A Black Feminist Construction of Veganism: An Embodied Act of Inclusionary Healing and Revitalization
A Black Feminist construction operates through its core principle to “decolonize the body” (Harper 2010) via the rejection of capitalism, social oppressions, and environmental degradation. A long and complicated history has contributed to how African Americans interact with the United States food system today. This history, one of oppression and lack of resources, has created complex notions around what African Americans eat and how/ what they feel they should consume. Today, African American adults are 1.5 times as likely to suffer from obesity when compared with white adults, and approximately 47.8% of black people are obese as compared to 32.6% of white people (“Special Report” 2018). While the purpose of this post is not to body-shame nor blindly support the (sometimes flawed) obesity statistics regarding African Americans, these data give some evidence as to why African Americans might be suffering at significantly higher rates of obesity related illnesses.
While it is undeniable that a re-structructing of the U.S. food system, along with several other institutionalized practices, is dire in order to change the ways low-income communities of color interact with food and physical activity, Black Feminists have transformed the vegan movement so that it restores some agency to individuals and empowers them to avoid, resist, or strategically maneuver the oppressive structures which attempt to determine their health and physical realities.
Veganism is a form of embodied activism for some Black Feminists, such as Dr. A. Breeze Harper — a diversity strategist and founder of the Sistah Vegan Project; Dr. Harper has done tremendous work at the intersection of critical race theory, feminism, and the vegan movement. She realized that her initial opposition to veganism came in response to an “oppressive tone” that reminded her of “another form of trying to colonize people of color to live in a way the white class-privileged people deemed civilized and healthy” (Harper 2010). It was not until Dr. Harper theorized veganism herself, through connecting it with racial and feminist liberations, that she found solace and liberation within the movement. Dr. Harper found a holistic set of intricate, yet obvious, relationships among eco-sustainability, non-human animal rights, plant based diets via mindful consumption, and human rights. She argues that African Americans have been coerced into an “addiction of uncompassionate consumption” (Harper 2010). Her drive to rid herself of addiction to foods she feels are harmful to her mental and physical health has empowered her to re-claim control over her own body and consumption habits.
Dr. Harper also conceptualizes her addiction to unmindful consumption in relation to a colonial legacy which exploited the bodies of African Americans in order to harvest certain crops. She urges us to ask ourselves, “Who are we hurting, deceiving, and stealing from to bring us our food?”. Recent evidence shows that we are not only hurting ourselves, but we are enslaving and exploiting other humans and animals in a way which draws parallel to colonialism (Harper 2010). However, she does not deny that there is incredible privilege and agency with the ability to resist these structures and socialized patterns of eating, but she encourages her readers to reflect on how they can consume in a more mindful and purposeful way within their own “economic, health, and geographical situation”.
For some Black Feminists, veganism has been a method through which they express their religious identities. The intersection of racial activism, womanism, and environmentalism has birthed the theory of Ecowomanism, defined as a “social change perspective based on a holistic perception of creation encompassing humans and all living organisms plus the nonliving environment and the spirit world” (Phillips 2010). With its emphasis on the the human and non-human, as well as, the living and non-living, an Ecowomanist construction of veganism becomes an ideology rooted in a holistic respect for the world — a respect which is deeply manifested through one’s spirituality.
A Black Feminist construction of veganism uncovers the various ways to decolonize both the body and mind. Instead of making veganism only accessible to the privileged, a Black Feminist construction seeks to abolish the barriers prohibiting one from engaging with the vegan practice.
Works Cited
“About Dr. A. Breeze Harper .” A. Breeze Harper, www.abreezeharper.com/.
Devlin, Keith. “Top 10 Reasons Why The BMI Is Bogus.” NPR, NPR, 4 July 2009, www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106268439.
Harper, A. Breeze. “Introduction: The Birth of the Sistah Vegan Project.” Sistah Vegan: Black Female Vegans Speak on Food, Identity, Health, and Society, 2010, pp. Xiii-xix.
Harper, A. Breeze. “Social Justice Beliefs and Addiction to Uncompassionate Consumption: Food for Thought.” Sistah Vegan: Black Female Vegans Speak on Food, Identity, Health, and Society, 2010, pp. 20–41.
Phillips, Layli. “Veganism and Ecowomanism .” Sistah Vegan: Black Female Vegans Speak on Food, Identity, Health, and Society, 2010, pp. 8–19.
“Special Report: Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Obesity .” The State of Obesity: Better Policies for a Healthier America , stateofobesity.org/disparities/blacks/.
Additional Sources that may be of interest:
Harris, Melanie L. Ecowomanism: African American Women and Earth-Honoring Faiths. Orbis Books, 2017.
June, Pamela B. “Alice Walker on Ecofeminist Issues in Her Fiction: An Interview.” Womens Studies, vol. 44, no. 1, Feb. 2015, pp. 99–116., doi:10.1080/00497878.2014.971219.
Loyd-Paige , Michelle R. “Thinking and Eating at the Same Time: Reflections of a Sistah Vegan .” Sistah Vegan: Black Female Vegans Speak on Food, Identity, Health, and Society, 2010, pp. 1–7.
Ogunyemi, Chikwenye Okonjo. Africa Wo/Man Palava: the Nigerian Novel by Women. University of Chicago Press, 1996.
