Queers & AR: New Anthology Seeking Submissions July 9, 2008

I am so excited about this! pattrice jones recently posted a call for proposals for a new anthology to be called Coming Out for Animals: Queering Animal Liberation:

What do queer liberation and animal liberation have to do with each other? How does the construction of homosexuality as both “unnatural” and “bestial” hurt both people and animals? How are speciesism and heterosexism interrelated and how do they fit into the matrix of race-sex-class oppression? Why have both homosexuality and veganism been dismissed as “white things” beside the point of real liberation struggles? What are we going to do about homophobia among straight-edge vegans? About those dreadful gay rodeos? Should we be arguing for pleather or against sexual practices that mimic the subjugation of animals? What’s so sexy about whips, chains, and choke collars anyway? What do hip hop “video vixens” and activist “vegan vixens” have in common beyond the performance of animality for the heterosexual male gaze? How does vivisection hurt people with AIDS? Why, within the USA, are both the queer and animal liberation movements less diverse than they should be but portrayed as more white than they are? Why do queer activists in Uganda but animal activists in the USA bear the brunt of police suppression in their respective countries? Are they similarly subversive of “cultural” practices that turn out to be critical to the maintenance of state power? What keeps many gay men in the animal liberation movement from coming out? Why are so many lesbian potlucks vegetarian and what does this mean in the era of FBI infiltration of the vegan potluck?

The proposal deadline is August 30, with the deadline for accepted chapters on December 31. pattrice is editing this anthology along with Kim Stallwood & Olivia Lane.

Perhaps someone will write a piece about the appropriation of “pride” by veg*ns!

Heading back “home” July 7, 2008

I’m an adopted Korean.  There are an estimated 150,000 of us spread across the USA and another 50,000 or so in Europe, Canada or Australia.  I am one of the many who grew up in Minnesota.  But now, as I enter my 30s I am moving back to the country I was born in.  I leave in 3 days.  I’ll spend a few weeks in Europe and then at least a year, if not more in Seoul, South Korea.  I’m really excited!

One of the major areas of concern, as always with traveling outside of my comfort zone here in Minneapolis is finding vegan-friendly food, clothing, products, etc.  I don’t speak or read enough Korean yet to surf Korean websites with ease to find these places, but I am pretty sure that I can find some of these types of products.  South Korea, though known for it’s grilled meat restaraurants and for eating dog does have some vegan-friendly restaurants and I know from my first trip back in 2005, they even sell vegan ice cream at some of their more specialty grocery stores.  So if desperately craving, I know I’ll find something there.  Maybe not as much as I do here at my favorite co-op in Minneapolis, but still…

I spent a year living in southern semi-rural China a few years ago and there were NO vegan options outside of rice and green veggies.  And often, at least where I was located they added bits of meat to nearly all the dishes, even the tofu ones.  I guess I assumed that with the potential for lactose-intolerance it would be rare to see so much dairy, but sure enough, most corner stores sold tons of dairy ice cream and other dairy desserts.  I made it through that year, but being a vegan living where I did in China was difficult.

Now returning to my Korean roots and to a much larger city – Seoul I’m not so worried…but maybe just a little bit.  Most people assume that it’ll be extremely difficult to live in Korea since their perception is that Korean food is just a lot of barbecued meat and tons of seafood, but I am going with the hope that with extra effort I can find the tasty and healthy vegan food, which really is just how most Koreans ate for centuries anyway.  Lots of fresh vegetables, hardly any dairy if at all, tofu, etc.  As South Korea became more westernized, more and more meat and fast-food chains were introduced to the culture.

Also, I am definitely going to explore the temple vegan food there, derived from the Buddhist way of life and maybe even learn more on how to cook it at at home.  While eating out seems to be relatively inexpensive and convenient for most Seoulites, I’m going to try and learn how to cook some of the healthy veggie dishes of Korea. 

On more than one occassion I’ve heard fellow Korean adoptees claim I cannot get a “real” experience in my birthcountry if I “cannot” eat meat or seafood.  It’s the mentality that in order to get a “true” cultural experience, one has to sacrifice being a vegan.  It’s this aspect of being a vegan that tends to be most difficult for me – dealing with everyone else’s reaction and judgements.  Learning to cook Korean vegan food likely won’t be difficult at all – it truly is a country with amazing roots, vegetables, etc.  Sure, sitting around dead smoking meat is a very social experience and a time when friends bond and enjoy each other’s company, but that does not mean I cannot have a “real” Korean experience in my birth country.

As both a vegan and a Korean adoptee, I have found that people want to tell me what my experience is.  As a vegan I am told how limiting my diet is and as a Korean adoptee I am told how lucky I am to have not grown up in an orphanage, etc. I have heard these statements more than I can count now.  I realize that in going back to Korea and embarking on this journey I will need to stay strong and remind myself daily that I DEFINE and choose how I go about this life as both a vegan and an adoptee…no matter where I live.

Explaining Racism to White Veg*ns & Speciesism to Non-Veg*n POCs July 5, 2008

I’m seeking links to useful resources of two types, basically the two main intersections from which this blog was born: firstly, resources on racism geared towards getting white people to recognize their own privilege, which could be used by white vegans; & secondly, resources on speciesism/veg*nism that speak to people of color, meaning that they come at speciesism from a racialized perspective. It’d be great to have a compilation of resources available on this blog.

For the former, I’ve found useful Peggy McIntosh’s essay “Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”. In my experience & the experience of many, many others, sometimes white people just won’t listen to what people of color (POCs) have to say about racism — because we’re biased or have an agenda or something, har har — & in those cases, sometimes I’ve had good results with McIntosh. My other favorite recommendation is “Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?”: And Other Conversations about Race by Beverly Daniel Tatum, a woman of color. It is an amazing book, & highly recommended.

Of course there are dozens of blogs & websites that folks could look at (the myriad posts for International Blog Against Racism Week, for starters, not to mention the blogroll of this site), but occasionally it is helpful to be able to recommend one article or book as a place to begin.

For the veganism/AR thing, I must say that I’ve never read anything about why I should be a vegan or why I should be in favor of AR that spoke to me as a POC. Quite the opposite, in fact; a lot of writing on veganism I’ve found alienating when it comes to issues of race (some of these instances are written up on this blog). The closest I’ve come is a conversation with a Chicana friend several years ago, where she noted that in some countries, the indigenous, pre-colonial culture was much, much more plant-based, & it was only when the white colonialists came in that this began to change. I know that some POCs have been moved by the comparisons to the enslavement of African Americans; I also know that many POCs have been alienated from vegan issues by such comparisons.

So. Thoughts? I am particularly interested in hearing from POCs on what has worked for them on both counts, although hearing from white folks on specific pieces that woke them up to racism would be useful. But I especially don’t want this to turn into a bunch of comments from white vegans on what “should” persuade POCs to become vegan. On the other hand, well, that would be a timely demonstration of white privilege, wouldn’t it?

A Few Links: Black Veg*ns; PETA’s Race Problem (Again) July 4, 2008

Blackvegetarians.org has an interview up with Kristin Candour & Tashee Meadows, founders of a group called Justice for All Species, a group “of people of color with the mission of providing resources to communities of color to promote a vegetarian diet and a harmonious relationship with humans, fellow species and the earth we share.”

Both Candour & Meadows find useful the comparison of nonhuman animal exploitation with slavery, something I am not comfortable with; Meadows did add an interesting comment on the issue:

However, I am concerned about who is not being compared to animals. When the comparisons made by animal rights groups focus solely on communities that have been “treated like animals,” read Blacks, Women and Jews, the chance of white men, often the architects of such systems, being compared to other species is rare. This leaves them in a class unto themselves, and may unwittingly reinforce an existing hierarchy of oppression.

Dani at The Vegan Ideal gives us thoughts on PETA’s targeting of people of color street vendors in LA, written about here. Dani highlights an important point:

In a society built on white supremacy and capitalism, people of color, especially those who work on the street, make easy targets. Molyneux notes that if the PETA volunteer had harassed a rich white man, say one who owns a meat packing plant that exploits both workers and nonhuman animals, the volunteer might end up in jail. However, by targeting people of color working on the street the same volunteer has all the support of the institutional racism and classism, including the LAPD.