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kaitertott's review
This book represents the voices I wish I could find in social media.
lattelibrarian's review
5.0
Now THIS is the vegan anthology I've been waiting for! A. Breeze Harper gathers the thoughts and ideas of multiple black female vegans ad uses them to create a complex, multi-faceted look at the whole foods trend. Some women deny the label vegan, other women profess a holistic lifestyle, some women worry about the neocolonialism of consumerism today, others discuss what health means to them--as well as the doctors they no longer visit!
This variety of perspectives is wholly necessary in this conversation--especially a variety of perspectives that do not include white voices, who have been the dominating voice of the movement! Being able to read from these new perspectives opened up a whole new line of thinking for myself. Certainly there were much-debated discussions such as the comparison of animals to lynching and slavery (yikes), but there were discussions I'd never even seen before, such as the dichotomy between the desire and need for fine furs after having been oppressed for so long, or by having to prove one's blackness, as well as the other side of the conversation that argues that fine furs are ultimately harmful and perhaps a new form of neocolonialism. How does one even untangle that in one's mind? These ladies did it beautifully.
What was also so intriguing to me was how many women brought up Queen Afua's books and how they completely transformed their manner of viewing the world and what they put into their bodies. If Queen Afua did that for so many of our authors, then it's entirely possible for A. Breeze Harper to do that for many other women--and I for one hope she does!
This collection was insightful, educating, and overall just plain good. Regardless of how long you've been a part of the vegan movement, this is a necessary book to read. It's so incredibly valuable and so far, I haven't read anything else that compares in this area of the movement.
Review cross-listed here!
This variety of perspectives is wholly necessary in this conversation--especially a variety of perspectives that do not include white voices, who have been the dominating voice of the movement! Being able to read from these new perspectives opened up a whole new line of thinking for myself. Certainly there were much-debated discussions such as the comparison of animals to lynching and slavery (yikes), but there were discussions I'd never even seen before, such as the dichotomy between the desire and need for fine furs after having been oppressed for so long, or by having to prove one's blackness, as well as the other side of the conversation that argues that fine furs are ultimately harmful and perhaps a new form of neocolonialism. How does one even untangle that in one's mind? These ladies did it beautifully.
What was also so intriguing to me was how many women brought up Queen Afua's books and how they completely transformed their manner of viewing the world and what they put into their bodies. If Queen Afua did that for so many of our authors, then it's entirely possible for A. Breeze Harper to do that for many other women--and I for one hope she does!
This collection was insightful, educating, and overall just plain good. Regardless of how long you've been a part of the vegan movement, this is a necessary book to read. It's so incredibly valuable and so far, I haven't read anything else that compares in this area of the movement.
Review cross-listed here!
katrinky's review
2.0
i like women, and i like eating consciously and living a cruelty-free lifestyle. but the vegan argument will always fall apart, in my eyes, when it comes up against small, family-owned farms that raise their meat animals humanely and eat whole foods themselves. that's the revolution i'll throw my weight behind, when it comes time for throwin'. plus, it will NEVER BE OK to say that a chicken is the same as an african human slave. a pig is not the same as a displaced, disenfranchised native american. a cow is not a jewish european during the holocaust. to state as much, as several essays in this book do, is obscene. period.
whole foods, many of which are vegan by definition, yes. vegan activist literature? no, if the two collections of essays i've read so far are indicative. nope.
whole foods, many of which are vegan by definition, yes. vegan activist literature? no, if the two collections of essays i've read so far are indicative. nope.
nzlndr00's review
3.0
Overall this book was a good read and I enjoyed some sections a lot. Others I not only didn't agree with, but sort of cringed at, but still I respect the opinions and lived experiences of all the contributors. The following are some of my favorite excerpts.
"William Dufty, author of Sugar Blues, is convinced that yearly increases in sucrose (refined cane sugar) and beet sugar consumption are the reason why emotional disharmony - such as depression - has drastically risen within the United States. Likewise, from historical times to the present, the First World initiated civil unrest and legalized slavery-starting in the 1700s-to get our fix of sugar products. In addition, we've taken fertile land and used it to grow a plant of which the end product for a majority of people in the United States is a nutritionally deficient substance. Sugar consumption in the US has gone from ten pounds per year per person in 1821 to 150 pounds per person." - p. 22
"To give you some more perspective on how much water is used in animal farming, here are some statistics: 1. Five times as much water is used for irrigation to grow animal feed grains compared to fruits and vegetables. 2. 4,500 gallons of water are needed to produce a quarter pound of raw beef. 3. 8,500 square miles is the size of the dead zone created in the Gulf of Mexico by fertilizer runoff carried by the Mississippi River from the upper Midwest. 4. 17 trillion gallons is the amount of irrigation water used annually to produce feed for US livestock." - p. 25
"It stretches the imagination to conceive how fast the timeless rainforests of Central America are being destroyed so Americans can have seemingly cheap hamburgers. in 1960, when the US first began to import beef, Central America was blessed with 130,000 square miles of virgin rainforest. But now, only 25 years later, less than 80,000 square miles remain. At this rate, the entire tropical rainforests of Central America will be gone in another forty years." - p. 27
"Walker is well known within the vegan community for her foreword to the book The Dreaded Comparison by Marjorie Spiegel, in which she writes: The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than Black people were made for whites or women for men." - p. 46
"I am aware of the controversial PETA display, "Animal Liberation", which incited controversy for using images and language that simultaneously address contemporary animal suffering and the human suffering that has occurred during some of the most abominable periods in human history -among them African enslavement, the Jim Crow era, and the Holocaust. Critics of this display believe that there is no comparison to be drawn between these horrific crimes against humanity and the appalling treatment of nonhuman animals today. To them, not only does this comparison diminish the significance of the historic events, it is racist, insulting, and culturally insensitive. After all, haven't the dominant cultures always considered us less than human and compared us to animals as a way of humiliating and dehumanizing us? Sadly, PETA's critics have missed the point. PETA's intent is not to imply that Black, Jewish, or Native American people are viewed by PETA or should be viewed by anyone as subhuman. The desired result of these images is to evoke compassion, to help people empathize with the experiences of animals as victims of oppression, just as they would, and for some of the same reasons, with the humans depicted in the display." - p.55 and 56
"Veganism cultivates an attention to minute details of food ingredients, clothing labels, and how the things you consume are produced. This mindfulness leads to the deepest investigation of all things you consume, not only as to their material content but also the conditions in which the products are manufactured, their ecological impact, and the standard of living they create for all those on the chain of raw material, manufacturing, selling, buying, and disposing." - p. 75
"But in India beset with far too many people and animals to feel for, I realized the ridiculousness of the exchange. Each glimpse of suffering, I realized, was a way of paying my dues, allowing myself to feel human for a moment, before continuing on with my day. This kind of pity was not compassion, for it was useless and coma-inducing whereas compassion is active and equalizing. It may be possible to practice ethical behaviors without real compassion, but it is not possible to *really* feel compassion and not act ethically. Compassion writes laws and provides shelter and builds houses. Pity is a masturbatory exercise for the privileged. It is self-conscious, self-reflective, and limited. It considers weeping and then moves on." - p. 160
"We are forced to raise our voices to opt *out* of having our shampoos sprayed in rabbits' eyes, *out* of pus-laden bovine hormone being sprayed into our coffee cups, *out* of feeding our children jellybeans bursting with horse byproducts, *out* of eating party snacks laced with feces of downed cows. Never *in*. When was the assumption made that I was among the masses who were fine with this? When was it determined that the *masses* are fine with it?" - p. 164
"On the contrary, when we come to understand suffering, it is natural that we want to hasten its end (both for those who suffer at the hands of others and for those who we believe will suffer in coming to know their complicity). But when our own conversion eclipses our appreciation for others and their own narratives (even narratives we have come to associate with the behavior of an oppressor), it is desperate. And there is a reason desperation is suspicious. It is always too personal." - p. 165
"If we are ever to truly act with compassion, we must be willing to see people, animals, and especially ourselves for what we truly are: ever-changing and capable of growth, decay, transcendence destruction; witnesses to our own inalienable experiences; ultimately, living testaments of the choices we have made, the acts of compassion or cruelty we have witnessed, and the lives we have known. Each life lived is foremost and always an honest testament to its own truth, never to a truth someone else supposes to have been or once tried to impose.
Women and people of color in America have learned the hard way to stand up to individuals trying to tell them what's best for them" - p. 166
"In amplifying the voices of Black vegan women, many of whom condemn injustices against nonhuman animals and almost all of whom see diet as a political choice inescapably linked to questions of social and environmental justice, this book kicks over all kinds of stereotypes about vegans, animal advocates, and Black women. But it doesn't stop there. By presenting veganism as a Black feminist and antiracist practice, this book illuminates inconvenient connections that the feminist, antiracist, animal liberation, and environmental movements have too long ignored." - p. 187 and 188
"Together, we are working toward a comprehensive analysis and activist practice that includes speciesism along with racism, sexism, and other forms of intraspecies oppression...
Unfortunately, there has yet to be an answering engagement from environmental and social justice activists. Even though going vegan is the most effective way for people to sharply reduce their own water consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, environmental organizations rarely mention this as an option, much less an obligation " - p. 189
"Michelle Lloyd-Paige writes that, 'All social inequities are linked. Comprehensive systemic change will happen only if we are aware of these connections and work to bring an end to all inequalities-not just our favorites or the ones that most directly affect our part of the universe.' Delicia Dunham asserts that 'When we as a people learn that 'isms' are interrelated and that oppression of any being of any kind is tied to our own oppression, then we can begin to overcome those oppressions for the benefit of all.'" - p. 194
"And maybe it is not a coincidence that such a question would lead eventually to a theory of veganism as potentially a central component to decolonization. Those of us who come out despite societal pressure to be straight maintain our integrity by reaching for our hearts' desires rather than for the partners we have been taught we ought to take. Those of us who go vegan even though we may still desire animal-based foods maintain our integrity by forgoing desires that were implanted in us. In both instances, we preserve our ethical, emotional, and physical wholeness by resisting the colonization of our most intimate wishes." - p. 197
"William Dufty, author of Sugar Blues, is convinced that yearly increases in sucrose (refined cane sugar) and beet sugar consumption are the reason why emotional disharmony - such as depression - has drastically risen within the United States. Likewise, from historical times to the present, the First World initiated civil unrest and legalized slavery-starting in the 1700s-to get our fix of sugar products. In addition, we've taken fertile land and used it to grow a plant of which the end product for a majority of people in the United States is a nutritionally deficient substance. Sugar consumption in the US has gone from ten pounds per year per person in 1821 to 150 pounds per person." - p. 22
"To give you some more perspective on how much water is used in animal farming, here are some statistics: 1. Five times as much water is used for irrigation to grow animal feed grains compared to fruits and vegetables. 2. 4,500 gallons of water are needed to produce a quarter pound of raw beef. 3. 8,500 square miles is the size of the dead zone created in the Gulf of Mexico by fertilizer runoff carried by the Mississippi River from the upper Midwest. 4. 17 trillion gallons is the amount of irrigation water used annually to produce feed for US livestock." - p. 25
"It stretches the imagination to conceive how fast the timeless rainforests of Central America are being destroyed so Americans can have seemingly cheap hamburgers. in 1960, when the US first began to import beef, Central America was blessed with 130,000 square miles of virgin rainforest. But now, only 25 years later, less than 80,000 square miles remain. At this rate, the entire tropical rainforests of Central America will be gone in another forty years." - p. 27
"Walker is well known within the vegan community for her foreword to the book The Dreaded Comparison by Marjorie Spiegel, in which she writes: The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than Black people were made for whites or women for men." - p. 46
"I am aware of the controversial PETA display, "Animal Liberation", which incited controversy for using images and language that simultaneously address contemporary animal suffering and the human suffering that has occurred during some of the most abominable periods in human history -among them African enslavement, the Jim Crow era, and the Holocaust. Critics of this display believe that there is no comparison to be drawn between these horrific crimes against humanity and the appalling treatment of nonhuman animals today. To them, not only does this comparison diminish the significance of the historic events, it is racist, insulting, and culturally insensitive. After all, haven't the dominant cultures always considered us less than human and compared us to animals as a way of humiliating and dehumanizing us? Sadly, PETA's critics have missed the point. PETA's intent is not to imply that Black, Jewish, or Native American people are viewed by PETA or should be viewed by anyone as subhuman. The desired result of these images is to evoke compassion, to help people empathize with the experiences of animals as victims of oppression, just as they would, and for some of the same reasons, with the humans depicted in the display." - p.55 and 56
"Veganism cultivates an attention to minute details of food ingredients, clothing labels, and how the things you consume are produced. This mindfulness leads to the deepest investigation of all things you consume, not only as to their material content but also the conditions in which the products are manufactured, their ecological impact, and the standard of living they create for all those on the chain of raw material, manufacturing, selling, buying, and disposing." - p. 75
"But in India beset with far too many people and animals to feel for, I realized the ridiculousness of the exchange. Each glimpse of suffering, I realized, was a way of paying my dues, allowing myself to feel human for a moment, before continuing on with my day. This kind of pity was not compassion, for it was useless and coma-inducing whereas compassion is active and equalizing. It may be possible to practice ethical behaviors without real compassion, but it is not possible to *really* feel compassion and not act ethically. Compassion writes laws and provides shelter and builds houses. Pity is a masturbatory exercise for the privileged. It is self-conscious, self-reflective, and limited. It considers weeping and then moves on." - p. 160
"We are forced to raise our voices to opt *out* of having our shampoos sprayed in rabbits' eyes, *out* of pus-laden bovine hormone being sprayed into our coffee cups, *out* of feeding our children jellybeans bursting with horse byproducts, *out* of eating party snacks laced with feces of downed cows. Never *in*. When was the assumption made that I was among the masses who were fine with this? When was it determined that the *masses* are fine with it?" - p. 164
"On the contrary, when we come to understand suffering, it is natural that we want to hasten its end (both for those who suffer at the hands of others and for those who we believe will suffer in coming to know their complicity). But when our own conversion eclipses our appreciation for others and their own narratives (even narratives we have come to associate with the behavior of an oppressor), it is desperate. And there is a reason desperation is suspicious. It is always too personal." - p. 165
"If we are ever to truly act with compassion, we must be willing to see people, animals, and especially ourselves for what we truly are: ever-changing and capable of growth, decay, transcendence destruction; witnesses to our own inalienable experiences; ultimately, living testaments of the choices we have made, the acts of compassion or cruelty we have witnessed, and the lives we have known. Each life lived is foremost and always an honest testament to its own truth, never to a truth someone else supposes to have been or once tried to impose.
Women and people of color in America have learned the hard way to stand up to individuals trying to tell them what's best for them" - p. 166
"In amplifying the voices of Black vegan women, many of whom condemn injustices against nonhuman animals and almost all of whom see diet as a political choice inescapably linked to questions of social and environmental justice, this book kicks over all kinds of stereotypes about vegans, animal advocates, and Black women. But it doesn't stop there. By presenting veganism as a Black feminist and antiracist practice, this book illuminates inconvenient connections that the feminist, antiracist, animal liberation, and environmental movements have too long ignored." - p. 187 and 188
"Together, we are working toward a comprehensive analysis and activist practice that includes speciesism along with racism, sexism, and other forms of intraspecies oppression...
Unfortunately, there has yet to be an answering engagement from environmental and social justice activists. Even though going vegan is the most effective way for people to sharply reduce their own water consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, environmental organizations rarely mention this as an option, much less an obligation " - p. 189
"Michelle Lloyd-Paige writes that, 'All social inequities are linked. Comprehensive systemic change will happen only if we are aware of these connections and work to bring an end to all inequalities-not just our favorites or the ones that most directly affect our part of the universe.' Delicia Dunham asserts that 'When we as a people learn that 'isms' are interrelated and that oppression of any being of any kind is tied to our own oppression, then we can begin to overcome those oppressions for the benefit of all.'" - p. 194
"And maybe it is not a coincidence that such a question would lead eventually to a theory of veganism as potentially a central component to decolonization. Those of us who come out despite societal pressure to be straight maintain our integrity by reaching for our hearts' desires rather than for the partners we have been taught we ought to take. Those of us who go vegan even though we may still desire animal-based foods maintain our integrity by forgoing desires that were implanted in us. In both instances, we preserve our ethical, emotional, and physical wholeness by resisting the colonization of our most intimate wishes." - p. 197
choirqueer's review
5.0
This is a solid collection of essays by vegan Black women which address, in great depth and breadth, issues surrounding bodies, identity, race, class, feminism, families, health, decolonization, environmentalism, compassion, and so much more. I appreciated the diversity of perspectives represented; many of the essays resonated with me strongly, while others I had some disagreement with (there are a couple anti-vax mentions) but still appreciated the opportunity to hear those points of view and think about them in the context of racism and decolonization. I would certainly recommend this book to vegans and people exploring veganism, but I actually think that non-vegans advocating for racial justice would especially benefit from this book. Whether or not veganism is the right choice for you personally, I think you'll find that the perspectives and ideas generated in this book speak to racial justice and Black empowerment in a very deep, personal, thought-provoking way.
cw: I had to skim past a couple sections that detailed violence against animals (I'm already vegan and don't need the horror stories anymore!).
cw: I had to skim past a couple sections that detailed violence against animals (I'm already vegan and don't need the horror stories anymore!).
cl1ch3's review
2.0
A very mixed experience. There are some excellent essays that had me saying "yes!" out loud as I read, but unfortunately these are undermined by the essays espousing antivax ideology and reinforcing negative vegan stereotypes. These worse essays are probably not the majority but they are the ones that stand out, stay in your mind, and make it impossible to recommend the book without some big caveats.
taratearex's review
5.0
I highly recommend this book, I'd say it's a must read-for any current vegans, vegetarians, and anyone interested in veganism & vegetarianism. I wish I had read this book years ago when I first went vegan or years before that when I first went vegetarian. It's a much needed perspective on veganism, and it's also not just one perspective as it's a collection of writings from different black women, not all of the voices agree and as the reader you won't necessarily agree with all of the voices (there were a couple anti-science ones), but I think the different perspectives is a valuable things this book gives people. But it also addresses important topics within veganism that need much more attention within the dominant vegan culture.
daisymoon's review
3.0
It was an interesting read but was a little too focused on health for my taste. You can have a very unhealthy diet while being vegan and a very healthy one while still eathing animal products. I get that it was about why each writer did chose the vegan diet but I would have loved more stories about people that mainly chose it for ethics... At times, I felt like the whole "let's eat vegan to be healthier" was kind of used to try to convince the reader to try the vegan diet. But as a fat vegan woman, it kinda made me feel disconnected from the books and its authors.
I really liked learning more about food desert and how Black people are eating in the USA. As a french white woman I have a lot to learn about those subjects and many essays in this book touched on it.
I really liked learning more about food desert and how Black people are eating in the USA. As a french white woman I have a lot to learn about those subjects and many essays in this book touched on it.
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