has any comments in regards to this subject (on either side of

the argument), please feel free to send them to me at BeARobot (Im on my

girlfriends e mail right now). Im looking forward to hearing from some of you!

 

Love and liberation!

Geoffrey