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White Vegans, Please Sit Down
A Quick Word on Timing
Lately, I’ve noticed a trend of well-intentioned, specifically white, vegans responding to George Floyd’s murder and the resulting protests with “This is awful, but… [insert your preferred flavor of animal rights spiel]. Where are the protests about that?”
It kills me to have to write this. But please, sit your yoga ass down and listen.
I’ve been vegan for over a decade, and I’ve spent too much of that time arguing against apathetic people who denounce vegans for being “too loud.” Veganism is misunderstood as a movement centered around food, when really it’s about exploitation. It doesn’t matter if it’s the exploitation of chickens, humans, or rainforests. It ain’t vegan. It’s crushing to have people tell you you’re being “too loud”, “too brazen”, or even “too different” in 2020. I feel that to the core of my multiracial, non-binary soul.
But now is not the time to be raising hell and high water. I’m sorry to say it, but slaughterhouses aren’t going to disappear over night. You know what might, though? Another black life trying to mourn the death of the already dead.
“What about the ‘[m/b/tr]illions’ of animals dying every year?” just sounds like an elitist, granola version of “All Lives Matter.” It’s not a good look.
