One of the Sea Shepherd boats was rammed by a Japanese whaling vessel.
While I am not a particular fan of Sea Shepherd, this is a heinous event. However — I’m sure the rest of the vegan blogosphere will be talking about the event itself, so I’m not going to do that here.
I want to look at the reactions I’ve seen so far. One of the things most immediately apparent to me is the racism. It’s one thing to condemn the whalers for sinking the ship. It’s quite another to use language like “dirty Jap bastards” (offensive on two counts, how efficient!) repeatedly — as you can see on Facebook & other places. I’m just waiting for the Pearl Harbor references to start up. (EDIT: Someone suggests: “Would it be wrong of me to just straight out assault the jap consulate as he gets in his car to head over market and mission streets in San Francisco its time for some good old American Street Violence TL style” — lovely!)
Yet another reason why people of color may be put off by AR/vegan issues (it’s a real privilege to write off other issues as merely the “bruised feelings of some humans “; you can’t then be surprised if “some humans” want nothing to do with your offensive campaigns).
I’ve encountered this type of racism over and over again in the movement. It’s a shame. I used to think that if you extend your compassion past the species divide, you’ve already extended your compassion past the race divide. Not so. Thanks for blogging about this important issue!
Can I also point out the giggles had when I realized the Sea Shepherd has the initials SS? I noticed this in a comment I saw that said: “As much as I like SS this is war, shiitake happens.” Which for many reasons just made me think WWII.
Also the irony of animal abolitionist ship being called a “shepherd.”
Also, I’m never surprised about the racist things that pop up, what I am surprised about is how people don’t seem to think twice about saying “jap.” Again, I’m reminded of WWII. Maybe we fell into some sort of alternate universe.
Another giggle:
The Shepherd got rammed. Ha!
This all the way^^^^ …..then when you correct them they accuse you of being anti animal rights …….so to be an animal rights activist I have to put up with racism………..I think not
[...] It Doesn’t Take Much for the Racism to Come Out… | Vegans of Color "One of the things most immediately apparent to me is the racism. It’s one thing to condemn the whalers for sinking [an animal rights protest] ship. It’s quite another to use language like “dirty Jap bastards” (offensive on two counts, how efficient!) repeatedly — as you can see on Facebook & other places." (tags: racism veganism) Share and Enjoy: [...]
It is a sad truth that most single issue activists miss the intersectionality and interconnectedness of the various oppressions we as humans face. If you’re an environmentalist, or vegan, or anti poverty activist, or feminist, or anti-racism activist, you necessarily have to be almost all these things at the same time at all times! But, to be anti-racist as a white person, you need to give up some white privilege, to be a feminist as a male, you have to give up some gender privilege, etc. So it is not surprising that the overwhelmingly White world of animal activism does not understand White privilege, let alone want to give it up.
BEING IDEALISTIC,I WILL SAY RACISM WILL SURLY STOP ONE DAY…NOTHING EVIL LAST FOREVER
*SURELY*
Hi,
I’ve noticed that many militant vegans are just misfit misanthropists who hate humans, period, regardless of their race. Equal opportunity haters, basically. It’s a huge turn-off to the cause/issue of veganism.
[...] Condemns all of Japan for the country’s ‘scientific’ whaling program. [...]