“How do you like Germany so far? I mean, you’re Black”: On [Anti-]Racism and Food Erotica January 2, 2013

Breeze Harper, 2012 New Years Eve at a club in München. Failed afro attempt. Ended looking like a ‘poodle.’ The Afro just wouldn’t stay up. LOL.

On December 30, 2012, I went to one of the few cafes open on Sunday in Germany. The manager tried to speak to me in German, but I failed big time and answered in Spanish. I do this weird thing that when I’m spoken to in German,  I respond in Spanish 50% of the time. Weird, no? Talk to me in Spanish and I will respond in English 50% of the time. Anyway, I digress…

…The manager ended up speaking to me in Spanish and English. After a few minutes of chatting about where I learned Spanish and what I am doing in Germany, he bluntly said, “How do you like Germany so far? I mean, [because] you’re Black.” I replied that I get stared at all the time, but I’m still enjoying myself. He folded his arms and shook his head, “Germany is full of Nazis once you leave the metropolitan [München] area. They are racists.” He shook his head, “I don’t really like it [here in Germany]. I don’t have a problem with anybody, black, white, whatever, but they do.” I have to admit that this is the first time I have encountered someone living in München, during my trip, who  offered to share this particular interpretation of Germany with me. I couldn’t agree or disagree with him about Germany being ‘full of Nazis’, as I have only spent most of my time in the metropolitan area. I told him that I get stared at in the USA all the time, once I leave most cities and enter mostly white areas, so my Germany experience is not a surprise for me. I was unable to read his ethnicity, but he  did not ‘pass’ as white– or, rather, how I have come to define ‘whiteness’, which is in the USA socio-historical context. He had an olive complexion and black hair.

Yesterday, someone commented on my post about my Tollwood experience, wishing that my in-laws move somewhere in which I would feel ‘at home’ versus a ‘racialized other.’ I appreciated their concern about me not feeling as comfortable or ‘at home’ as I should be in predominantly white spaces, but in my opinion, my in-laws shouldn’t have to move anywhere for me (or anyone else who doesn’t look like the ‘tribe’ of a particular region) to feel ‘at home.’ I would like to see that my in laws ‘stay’ and that Germany’s white collective consciousness continue to ‘move’ more forward, towards a creation of an unconditional love for all people who exist in these [socially constructed] borders of the German nation. Let’s remember: Germany has come a long way since the era of nationalized and institutionalized white supremacist Nazism. The mere fact that I can travel to here, get around the city, and be alive at the end of the day is an indication of a ‘move’ of national consciousness. But I am still really thinking about the cafe manager’s brief conversation with me and his strong use– maybe even inflammatory (?)– of the phrase, “Germany is full of Nazis….” Actually, in tandem with this, I think this about my own homeland: “USA is full of white supremacists who have no problem publicly displaying their enragement about the POTUS being non-white.” Fresh in my mind is the Facebook page that depicts Obama being lynched, with the caption “Rope”, instead of “Hope”with the sentence, “Hang the bastard.”

But, I am hopeful. The other day, while waiting for the S Bahn (subway train) at Rosenheimer platz , I saw an advertisement on one of the many widescreen monitors they have on the subway walls. Portrayed was a ‘brown’ man accidently bumping into someone at a biergarten. He trips and accidently touches the shoulder of a white woman sitting down. The white man across from her becomes very angry and violent that this ‘brown’ man touched her. He grabs the brown man and is about to beat him up. The image freezes and then pans out to show that all of Germany is watching and will NOT tolerate such racialized and violent responses/behaviors to this ‘brown’ man’s sincere mistake. I didn’t know this was going on until the captions were translated for me. Has anyone else seen these ads? I have been trying to search for them on the Internet all morning.

Food Erotica!!!!!

On New Year’s Eve, I visited a shopping center dedicated to edible yumminess. My end goal was the new vegan shoppe called Boonian. Not all the photos below are from Boonian. The first ones are from Boonian. I spoke with the founder and he is from South Dakota, USA. I ended up eating a seitan sandwich and broccoli salad for lunch.

Sandwich: Seitan yumminess from Boonian.

And array of vegan wines offered by Boonian….

And wishing these were vegan……

Angela Davis on eating chickens, Occupy, and including animals in social justice initiative of the 99% March 3, 2012

I asked Angela Davis about extending compassion beyond humans as part of social justice and making Occupy Movement successful.

I got to ask her my question about something she alluded to in her keynote, that sounded like she is pro-vegan and anti-speciesist. My husband video recorded my question and the answer she gave me. I felt silly that I didn’t have a copy of Sistah Vegan on me so she could have that reference! ARGGGHHH!!!

And yes, I mispronounced her name… but I was nervous dammit! I mean, it’s not like everyday I get to ask one of my top critical feminist theorists a question!

Sad Livestock in the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant No-Entry Zone- another victims of the disaster January 13, 2012

“The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated”- it is a MahatmaGandhi’s quote.   If Gandhi saw how the livestock in Fukushima have been treated, he would judge us as a heartless nation.

On May 12, 2011, Prime Minister Kan (Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters) ordered the Fukushima Governor to euthanize the remaining livestock in the 20km no-entry zone. Since livestock are someone’s property, Fukushima prefecture has to obtain permission from the owners of the livestock when euthanizing. The decision was made based on the Act on Special Measures Concerning Nuclear Emergency. The method of euthanazia should comply with the ones set forth in the guidelines of OIE (The World Organization for Animal Health) and American Veterinary Medical Association (The AVMA). Based on that, the Japanese government uses drugs like tranquilizers and muscle-relaxants to euthanize the animals. There is no humane way of killing, animals always faint in agony before given any of these drugs that definitely put them to death.

The officials of Fukushima government stated that “these livestock does not have any market value. By destroying them, livestock farmers can start a new life.”  Animals are property of people. Livestock does not have any value other than as “products.”

According to Yomiuri Newspaper, issued on April 24 2011, there were 4,000 cattle, 30,000 pigs, 630,000 chickens and 100 horses in the 9 effected villages in Fukushima. Most of the pigs and chickens had died by last summer.

Yomiuri newspaper reports that 80% of cattle in the affected areas still remain trapped in the 20 km no-entry zone, as of October 20, 2011. Some of them were abandoned and left to their own devices, while others left locked enclosures to suffer slow death. Those that have been abandoned are being described by Yomiuri, as “invading people’s property.”

These animals are also the victims of human’s arrogance and neglect. They are dying through no fault of their own and in a very sad irony the enslaved creatures who through this terrible event gained their freedom for brief time, are slaughtered in the end, none the less.  They are guilty of nothing other than being non-human.

<references>

OIE:

http://www.oie.int/index.php?id=169&L=0&htmfile=chapitre_1.7.6.htm

AVMA:

http://www.avma.org/

Yomiuri Newspaper “野良牛　捕獲１割未満 警戒区域の民家被害” Nov.10, 2011:

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/national/news/20111109-OYT1T01023.htm?from=tw

*******************************************

SALA Network is an animal shelter located in Tokyo. The volunteers go up to Fukushima to feed stray livestock and abondaned dogs and cats. They have pictures and are collecting petitions.

http://www.salanetwork.or.jp/e_index.html

Black Vegan Mammy-ism: Sacrificing My Emotional Health for the Vegan Status Quo July 14, 2011

In this video I talk about how I struggle with not being a “mammy” when it comes to accommodating the emotional needs of particular white vegans who do not extend mindfulness to me when they talk to me about ‘their’ post-racial view of veganism.

Here is a useful article to read to understand more about what I mean by “mammyism” . I don’t agree with a lot in this article, but it does give a basic premise of mammyism:

Abdullah, Afi Samelia. “Mammy-Ism: A Diagnosis of Psychological Misorientation for Women of African Descent.” JOURNAL OF BLACK PSYCHOLOGY 24, no. 2 (1998): 196-210.

Milk: the new PMS panacea July 13, 2011

As if we didn’t need any more evidence that the animal product industry is an intrinsic element of the perpetuation of male supremacy.  This is actually an update of an ad from 2005 which featured pathetic looking men jamming into a grocery store lines, their arms occupied by multiple milk cartons.  I’m tempted to write a rather long treatise on the various social implications of this ad campaign, but I’m inclined to think that the pictures and links will speak for themselves.

If you’re interested in feeling further offended here’s the mini-site for the campaign:

http://www.everythingidoiswrong.org/#/

 

White male vegan paternalism: Or, on how to offend Black Veg*n Reiki Community June 21, 2011

In this video I speak about how white male middle-class paternalism ended up offending and upsetting an African American practitioner of vegetarianism and Reiki. This video is an example of how white middle class paternalistic rhetoric becomes an impediment when communicating with “other” communities that don’t fit into the racial-class-gender status quo’s conception of ‘logical healing systems’ or ‘morality.’ I also didn’t say this in the video, but my friend kept the identity of the person who moderated the listserv, a secret, and sent me the quoted response she got from the moderator, in terms of she wanting to post about Reiki.

In this video I speak about how I am also raising money to finish my PhD/dissertation.

If you like what you hear and believe in the necessity of anti-racist and critical whiteness analysis within veganism (in order to help build coalitions and solidarity), please contribute to my fund. I am seeking $10,000 by September to register for school. Thus far, I have received $3200 in contributions (Thank you!!). My critical race and critical vegan dissertation fellowship was not renewed for 2011-2012 year, so this is why I’m seeking assistance. You can email a paypal donation to breezeharper (at) gmail (dot) com. If you’re not comfortable with that, you can email me and I can provide a postal mailing address. Thanks.

Sistah Vegan needs help finishing her PhD May 28, 2011

In this video I am asking for your help. I would like to finish my PhD and need some help.

Paypal email donation: breezeharper (at) gmail (dot) com.

UPDATE: As of May 31, 2011:

Donated: $880

Needed for completion of goal: $9,120

Deadline: September 2011 (so I Can register for 2011-2012 academic year)

Other creative ways to help would be to buy a personalized signed copy of Sistah Vegan book directly from me if you don’t already have a copy or want to give it as a gift.

I also had one person ask if they can pay me to speak to their social justice group, via video Skype, for an hour. They agreed to pay me to do that, so that is another possibility.

I’m also open to doing paid talks and lectures that are no more than a 2 hour drive from where I live. Could fly out if I were not in my 3rd trimester, but driving there is still an option.

If you’re asking the question, “Why should I fund this woman? What has she done?” Please refer to my CV so you can see the type of person you are investing in and how ‘productive’ she can be
http://web.mac.com/sistahvegan98/research/Curriculum_Vitae.html

Intersections: Black female slave vivisection, non-human animal experimentation, and the foundation of Western gynecology April 12, 2011

This was originally published in my Sistah Vegan Blog about 2 weeks ago, but I wanted to share it here on VOC as well.

In this video, I speak of how Black female slaves were forced to undergo ‘vivisection’ by Dr. Marion Sims, the ‘father’ of Western gynecology. I also speak of how this fits into colonizing both ‘the other’ (Non-white peoples and nature) and how vivisection on non-human animals today is connected to the interlocking system of oppression and suffering that allowed Dr. Sims to repeatedly cut into black female slave’s vagina’s (without anesthesia, remorse, or regret).

Books for further explorations on these intersections:

Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present

Birthing a Slave: Motherhood and Medicine in the Antebellum South

Animal Welfare and Anti-Vivisection 1870-1910: Nineteenth-Century Women’s Mission (History of Feminism)

Harper’s “whiteness and speciesism” essay in forthcoming book: Sister Species December 10, 2010

New book coming out in June 2011 that I have contributed an essay to. My essay looks at intersections of whiteness and speciesism, as well as the necessity to engage in questions of white privilege within mainstream animal rights USA.

The book is called Sister Species: Women, Animals, and Social Justice edited by Lisa A. Kemmerer. It’s available for pre-order through Amazon.com. I am excited about this book since the ‘scholarly’ books that represent the philosophies of animal rights are dominated by mostly white male academics. This book has a racially and ethnically diverse body of contributors.

CLICK ON IMAGE TO PRE-ORDER FROM AMAZON

 

From Amazon, here is the Product Description:

Sister Species: Women, Animals, and Social Justice addresses interconnections between speciesism, sexism, racism, and homophobia, clarifying why social justice activists in the twenty-first century must challenge intersecting forms of oppression. This anthology presents bold and grippingosometimes horrifyingopersonal narratives from fourteen activists who have personally explored links of oppression between humans and animals, including such exploitative enterprises as cockfighting, factory farming, vivisection, and the bushmeat trade. Sister Species asks readers to rethink how they view “others,” how they affect animals with their daily choices, and how they might bring change for all who are abused. The astonishing honesty of these contributors demonstrates with painful clarity why every woman should be an animal activist and why every animal activist should be a feminist. Contributors are Carol J. Adams, Tara Sophia Bahna-James, Karen Davis, Elizabeth Jane Farians, Hope Ferdowsian, Linda Fisher, Twyla Francois, Christine Garcia, A. Breeze Harper, Sangamithra Iyer, Pattrice Jones, Lisa Kemmerer, Allison Lance, Ingrid Newkirk, Lauren Ornelas, and Miyun Park. Lisa Kemmerer, associate professor of philosophy and religion at Montana State University, Billings, is an artist, activist, and wilderness adventurer who has travelled the world extensively. She is the author of In Search of Consistency: Ethics and Animals and Curly Tails & Cloven Hooves, a poetry chapbook. (Source: http://www.amazon.com/Sister-Species-Animals-Social-Justice/dp/025207811X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1292018808&sr=8-1)

Sistah Vegan: a bunch of inarticulate black women vegans? November 11, 2010

I found this new review of Sistah Vegan quite interesting: URL: http://astripedarmchair.wordpress.com/

Apparently, the reviewer didn’t like the “unprofessional” writing style of the contributors and feels that it makes sense that the writers aren’t writing professionally because they are only “vegans” and not “professional writers.” And what an interesting conclusion, given that this reviewer has no idea that many of these contributors consider themselves “professional” writers (and well, some don’t) The reviewer writes:

That being said, I found the collection to incredibly uneven. I think to a certain extent all anthologies suffer from this, but it’s heightened here by the fact that none of the contributors are professional writers. They’re vegans in all kinds of work, which is great from a well-rounded background perspective, but not so great from a reading one. While some of the essays inspired me, and even brought me to tears, with their lyrical writing, some of the other ones made me want to break out my red pen and edit like there was no tomorrow. Most fell in the middle of the continuum, but the very middle of the book felt especially weak, and after a couple back-to-back essays I briefly considered giving up. I’m glad I stuck with it, though, since the final few essays were some of the best! Anyway, my point is that this is a book you read for the ideas, not for the writing. Source: http://astripedarmchair.wordpress.com/

It’s amazing how such a comment is not objective, but actually reflects the “writing education” of a white middle class American who doesn’t realize the there are a plethora of different styles of writing and that just because it doesn’t parallel hers, shouldn’t be dismissed. And notice how she tells her audience that they SHOULD read Food Matters instead of Sistah Vegan if they want to learn more about food issues and conscious eating. Sistah Vegan project is about how race-conscious approach affects eating and relationships to eating (in this case, vegan eating).

I also have explained the Sistah Vegan Project thousands of times now these past 5 years: it’s not about if one SHOULD be a vegan or not. I have explained numerous times that the project is an example of how racialized-gender experience in the USA affects how one understands and comes to their food practice. In the case of Sistah Vegan, I’m looking at how vegan philosophy is affected by the racial-gender experience of Black women in the USA who are ‘race-conscious’ in a way that is absent from popular vegan books such as Kind Diet, Quantum Wellness, and Skinny Bitch, as well as omnivorous books such as Omnivore’s Dilemma and movies like Food Inc.

However, the reviewer’s reading of Sistah Vegan is reduced to (and this is my interpretation of the covert message of her analysis): a bunch of inarticulate black women who don’t know how to write and need a good editor and that you’re better off reading a “professional” [post-racial and class-neutral] approach to food such as Food Matters. And she is completely dismissive of the spiritual and religious roots that many of these contributors have had for transitioning into veganism; much of these women speak of spiritual roots in a more Afrikan spiritual understanding. But, it’s dismissed as “New Age”– this tells me the reviewer has no understanding of how significant spirituality has been for Black women as a way to find strength in this most difficult situations (including living in an ongoing racist America).

For people who are already contemplating cutting out animal products, especially for African American women who might worry about appearing ‘white,’ I think this is a great book. But it’s a bit too confrontational and extreme to convert the masses. Also, there are a couple essays that are very New Age, which might confirm the stereotypes that non-vegan readers have about ‘those crazy vegan people.’Source: http://astripedarmchair.wordpress.com/

Sistah Vegan is not perfect and I welcome constructive criticism, but I feel like this reviewer completely missed how her own racial, class, and gender experience informed her perception of who should write about veganism, who is considered “professional”, and what is worth reading for YOU to know about “conscious eating.”

Usually I have sat on the sidelines for the past 5 years, listening to a significant number of mostly white middle class post-racial or race-unconscious vegans misinterpret my work. But today, I do not feel like sitting on the sidelines. This review completely dismisses the intellectual contributions that these 27 black vegan women have made to a very race-neutral and class-neutral white middle class dominated movement in the USA.

And notice how she says that the audience of the book isn’t her (a white woman vegetarian), but for Black women. Well, to clarify, my book is for everyone and not for only Black Americans. She’s implying that her non-black blog readership would not enjoy reading a book about Black female vegan experiences because it’s not their experience? So, just read “Food Matters” because it’s your [race-neutral and class-neutral] experience with food reading and it’s professionally written (without all that Black vernacular).:

So! I’m delighted to have this on my shelves, but it won’t replace Food Matters as my go-to recommend book for non-vegans curious about ethical eating. If you’re already a vegan, or already interested in social justice, you’ll find much to think about in these pages. But otherwise, I’d highly recommend reading Mark Bittman’s book instead. (If I could magically make everyone in the world read one book, Food Matters would be the one.) Source: http://astripedarmchair.wordpress.com/

And exactly who has the privilege to read about food books like Food Matters if they aren’t really interested in the links social justice has to food? How is it that ethical eating is not connected to social justice anyway? (That’s how I read her take when she suggests reading Food Matters). The reviewer does not deeply engage with the implications of how racialized consciousness inform these women’s vegan experiences, writing styles, or belief systems around food choices… and neither does she engage with the implications of how her own white racialized experience is the filter through which she analyzes Sistah Vegan.

P.S. No one is calling Eva a racist. I am trying to point out ‘raced-classed’ consciousness. If you say “I am white,” I believe (as a critical race theorist) that you are saying a lot. To become a ‘race’ (white, black, etc) in the USA atleast, means that you have gone through socialization and processes of racial formation that affect your CONSCIOUSNESS. When I say I am a black female, I know that it means I have gone through socialization, racial formation, certain embodied experiences that have brought me to where I am now with my consciousness. I have no issue with admitting up front that my discursive analysis of Eva’s review of Sistah Vegan is directly affected by my black-female working-class consciousness; race is not simply a ‘color’. Race is a psychological process; it is a socio-spatial-epistemic process. When one says they are a white woman, or a Black man and “this is my take on this or that”, that SAYS A LOT. Once again, this critique is not saying anyone is RACIST, but saying how racial formation, socialization in a country (at least the USA) built on racialized hierarchies of power, racialized spaces, etc., will literally create raced-classed-regional relationships with how one views the writing style of a book and what is considered “professional.” That lack of acknowledgment around the concept of “professional”, as well as the socio-historical context of black women being called inarticulate, unprofessional, illiterate, etc is what is under critique. The reviewer seems to be unaware of the social and historical connotation of calling a particular black writing style as unprofessional. My dialogue about this is trying to bring this to light.