The Sistah Vegan Project

Archive for the category “Animal Ethics”

06 Feb 2013
7 Comments

Is SPLC Conflating White Supremacist Violence with Animal Rights? Paul Watson and ‘[Eco]-Terrorism’

In this video I talk about a Winter 2012 issue of the Intelligence Report, a magazine dedicated to the surveillance of ‘extreme hate groups and individuals.’ A magazine that seems to significantly focus on white supremacist and anti-Muslim people, I was surprised to see that Paul Watson was included in this issue as an ‘eco-terrorist.’ I felt Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), where Intelligence Report is published, could have done a better job of providing more information about animal liberation activism, instead of lumping Watson together with ‘other’ violent and extreme hate groups/individuals like white supremacists Wade Page who shot and killed Sikhs in the USA last year.

Here is the to the Winter 2012 issue if Intelligence Report in which Wade Page (http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2012/winter) is featured on the cover. And here is the article about Paul Watson: http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2012/winter/animal-rights-extremist-flees-to-the-

What do you think?

Posted by Breeze Harper in Animal Ethics, Animal Rights, Race, Class, Gender Issues and tagged , , , , ,
17 Sep 2012
8 Comments

Snarky Fanon: Cruelty-Free Vegan-Consumerism

What is cruelty-free? What is sustainable? In whose interest?

So, this is the comic version of chapter three of my dissertation. I wish I could substitute 40 pages of one chapter with one Snarky Fanon (my new comic series and Sistah Vegan venture) comic. Maybe the dissertation committee would be okay with that? Goddess, I wish it were that easy!

Here is a little snippet from the chapter in progress to give you a little more context. Remember, this is just a snippet, and this is from a 200 page document:

One of the most important ideas that the reader is left with is the notion that just because a company claims ‘sustainability,’ doesn’t mean they will actually create sincere actions around it. Readers who have clicked on the link to the Der Spiegel article, from the Food Empowerment Project (FEP)page, read an unsettling idea about corporate concepts of sustainability:

Despite claims of sustainability, many companies continue to deforest the area. A concession costs about $30,000 in bribes or campaign contributions, reports a former WWF employee who worked in Indonesia for a long time. ‘Sustainble palm oil, as the WWF promises with its RSPO certificates, is really nonexistent,’ he says. (Glüsin and Klawitter 2012, 2)

Yes, Earth Balance’s own webpage about sustainability claims that they source their palm oil from Malayasia and Brazil, not Indonesia. However, in reading the above paragraph excerpt from Der Spiegel, the reader is left with the potential initiative to start questioning how sincere Earth Balance’s sustainability initiatives are, and to what degree profit is the defining factor for sustainability, particularly if RSPO is working with World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Readers learn that WWF was initially established and financially support by incredibly wealthy people with big interests in preserving certain wildlife areas for their own amusement, such as ‘big game’ hunting. Largest financial capital investments that WWF received have come from Shell and BP oil companies, Monsanto and Cargill as well as backing from nuclear, tobacco, and arms industry. One of the most striking realities implied in the Der Spiegel article is never-ending roles that European colonial configurations of the globe, economy, and people play into palm oil industry’s construction of ‘sustainable.’ Overall, those who have clicked on this article link from FEP are left with the knowledge that RSPO, WWF, and the palm oil industry are simply legalized forms of colonialism and cultural imperialism that benefit the same groups of wealthy white Europeans from a lineage that started over four hundred years ago during the racial colonial project.

Rich Europeans or Americans are allowed to behave as if the colonial period had never ended. They are allowed to shoot elephants, buffalo, leopards, lions, giraffes and zebras, and they can even smear the blood of the dead animals onto their faces, in accordance with an old custom. A WWF spokesman defends this practice, saying that quotas have been established, and that the proceeds from this “regulated hunting” can contribute to conservation.(Glüsin and Klawitter 2012, 3)

 Only one of 55 article hyperlinks on FEP’s page, the FEP’s campaign against the use of palm oil functions as pedagogical tool to decode the language that Earth Balance and Smart Balance present to the USA consumer as ‘sanitary’ and ‘feel-good.’ Most importantly, FEP re-narrates the landscape of which the palm oil is coming from, explaining to USA consumers that the story of ‘wellness’ they are being marketed, is a myth. Through careful analysis, consumers learn that corporate capitalist’s sense of ‘sustainable’, ‘wellness,’ and ‘healthier world’ are not universal, but are rather defined by the logics of neoliberal whiteness; vegan products by  Smart Balance and Earth Balance are no different. It is another type of ‘white talk’ or ‘white logic’ that has set the rules for what is ‘ethical.’ Such ‘white logic’ means European and US American consumer’s material privileges are protected, while fooling them into thinking that their consumerism is ‘helping’ primitive non-white people go through “development” (Cárdenas 2012).

Works Cited

Cárdenas, Roosbelinda. “Green Multiculturalism: Articulations of Ethnic and Environmental Politics in a Colombian ‘Black Community’.” Journal of Peasant Studies 39, no. 2 (2012): 309-33.

Glüsing, Jens, and Nils Klawitter. “Green Veneer: Wwf Helps Industry More Than Environment.” Der Spiegel May 26, 2012, no. 22 (2012): http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/wwf-helps-industry-more-than-environment-a-835712-2.html.

Posted by Breeze Harper in Animal Ethics, Animal Rights, Scientific/Social Science Based Research, Snarky Fanon and tagged , , , , , ,
04 Sep 2012
3 Comments

Webinar: What do you mean my vegan chocolate may not be ‘cruelty-free’?

Back by popular demand, this Sistah Vegan Project Webinar is being offered again:

“What do you mean my vegan chocolate may not be ‘cruelty-free’?”:

A Critical Race and Decolonial Approach to USA Ethical Consumption

Instructor: A. Breeze Harper (PhD Candidate)

This webinar is being re-offered. So, if you thought you missed your chances back in August 2012 to take part in this event, you now have another chance.

Date: September 15, 2012; 10:00 am – 12:00 pm PST.

Webinar Cost: $30

Pre-requisites: Though all are welcomed to enroll, this class is for beginners who are curious about how race, class, and ableism operate within consumption philosophies. Open-mindedness and willingness to listen to ideas about privilege and power that are silenced in the mainstream vegan and alternative healthy foods rhetoric are also required.

Length: 2 hours (1 hour lecture; 1 hour for questions and discussion with your webinar mates)

Spaces left: 16 out of 25.

Technology requirements: high speed internet and microphone (if you want to speak, but it’s not required). Sorry, but at this time, I don’t have technology of creating closed captions for those who are hearing impaired. However, I hope to get this in the near future. Notes will be available for this, after it takes place.

Payment: Please enroll by sending $30 to the paypal email of breezeharper (at) gmail (dot) com. Please type in the message box of the payment as “Sept15Webinar” and the subject heading “Sept15Webinar” too . Once The payment is received, you will be emailed the call in number and pass code to access the webinar, which will be hosted by WebEx. You will need to set up a free account. This is the best option over calling into the phone number provided, as the former is free; the latter is a toll number. If you don’t like PayPal , send me an email and I will provide a mailing address you can send a money order or check to .

Webinar Description:

It seems like everyone is talking about ethical consumption in some way, shape, or form. And it also seems like there isn’t a universal agreement on what is ‘ethical’. Some folk think eating animals is ‘ethical’, as long as the animal didn’t suffer living in confined quarters and was ‘free range.’ Some folk think veganism is the way to go, but don’t think about the humans who may labor in cruel conditions to provide them their vegan foods, or the humans and non-human animals who are displaced to source ‘cruelty-free’ palm oil for vegan butter for example. Most recently, Food Empowerment Project is focusing on revealing which cocoa product companies are sourcing their cocoa from child slavery– even the products that are ‘cruelty-free’ vegan chocolate treats.

This webinar will help you think more critically about how you consume, why you consume, and how to alleviate suffering through mindful consumption that is pro-vegan. This webinar will acknowledge that all people are different and that due to racial, class, and geographical privileges (or lack there of), access to ‘ethical consumption’ varies; you will not be judged or shamed. I will meet you where you are at in your process.

In this pro-vegan oriented critical thinking course, I will teach you how and why you should consider how structural racism, classism, neoliberal capitalism, normative whiteness, and ableism affect what you think is ‘ethical consumption’, ‘healthy,’ and ‘perfect body.’ Upon finishing this webinar, you will have a better understanding of how to think critically about being a vegan consumer that is both mindful of non-human animal suffering and the suffering and pain that structural ‘isms’ (such as racism, sexism, etc) cause to human beings who labor throughout the food chain. You will be able to bring this information to your organizations, friends, and family in a way that is compassionate and loving, not shaming or judgmental. Though there are many human injustices that the global food economy relies on, this webinar will pay close attention to the under-represented topics of how structural racism/whiteness and ableism operate within a neoliberal and capitalist driven consumer economy in the USA. This webinar is not about finding one sole solution to ‘ethical consumption’. Instead, this webinar will help plant the seed of more critical thinking in your consciousness and allow you to then self-train yourself on how to determine what pro-vegan ethical consumption lifestyle, principles, or philosophies best suit your own social, geographical, and financial statuses. This self-training will always be a process that is neverending. You will become better at it each day; this webinar will plant the seed to get you started. For example, once you learn about the human slavery used to produced certain cocoa products, this will engender you to think about the source of your vegan cotton and research if people are exploited to produce a supposedly ‘cruelty-free’ product.

Feel free to email me at breezeharper (at) gmail (dot) com if you have questions.

Posted by Breeze Harper in Animal Ethics, Race, Class, Gender Issues, Webinar and tagged , ,
19 Jul 2012
9 Comments

“Millions of people are starving to feed animals”

(note: this is posted by Melissa Danielle, the other Sistah Vegan blogger who rarely makes an appearance ;-) This is not by A. Breeze Harper.  )

said the 50something-year-old woman soliciting for PETA on the 6 train yesterday.

Yes, a considerable amount of land is being used to produce feed for animal consumption.

But that ain’t why folks are starving and it’s disingenuous to use that as an argument to promote veganism.

The so-called food deserts of US American cities (and rural areas) and food access have nothing to do with how much food is being produced for animal consumption. Policy, redlining, and structural racism, terminator seeds, cash crop subsidies (welfare), commodity crops, monoculture, and Global South subsistence farmers growing for First World consumers (and not themselves) are why people are starving here, and all over the world.

I’m so sick of this nonsense.

In NYC, incentives intended to spur job creation in low-income neighborhoods paved the way for food access inequities, because they went specifically to fast food eateries. Groceries and supermarkets were not included in the zoning. So there’s a fast food or Chinese takeout joint within a five minute walking radius, but not a green grocer or supermarket.

The money being allocated now to improve fresh food access in NYC is geared towards large-scale supermarket chains, and not for the possible development and improvement of independent convenience stores that make up the 7 out of 10 stores in neighborhoods like the one I live in.

She also said that human bodies are not intended to be graveyards for dead animals.

I find that interesting, considering that plants are living things. Is my stomach not a graveyard for kale?

What I most wanted to ask her, but didn’t, was how many trees went into producing the brochure she was handing out and if she was aware of how toxic color ink is to produce?

Oh well.

Posted by melissa danielle in Animal Ethics, Animal Rights, Environmentalism and Challenges
18 Jul 2012
8 Comments

Eating the Buddhadharma: On Mindfulness, Nutritional Racism, and Food Justice

I recorded this for Turning Wheel’s 2012 food justice series in response to the ad I saw while walking down University Ave in Berkeley CA this summer 2012…

…and wanted to repost it for Sistah Vegan. Go here to follow Turning Wheels’ Buddhist oriented food justice series. For the hearing impaired, Turning Wheel transcribed it.

Posted by Breeze Harper in Animal Ethics, Animal Rights, Race, Class, Gender Issues, Spirituality and Religion and tagged , , , , , ,
06 May 2012
1 Comment

No More Auction Block For Me: On The Dangers of Colonized Minds in Capitalist Society

Cee Knowledge of Digable Planets, Sistah Vegan, DJ Cavem Moetavation at Brown Suga Festival in Denver on April 28 2012. Keynote speaker: A. Breeze Harper (aka Sistah Vegan)

Video recording of Breeze Harper’s April 28 2012 keynote address for the Brown Suga Youth Festival in Denver, Colorado. ATTENTION: THERE ARE 3 PARTS. SCROLL DOWN FOR PARTS II & III.

Part I (47 minutes)

This is the keynote lecture I gave for the April 28 2012 Denver, Colorado “Brown Suga Youth Festival”.  I talk about solidarity, decolonizing our minds, being aware of the dangers of capitalism on our minds, veganism, non-human animals suffering, food justice, and health activism. The first 9 minutes are introductions from the husband wife duo Naembe and Ietef, who put the festival together. I start speaking about 9 minutes into the video. There are 3 parts to this. The last is the q & a.

Part II (12 minutes)

Part III (The Question and Answer section: 11 minutes)

I want you to notice that Ietef and Naembe are both carrying babies. This event was something I could attend because they support folk with very young children. Naembe is carrying my infant daughter and Ietef is carrying their infant daughter as well. They made it possible to bring out my whole family, which is important for us because I nurse on demand. It is a true display of honoring “nursing on demand” as a food justice issues.  I thank them for that. I also thank Ashara, Ietef’s mother, who introduces me. I thank her for her spirit and for birthing such a wonderful man who is pro-vegan and pro-green, and just an overall awesome human spirit.The talk is more like a “songversation” . I sing and have a conversation directed towards youth, about the top 5 things I wish someone had told me when I was a youth. I wanted more help to decolonize my mind in regards to food and health, while trying to understand how capitalism has affected all of our minds, here in the USA.

I am inspired by Angela Davis’s Social Justice Teach-in Keynote speech that she gave in February 2012, at the University of California, Davis.

This Brown Suga Youth Festival was awesome. All about hip hop culture fuse with teaching youths about wellness, health, food!! It was pro-vegan and we had poetry slam, a panel discussion, break dance lessons, free vegan food samples (Thanks Lisa Shapiro), awesome art work, and a lot of youths! It was the 9th year of this festival.

Posted by Breeze Harper in Animal Ethics, Black Females and Vegan Lifestyle Resources, Food, Food Justice and Activism, Health and Healing, Race, Class, Gender Issues
08 Dec 2011
5 Comments

Clifford the Dog Misses His Family and She Doesn’t Care

I give a critical animal perspective to “Clifford”, the book series for children, and talk about one book I read at the library in which it was ‘normalized’ to take a baby from its family to entertain a human being and for that human being to not care that the baby misses its family and cannot see them or be with them.

Posted by Breeze Harper in Animal Ethics and tagged , , ,
22 Nov 2011
2 Comments

Marti Kheel: Paying homage to her work and her inspiration to my Sistah Vegan work

Marti Kheel: Paying homage to her work and her inspiration on my Sistah Vegan work. She passed away on November 19. 2011. Please comment and share your memories about Marti as well on this blog post.

Her book: http://www.amazon.com/Nature-Ethics-Ecofeminist-Perspective-Philosophy/dp/0742552004/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322006023&sr=8-1

Posted by Breeze Harper in Animal Ethics and tagged , , , ,
17 Nov 2011
76 Comments

Video available:: Afrocentrism, vegan methodology of the racially oppressed, and revolutionary black feminism

Last night I spoke at UC Berkeley, and explained the Afrocentric approach to veganism that is race-gender conscious, decolonial, and revolutionary black feminist. I did this because I wanted to explain that there are more than just Eurocentric philosophical ‘ethics’ behind why some people choose veganism. By Eurocentrism, I mean the philosophical canon of ‘ethics and animals’ that dominate the mainstream academic literature in the USA. While Eurocentric philosophy focuses on the ‘ethics’ of non-human animal consumption and non-human animal exploitation, Afrocentric veganism (through Queen Afua) focuses on how veganism becomes a decolonial tool against the unethical abduction and enslavement of Africans and the institutional of chattel slavery; an unethical institution that took away their original plant-centered dietary philosophy and “forcing” them to eat a carnicentric diet. This is what a vegan methodology of the racially oppressed can look like! Video of talk and Q&A :

Part II

If you comment in a way that is obvious you didn’t watch the video, but are “annoyed” that I am looking at race, whiteness, and decolonial theories as a way to understand vegan consciousness, I will not post your comments. For me, it simply doesn’t make sense to receive passive aggressive comments from people who don’t know anything about my work, haven’t watched the video, but then feel like they are “experts” on the subject matter and then wish to “educate” me about my “incorrect”  4+ years of dissertation research and 35 years of racialized-gendered bodily experience as a black female in the USA.  If it’s not enough that I have been “educated”  at Dartmouth College, Harvard University, and now University of California, learned how to engage in qualitative research, and document ongoing themes in vegan cultural practices (themes that are influenced by race, class, gender, whiteness, neoliberalism), then what more can I offer? (I’m being funny with educated in quotations, because of the mainstream assumption that if you just “educate” non-white folk through the “proper” Western university educational system, they will “assimilate” and agree with the perceptions of the white middle class status quo. But if they don’t, they must simply be ‘irrational’ and ‘angry’, and must be “educated more”)


Posted by Breeze Harper in Animal Ethics, Animal Rights, Black Females and Vegan Lifestyle Resources, Health and Healing, Race, Class, Gender Issues, Sexuality and Sexual Orientation and tagged , ,
03 Nov 2011
6 Comments

“White Talk”, Discursive Violence, and Dysconscious Racism: From Vegan Consciousness to Vegan Commodity

Update: So far you have contributed $6900 to my “PhD finish” fund. Thank you so much! I have $3100 to go. We’re getting close! (My funding was not renewed and I couldn’t register for the past fall quarter. If you enjoy my work, you can contribute via Paypal, using the email address breezeharper (at) gmail (dot) com.)

Also, this is where you contributions are going to. Below is the talk I gave at Vassar College last week (October 27, 2011). It is from chapter three of my dissertation. It’s only 1/2 of what I had written. Had I chosen to use the entire chapter, that would have been a 2 hour talk.

Part I

Part II

Posted by Breeze Harper in Animal Ethics, Animal Rights, Race, Class, Gender Issues and tagged , , , , ,

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