Woke Anti-Veganism - video by Catherine Klein
Woke Anti-Veganism - video by Catherine Klein
Video essay by a fairly small youtube creator. She often addresses anti-vegan narratives.
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Most of the BIPOC people I know (I being a Vegan of almost 40 years now) consider Veganism to be a ab extension of colonialism and privilege.
I'm not sure where I stand with that sentiment though. On one side I think we've done enough shit to Indigenous folk that any form of asking/telling them to do something is going to be met with derision.
On the flip side I also know Vegan Indigenous folks.
I have never, ever seen a vegan telling indigenous people what they should eat. Ever. What I have seen are Euro-American carnists saying "Well, indigenous people eat meat, so it's okay for me to eat meat, too!" As if being a carnist shows solidarity with native peoples. It's gross.
This is something that annoys me a lot to be honest. Obviously, there are racist, colonialist vegans. It is a structural problem of western societies, and vegans aren't unaffected by that. Bringing it up and talking about these issues is important, but especially from non-vegans, it is often insinuated that these problems are somehow particular to vegans.
It is a huge distortion of the narrative. It is not the vegans asking indigenous people to stop eating meat, it is white people saying "ohh what about the indigenous" and use legitimate and important indigenous issues as an excuse to continue to consume animals and animal products.
This is what I keep seeing in leftist anti-vegan arguments. You take any of the social issues (racism, ableism, sexism, whatever) and use them to legitimize veganism as a movement. And this is rarely done because of sincere concern of these issues, it is nothing but a shell to try to make their opinions appear ethical. It feels hollow.
Beyond that, the intersection of carnism and colonialism is striking. The animals we eat, the rainforests that are burned down for animal feed, the environment we destroy through animal agriculture - that is an extension of colonialism. And now when Anti-colonialists are for some reason way more outspoken about veganism than they are about carnism, then they are pretty inconsistent in their own anti-colonial beliefs.
Not only is it a distorcion of reality, it's a argument that attempts to shut the discussion down. The "that's racist" argument asks for no rebuttal and prevents healthy discussion. But in essence, it's a "call to tradition" falacywith extra steps. Traditions are not inheritely good and bipoc people know that very well.