I’ve heard many Jewish anti-Zionists express discomfort with the idea that opposing Zionism is inherently antisemitic because it implies that being Jewish requires supporting genocide. To them, that’s the truly antisemitic notion.
As a Black vegan, I feel the same discomfort when people claim that respecting animals is a “white” thing. That framing indirectly suggests that POC are more supportive of animal oppression than white people, which is, frankly, racist.
The truth is, every culture, white or otherwise, has been shaped by human supremacy. But if we’re talking more specifically about plant-based dieting, the cultures that have adhered to it as tradition the most are not white, e.g., religious tendencies like Jainism and Rastafarianism.
And let’s not forget who industrialized and globalized animal agriculture for maximum profit: colonizers. If anything, Western imperialism is what has exacerbated animal exploitation.
Literally all the ppl I’ve seen complain about white veganism or privileged vegans have been white. Like I’m sure there are plenty of POC making this claim, and as a white person I’ll sit and listen, but it feels overly silly for white carnists to make this.
I can’t stop repeating the claim that all the research I’ve seen shows that lower income people are more likely to go vegan, and rich people are less likely. Posh people are going to be more selfish. In my experience they don’t stick with veganism as well, and it’s more often tied to a short-term health fad.
Edit: I forgot the “black people are 3 times more likely to be vegan” headline. I think it says a lot that marginalised groups go vegan faster than the dominant social groups do.
Yeah, my poor, Black ass has been eating a lot of black/refried bean + vegetable tacos as of late… treats me well, and I can’t afford shit…
Also, as far as the thing about the POC calling veganism “white” or “privileged” goes, it’s more often than not still just as disingenuous as white non-vegans doing so. Trust me, the number who have called me “self-hating” and “racist,” falsely labeled me as “white” or “privileged” because of online anonymity, and accused me of “upholding white supremacy” simply because I unapologetically oppose animal oppression can’t even be entirely counted on both hands.
It’s good to listen to them, but you don’t have to take it seriously if their words are deeply unserious, honestly. It’s utter rubbish in most instances, similar to how a Zionist being Jewish doesn’t make them crying “antisemitism!” any more valid.
Anti-vegan POC remind me of a toxic trend that I feel like the left often ignores even in the context of human justice movements: acting like being marginalized automatically means you cannot be an oppressor, the false notion that being oppressed and an oppressor are mutually exclusive. Since I’m intersectional, I’ve seen this type of thinking exploited way too much in contexts like white women being racist, Black straight people being homophobic, and gay people being transphobic. People inadvertently end up giving it a pass because too many on the left think in this simplistic “oppressor or oppressed” false dichotomy that makes them scared to criticize these things, especially when the bigotry is more implicit. It’s the same thing with marginalized anti-vegans, but in this case, their oppression is directed at non-human animals instead.
That being said, there are absolutely white vegans who are racist, and I’ve interacted with them directly. However, the general rule of thumb that you can adhere to is, if the person complaining about a trend of vegans being racist is not both a POC and a vegan, it may be disingenuous. And even then, you can’t be entirely sure. I’ve heard vegans of color call certain things in the vegan movement “racist” that I wholeheartedly disagree with them on.
Another analogy I like to use is that non-vegan POC complaining about “white veganism” or “racist veganism” is on the same level as Candace Owens hypothetically complaining about “white feminism” specifically.
The majority of the world’s vegans are in India, so it’s really silly to think veganism is a “whites only” thing.
The majority of the world’s vegans are in India
Are they? Is that more or less weird given that India has the one of the largest dairy markets by total consumption?
These are not necessarily mutually exclusive
For sure, I just can’t decide if it makes more or less sense that a high-milk-consumption country would produce more vegans. I would have thought the the incredible popularity of vegetarianism there would maybe discourage that, but idk
Its lots of vegans cos its lots of people. India is huge at like 1.4 bil pop. Proportion of population that are vegans internet says 9%. So of course dairy consumption is gonna be huge for those in the non vegan camp…
India is also where the Jain religion comes from which
is veganencourages veganism and has vegan sects. Indian has a lot of different cultures so even though it is often thought of as a Hindu place which consumes dairy, there is a lot more diversity than is obvious from the outside.
