Links! December 18, 2010

Stephanie Lai & Katrina Fox recently gave a talk about intersectionality & animal rights. YouTube vids here: part 1, part 2, part 3. And text for Stephanie’s part of the talk is here.

I’d also like to note the start of a new food blog carnival, Potluck:

Potluck is intended to be a carnival for multicultural and intersectional discussions of food. There are no real limits on theme; however, the focus of the carnival is on thoughts and experiences around food through various topics that you might see around the social justice blogosphere, including but not limited to food discussions intersecting with disability, gender, sexuality, fat, animal rights and of course cultural and racial issues. We welcome you to share your recipes as well as your thoughts and experiences, but we ask that you do not submit posts with recipes only. eta; Submissions can be in any format you choose- essays, personal anecdotes, art, comics, etc.- so long as they meet the previous requirements./eta

The theme for the first edition is holidays, & the deadline is January 21. More info at the link.

I’d love to see some submissions that take animal rights into consideration. I’ve seen the posts that have inspired the carnival, & while I fully agree with their points — that race/culture-based shaming around what food is acceptable & what food is “gross” is nonsensical & wrong — the posts were difficult for me to read, given the vivid descriptions of dead animal food in them. To be clear: I would feel as uncomfortable, & do, reading people’s paeans to eating McDonald’s hamburgers as when they are talking about tripe or pigeon or kidney. I have experienced people finding the traditional food that my family eats as disgusting or strange, simply because it falls outside their strict Western view of what is “normal.” I’m just saying it’s difficult for me to read posts talking about it that write lovingly about dead animals in the process. I note, of course, that there are lots of veg*n foods that receive the same “ewwww, what is that weird crap” treatment: tofu, natto, kimchi, etc. etc. etc.

Advertisement

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)