001:2 VEGAN CULTURAL COMPASSION

Humans have an annoying ability to over complicate philosophical & spiritual beliefs through the insertion of individualistic thought processes and opinions. What could be a great thing for most is suddenly subdued to a good thing for some after a number of human intricacies are applied.

A few years prior to the founding of To Be Vegan & Black, I was scrolling through my Instagram feed, which featured several vegan profiles I was following at the time, when a post about compassion and how it is needed to truly live a vegan lifestyle caught my eye. The love of animals, and the recognition of them as living beings who feel emotion, feel love, and deserve to be free is a core belief of the lifestyle. This post pictured the typical piglet and chick combination we know so well from pro-vegan propaganda. Without thinking, I made my way to the deathtrap that is the comment section to explore other ’s opinions on the topic. 

I initially noticed that the pro-animal life argument was at the forefront, but was expressed in such a judgmental manner that showed a much higher value of animals’ life experiences than the value of understanding the life experiences of humans. Their rhetoric included anecdotes about how they’d cut off friends who refused to share their views and phrases rejecting excuses for not converting to Veganism punctuated by several exclamations. I secondly noticed the mostly white faces in the profile pictures of the commenters, whose profiles reflected an existence within a cultural microcosm that neither recognized nor understood anyone living outside of it. Not to mention that these pages that I followed rarely featured a face of color or the food desert crisis plaguing many Black & Brown communities, which greatly impacts a person's access to fresh plant-based food options. It’s easy to prioritize animals when survival isn’t your main focus.

I believe that animals are similar to humans on an emotional and spiritual level.

I know that this belief can lead down a number of different conversational paths when discussing actual interactions with animals, but regardless of whether you can ask them their favorite color or not, I believe you certainly shouldn’t eat them because of our similarities. However, to draw the boundaries of your compassion at bunnies and cows, and refuse to extend it to acknowledging why most white Americans can better afford organic plant-based options is a half-baked approach to me. It is understandable though, my research has led me to the theory that the modern Vegan movement was never meant to benefit or represent anyone outside of Caucasian Americans. As much as we’d like to believe it’s so, it isn’t only about food. Eating habits within the Black American community have been shaped by everything from slavery & racism, to redlining, to music &  pop culture. Much of Black food culture is political, before and after conversion, and unfortunately animals are the least of the Black community’s concerns.

I’ve used this perspective to not only inform Vegans of all walks of life on how to be compassionate overall, but to even inform specifically Black vegans, who hold a similar disdain towards members of their communities who “refuse to choose a healthier diet”. The rough talk avid vegans give to those who have yet to convert, or who may never choose to, is pretty insensitive when a detailed food-culture snapshot is examined. In all of the compassion talk there should be an added section about the psychology of human beings, and how heritage and political manipulation can affect it. The comfort of continuing habitual eating patterns is consistently confused with “refusal”, and places a pressure on those without knowledge or economic freedom that causes them to feel there’s no space for them in the Vegan world anyway. The whole thing is counterproductive, and doesn’t spread the beauty of Veganism at all.

What Do You Think?

As an activist in the Vegan community, I don't want to encourage a division among its members, which could counter many of the lifestyle's ideologies. There are some who would take this information and twist it into a mode of separation, which would be a whole different direction and besides the point. Conversations around culture and recognition/celebration of cultural differences should not be avoided. Being Black in America simply sets us apart from the White Vegan stereotype, and unfortunately there's nothing any of us can, or SHOULD, do about it. A part of what I want To Be Vegan & Black to represent is a culture for Black vegans that marks our past, present, and future culinary culture in a relevant way. Since no part of our history has been intertwined into the general Vegan image, it's only right that we take the time to cultivate our own and share it with the world.

As a vegan, how have you/can you show more compassion towards those who are of a cultural background that is unfamiliar to you? In the ways that animal compassion is discussed, how can we apply those same principles to productive conversations about compassion for humans as well, in spite of societal, racial, and political complexities? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

ABOUT NAIMAH

Naimah is a 25+ year vegan model, designer, and artist after being converted to the lifestyle at only 2 years old by her parents. Growing up she was taught to prepare meals using whole foods and plant-based meat substitutes, and was educated on the variety of benefits and motivations behind having a vegan diet. Her ways of eating sparked conversations with her peers in adulthood, leading Naimah to become interested in exploring the boundlessness of vegan cuisine.

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