Being logged in as a WordPress user confuses me — if I leave a comment w/a username registered to a blog, shouldn’t it show up as linked to my name? Augh! Anyway — I started the Vegans of Color blog, & there are a lot of posts there from myself & the other bloggers about how white vegans often alienate POCs. There are also resources listed for people wanting to educate themselves more about race.

They make it clear you’re not welcome? I remember the first time I read “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” I was amazed by all of the things I don’t think about and don’t affect me or are easier than they could be simply because of the color of my skin. I thought: I’m one of those people who some might call “white elitist” and I know it’s an insult and I have no idea what I’m doing to put myself in that category.

How about writing a post here at Animal Rights & Anti-Oppression, or a dialogue with yours truly? Pretty please?

But what struck me most about this post (& the comments) was that more often I don’t even get to the point of finding out about these inconsistencies regarding animals. So often people who claim to advocate for animals (even those whose animal politics I do agree w/) end up alienating me right from the start as a non-white person. Or as a female. We don’t even get to debating the nitty-gritty of tactics because they are making it clear that I’m not welcome (or I’m only welcome if I shed anything that puts me outside white male straight etc. identity).

Of course, most of the people working/volunteering with these groups consume meat themselves, and see nothing wrong/unhealthy/unjust about a diet based on animal flesh and secretions. So, there’s that.

Maybe a week or two later, they asked me to run their sidewalk vegan hot dog stand for a few hours after one of the employees called in sick. After a couple hours I idly started reading ingredients. There was milk in the buns. I mentioned that to whoever was in charge when they relieved me at the end of the day. They weren’t concerned because it was just a little milk. I did not volunteer with them again.

Frustratingly, trying to implement policy change at animal shelters, even the most progressive, is difficult. Look at the Humane Society of Missouri. They run a farmed animal sanctuary and adoption center. And their fundraising for the farmed animal adoption center involved having a horse polo event and raffling off a bbq dinner for four. There’s also Lollypop farm in New York – none of their events are vegetarian, let alone vegan, yet they rescue the same animals they serve at their functions. Most humane societies and spcas do not have vegetarian menu policies even though a) the public gets it (don’t serve who you save); b) it’s easy to implement and c) it properly aligns your rescue ethics with your actions.

I think it would probably be easier to create a paradigm shift with human-related programs from a health perspective than to create a paradigm shift with most animal-related programs from a compassionate point of view. That’s sad.