001.4 VEGANISM IS A WHITE THING
After years of laughing at perceived “ignorant” comments suggesting that being a plant-based eater was a result of having too much Caucasian influence, I am now convinced that many of those commenters were correct.
I had the privilege of hosting my second talk at CINCY Veg Fest last year. During this speech, I shared 30 minutes of research that spoke to the economic history of my hometown and how that history shed light on the political and social effects of who would be more willing/able to convert to veganism. In hindsight, sharing complex ideas for 30 minutes on a hot summer day in a park is a bit much and distracting from the main point. That point, though, was such a lightbulb moment for me, and I was excited to pass it along: our concept of veganism in the United States is carved by a privilege and cultural resonance that aligns with White vegans and White experiences only.
FOOD DESERTS & THE STRATEGIC PLACEMENT OF GROCERY STORES
My hometown of BondHill, Cincinnati was once a community of lush greenery and well-built brick and stone houses. As the community evolved into an overwhelmingly industrial area, with the addition of shopping centers and highways, White residents began to move to other areas. Simultaneously, more Black residents began moving in. The racial population of BondHill was eventually strategically curated as redlining and other racist real estate practices were employed to limit Black residents to the crumbling area. As the quality of BondHill declined, so did its economic state and the offerings available to all the Black people who lived there, such as grocery stores.
My talk went into depth on food deserts and other characteristics of impoverished neighborhoods that often coincide with them. But for the sake of brevity here, I’ll sum this concept up like this:
For decades, up until current times, BondHill residents have had to go to predominantly White neighborhoods, that have been coordinated and funded by the city to achieve the economic status needed to attract not one, but FIVE grocery stores who set up locations between 3 neighborhoods (and that’s not counting department stores that carry grocery-like items). By imagining a situation like this happening not just in Cincinnati, but across the US, it becomes easy to understand how complicated it can be to achieve a fully vegan or even just healthy diet based on accessibility alone. Add in wage gaps, which trickles into access to transportation, and how decades of only being able to afford certain foods develops into hard to abandon eating habits specific to the Black experience in America, it becomes obvious how mainstream Vegan culture was only speaking to people who could afford to buy vegetables.
AMERICA, HOW COME OVER HALF OF YOUR POPULATION CAN’T AFFORD TO EAT?
There isn’t a truer statement than this one that reflects the condition of our economy today; The whole country is struggling to nourish themselves. However this used to be an issue most prevalent among folks of a certain economic status or ethnic background. Sure, things have become increasingly expensive over time (the notorious pandemic didn’t help), and the minimum wage has barely moved in 10 years, but the connection between the price of Vegan/Vegetarian options and the money most Black Americans make has always been pretty bad. If you had a choice between walking up the street for a quick bite from the corner store or spending part of your weekly food money just to get you to the store because you didn’t have a car only to buy mock meats and veggies that are several dollars more expensive than conventional animal & chemical-derived products, which would you choose?
WE’RE JUST DIFFERENT
Veganism has been adopted by the Hippies, the peace-loving, the politically rebellious, and the extremely spiritual as a way of being inclusive of all living things when they speak on the right to live and breathe freely. For whatever reason though, the avenues that these lifestyles have taken haven’t attracted Black participants in large numbers. Probably because discrimination criminalized Black people for doing similar things (Martin Luther King and the ideals he stood for could be considered hippie-like and actually has been described as peace-loving, but he met a brutal demise). Or maybe even the fact that much of the Bluegrass, jazz, or experimental musical styles often associated with the Vegan community was directly influenced by Black artists, but has been greatly publicized as a Caucasian-only thing in the name of capitalism.
Needless to say, culturally, Black people are just different, and our struggles have been ridiculously impactful, shifting us in unplanned directions. We’ve often approached our spirituality and expression of unity in very flavorful, and oftentimes musical, ways. I’m not sure what it is, but it’s gotta feel cool or we’re not touching it, and the way mainstream Veganism has been expressed hasn’t met the cultural standards, I’m sorry.
I’m excited to be using To Be Vegan & Black as a tool to discover and push forward this generation Black Vegan culture. Soon enough, there will be more awareness of the issues all people face when approaching eating plant-based, and less elitism in all Vegan circles.
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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