Claudia Serrato (Left) and Dr. A. Breeze Harper (Right) at CAER, May 18 2013 discussing Women of Color, Food Justice, and Self-Care
This photo (and video of the lecture below) is from the women of color food justice and self-care panel. This took place at the Conference Against Environmental Racism at the University of Oregon-Eugene, on May 18 2013. The featured critical thinkers are Dr. A. Breeze Harper of the Sistah Vegan Project (on the right) and on the left is Decolonial Food For Thought blogger and PhD Student Claudia Serrato. Claudia’s work is amazing. She is developing indigenous decolonial veganism as well as focusing on something called ‘womb ecology’, which you’ll hear more about during this talk. Also, at the beginning of the panel, Claudia explained that she brings her daughter with her everywhere and asks that everyone be open to sharing this space with her toddler. I find this really profound, as it is rare that women can do this and/or are allowed to do this in the USA. I also shared with the audience that I nurse on demand when my kids were really really young, so I would bring them to many of my conferences; I would even nurse on stage because that is a form of food justice that simply isn’t taken seriously. So, mad props to Claudia.
Below is the video of our recorded panel talk. Get ready to hear about the psychic and nutritional consequences of subscribing to the “Strong Black Woman” syndrome, decolonizing our taste buds, and indigenous decolonial veganism that is not rooted in Eurocentric animal rights canon. I debut my new singing mantra about 7 minutes into the video. It is called “Strong Black Woman”.
From Left to Right: Marima Gray, Giovanna Montenegro, and A. Breeze Harper at the 1st Annual Women of Color Research Conference at UC Davis.
On May 11, 2013, at 12:15 pm, I gave a short talk at University of California-Davis for the Annual Women of Color Conference, which was from 9am-5pm. The video is below. I also included the transcript. I didn’t read exactly from it, but you will get the basic idea.This blog post and video are the continuation of my April 2013 blog reflection‘Racist Cunt’ and Cyberbullying: Ruminations on the Troll Life.
Thank you to those of you who helped to cover my travel costs! I’m truly appreciative!
Title: On [cyber]bullying and racist [micro] aggressions: turning your experiences of discursive violence into opportunities for research and activism
Abstract: I will be discussing the research and activism I did as a PhD student, which investigated whiteness and neoliberalism within vegan spaces. I will draw special attention to how I had to navigate the tremendous amount of direct hate as well as covert racist micro-aggressions that I experienced largely from white identified people. Most importantly, I will speak of how I turned these situations into research and activist opportunities. I will try to answer what I think it means to do this type of work as a critical race feminist and Black woman in a ‘post-racial’ USA.
Full Transcript In March 2013, I finally completed my dissertation and all my PhD requirements. Finally, I was PhD certified as a social scientist to investigate the phenomenon of structural racism and normative whiteness within ethical food movements such as veganism and vegetarianism in the USA.
I know that doctoral studies, and especially the dissertation portion of a doctoral program, can be very difficult for so many graduate students of color. However, I wanted to share with you my personal experiences of specifically doing the work of critical race feminism and critical whiteness studies in spaces that are quite hostile towards those of us- particularly women of color- who debunk the myth that we in a post-racial USA. I also wanted to share with you how repetitive experiences with what I’d call racist micro-aggressions, can be often times inspiring as well a physically, emotionally, and mentally debilitating. The most important question that I have had, since beginning my graduate work until now is: What does it mean for me, as a Black woman, to not play the expected “mammy” role, but to actually investigate the meaning behind this hostility and turn it into a scholarship?
Back in 2007, when I matriculated into Davis’s Geography Graduate Group program, I was dead set on researching 4 or 5 key black female vegans in the USA. I had posted on cyberspace, on as many blogs and other social media apps as possible, that I was releasing my Sistah Vegan Anthology and that I was searching for influential Black women vegans for my doctoral studies. However, I kept on running into what I would consider, hostile responses from white self-identified vegans who seemed rather angry that I was interested in how race and gender influenced not just Black women, but any vergan person’s consciousness in the USA. I tried not to be distracted by these responses, however, I have to admit that it nagged at my consciousness for a very long time. In the fall of 2007, I was invited to give a talk at Pitt, to discuss the concept of using veganism to decolonize the diet. I presented a case study about adjudicated black and brown youths who were introduced to a vegan diet [at an alternative rehabilitation program in Florida]. I solely concentrated on a bell hooks critical race feminist inspired analysis of this case study to my audience. Not once did I mention anything about animal rights, which is the mainstream reason why vegans in the USA feel strongly that people should become vegan. Within a week of giving that talk, an audience member emailed me. She was under the impression that I was quite “rude” to only talk about how at risk youths were utilizing a ‘decolonizing’ vegan diet to fight against white supremacist structures that make it so ‘easy’ for black and brown boys to enter the Prison Industrial Complex. She had let me know that it was “misleading” to give a talk about veganim and never talk about the TRUE purpose of veganism: which is really only about saving the lives of non-human animals. At the end of her email she also let me know that I needed to dress more professionally to be take seriously.
I forwarded her email to the person who had invited me to give the paid talk. Coincidentally, he actually knew who she was; she was a student of his and he had let me know that unfortunately, she reflected the ‘post-racial’ white entitled attitude that so many from her white Pittsburgh suburban neighborhood represented. Even though this happened 6 years ago, it highlights many of the similar emails, posts, and real world interactions I have had with white vegans who have heard about my Sistah Vegan Anthology, have viewed my recorded lectures, or attended my keynote addresses.
In 2010, I passed my qualifying exams and presented to my committee, that I still would be looking at the history of Black female vegans in the USA. They approved my proposal. However, about a month later, I found myself going through my collected emails and posts of ‘post-racial’ racist microagressions from white people, mostly vegan or vegetarian. Something was definitely there, but I didn’t know what I should do about it. I couldn’t lie to myself and say that it didn’t “hurt” to be constantly blasted with such vitriol, despite me always being ‘professional’, backing up my analysis with the strong canon of critical race, black feminism, and critical whiteness literature, and being ‘mindful’ towards mostly white audience participants. So, I was at a serious crossroads. I knew my dilemma was not an isolated event within the alternative food and food justice movement. I had privately shared my hurt and pain with a plethora of other food activists of color who were trying to understand how to deal with such hostility towards them, when they would try to explain to white foodies how white supremacy, as a structure, is embedded in the food system.
About a month after having my proposal passed, I told my advisor that I just couldn’t become as excited about researching solely Black female vegans, and that if possible, I would like to understand the hate, anger, and denial from the collectivity of white, mostly vegan people that had contacted me. I felt like a needed to create a type of critical race literacy model for a post-racial era of whites in the USA who sincerely though they were ‘good’ people for eating ‘ethically’, ‘vegan’, and or ‘vegetarian’, but were simply unable to grasp how race, whiteness, and globalized capitalism organized the food system, organized their consciousness around ethical consumption, and influenced them to be unaware of racial power dynamics.
Yes, I finished my dissertation, but I won’t lie to you: it was very very difficult. I spent days wondering if I had chosen the right path. Despite trying to create this much needed critical race literacy model for the hip and rising vegan movement, my soul and mental health seemed to suffer greatly. I began to have trouble with balancing the comments, emails, and even real world audience’s covertly angry questions about the scholarly-activist work I had chosen to do. I also began to wonder if it was worth it. The anxiety attacks I would get every time I would be asked to lecture at a university was difficult. I’d often show up and see how often, most of the audience was white, and then I would think to myself, How would they respond to what I had to say and was I putting my safety in jeopardy?
In November of 2011, I was asked to give a talk about veganism and critical studies of race at UC Berkeley. I decided to talk about how Queen Afua’s veganiusm is an Afrocentric response to colonial whiteness and response to the legacies of slavery that have manifested as black health disparities and inequities in food and health access. I was never allowed to complete my lecture, as I was constantly interrupted by white audience members who were irritated that Afua asked black women to practice veganism for decolonizing their food practices and did not mention anything about animal rights. Despite me trying to explain that the kitchen is not oppressive for all women, and that historically, second wave white middle-class feminists have a collectively different relationship to the kitchen space than black women, I was also interrupted by white women who were irritated that Afua’s sense of Black female empowerment meant Black women should reclaim the kitchen space as the central site of resistance and Black nation building. Yes, one can agree with me; it’s okay. But the lack of respect and sense of entitlement to not even let me finish my talk and not wait to bring these these issues up during q and a was quite telling. I was the ‘formal’, ‘articulate’, and professional ‘accommodating’ negro, while they were allowed to be the opposite…. and without repercussions. If this was indicative of my ‘professional future’, then I wasn’t sure if I should just get the hell out now.
But no, I didn’t. After calming down my enraged and broken heart, my dissertation chapter on Afua continued, and I was inspired to provide more evidence the next few months, why Afrocentric veganism came about. But I also beat myself up privately for having bitten my tongue and being ‘nice’ to the audience members who had disrespected me. Did they not know or care? Was I being an ‘emotional mammy’ by trying to be nice and to not hurt their feelings? What exactly was my role as a black feminist scholar and activist? When do you just stop being ‘nice’ because it is at the expense of your own health?
In this video, I answer Dianna’s question about nutritional healing and necessary support to combat the stress of being seen as the ‘token negro’ or ‘affirmative action’ case in a largely white environment. This video is part of my new series, “Ask Dr. Breeze”, which I will showcase on the Sistah Vegan blog, but also its own website askdrbreeze.com . Dianna also refers to an earlier video I recorded last fall, that was about recipes for racial tension headaches.
Above are the two videos from my most recent talk that I gave on November 1, 2012 at Boston University in Boston, Massachusetts. The topic I was to address was “Intersectionality of Oppressions: A Look at How Race and Gender Shape the Vegan Experience in the USA.” The title of the talk that I gave to examine this topic was called “Feeding a Black Nation: Decolonial Vegan Politics and Queen Afua’s Kitchen.” It was hosted by the Boston University Vegetarian Society and Center for Gender, Sexuality, and Activism.
I had a really great time. I also let everyone know that this talk is from a dissertation chapter that is still in its draft stages, “So bare with me as I try to work out a lot of the theoretical stuff I talk about at the very beginning.” I’m also functioning off of 2.5 hours of sleep and flew across country and basically went directly to the talk. Whew, crazy day getting there but it was well worth it. I think the Q&A session was the best because the questions were very critical and engaging.
The next day, I had brunch with a bunch of friends and my twin brother, Talmadge, who I had not seen in person in over 2 years. We video Skype several times a week, but this was a gazillion times better. We ate at Central Sq. in Cambridge at a place called Veggie Galaxy, owned by the same people who run Veggie Planet. It’s vegan and vegetarian diner style.
Talmadge Harper and Breeze Harper at Veggie Galaxy. Cambridge, MA. November 2, 2012.
Lastly, I mentioned a few titles at the end of the video. Here they are with a few more that may be of use. I think Barthes is really excellent as a semiologist because he can help folk understand how food ‘signifies’ and communicates an entire society’s “attitude” about life in general.
Afua, Queen. Sacred Woman: A Guide to Healing the Feminine Body, Mind, and Spirit. New York: Ballantine Publishing Group, 2000.
Barthes, Roland. Mythologies. New York,: Hill and Wang, 1972.
Barthes, Roland. Elements of Semiology. 1st American ed. New York: Hill and Wang, 1968.
Grosfoguel, Ramón, and Ana Margarita Cervantes-Rodríguez. The Modern/Colonial/Capitalist World-System in the Twentieth Century : Global Processes, Antisystemic Movements, and the Geopolitics of Knowledge, Contributions in Economics and Economic History, No. 227. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2002.
Lewis, Tania, and Emily Potter. Ethical Consumption: A Critical Introduction. New York: Routledge, 2010.
Sandlin, Jennifer A., and Peter McLaren. Critical Pedagogies of Consumption: Living and Learning in the Shadow of The “Shopocalypse”. Edited by Joel Spring, Sociocultural, Political, and Historical Studies in Education. New York: Routledge, 2010.
Sullivan, Shannon, and Nancy Tuana. Race and Epistemologies of Ignorance, Suny Series, Philosophy and Race. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2007.
Warren, John T. Performing Purity : Whiteness, Pedagogy, and the Reconstitution of Power. New York: Peter Lang, 2003
Zuberi, Tukufu, and Eduardo Bonilla-Silva. White Logic, White Methods : Racism and Methodology. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2008.
Yesterday was a big day for the San Francisco Zen Center (SFZC), in San Francisco California. It was the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the center. To celebrate, SFZC invited co-founder Richard Baker to give the morning talk. Later that evening, Greens restaurant hosted the party and food event. It was completely sold out. I’d say about 150-200 people were there. 3 black people were there, including myself. It was overall white bodied event. No surprise there, I’m used to it.
But I did think the most awkward/funniest things that happened yesterday afternoon and last night were the plethora of questions and comments I got about my earrings. If you look at the picture above, you’ll see that these are the earrings that I was wearing last night. I wear them all the time. And there is an interesting narrative that goes along with these earrings.
Since purchasing these a year or so ago, I have gotten about 50 people asking me, “Hey, is that Angela Davis?” or “Cool, Angela Davis earrings!” I am not exaggerating that EVERY single person who has said one of these two lines to me is white. Last night, 8 different white people at the party celebration added to the same narrative by asking the very same question.
Okay, I’m not angry, not surprised, but a little disappointed that one cannot tell the difference between Angela Davis and Nina Simone. These women do not look a like AT ALL. And never have I had any brown or black person mistaken Nina Simon for Angela Davis.
And by the way, I also own a pair of Pam Grier earrings. When I wear those, she is also mistaken for Angela Davis.
Yes, overall I really enjoyed the event last night. Great celebration and memories of the Zen center’s past 50 years. Green Gulch Zen Center is beautiful and I have developed amazing relationships there, so I thank the co-founders for making these sites possible. I deeply appreciate what I have learned from Zen Buddhism and the practice’s impact on how I constantly try to be mindful and compassionate– including how I try to teach largely white racialized subjects about systemic whiteness and structural racism. But I have to admit that I am quite disappointed in the mistake of seeing Simone as Angela Davis because that ‘mistake’ potentially represents an overall problem of recognizing the impact of a homogenous Zen fellowship: what does racial homogeneity do to the collective white racialized subject’s consciousness if they participate in a mostly white (and quite financially stable) Buddhist fellowship in a nation in which whiteness is privileged? I actually wish that white dominated Buddhist fellowships would add a rule that everyone has to participate in ‘mindfulness whiteness ‘ sesshins. It would be great if an added tenet to Buddhism, for such congregations, could be, “We shall learn about how structural racism and whiteness impact our Zen practice. We shall be open and loving to transforming ourselves and not become angry as we learn about how white racial formation has deeply affected our Zen hearts.”
In addition to the Davis/Simone mix-up, there seemed to be a fixation on my hair. I struggled to accept the 11 observations I received from the people participating in the celebration of the event. Earlier that morning, when I had attended the Richard Baker talk at the SFZC. I had entered a packed room, searching for my friend who had reserved a zafu seat for me. I was wearing my black pants and coral colored shirt. I had my hair in the usual natural afro style (but wearing white earrings, not Simone). I found my way into the room as the event was being videoed and live-streamed into the cafeteria next door and worldwide.
After the talk, I was approach by 5 different people telling me I really ‘stood’ out when I entered the room and that my hair was really ‘cool’ (Got 6 more of these comments later that night). Okay, don’t get me wrong: I absolutely love my huge afro and enjoy wearing it with pride. But I started feeling uncomfortable about it and I wasn’t sure what was going on. Was I being paranoid or was there something truly deeply wrong with the constant ‘comments’ directed towards my obvious ‘blackness’? Perhaps it was their way to make me feel comfortable as a ‘black’ person there, so they automatically pointed out the one thing that really makes me stand out as ‘black’ (my afro) to let me know that it’s in fact ‘cool’ and ‘okay’ that I and my ‘big’ afro hair are there (?) Okay, I get the effort to be hospitable, and perhaps many of these folk are aware of the ‘lack of diversity’ issue at SFZC, so that is why they have gone out of their way to let me know that my ‘blackness’ is welcomed(?) I’m not dismissing them or angry about it, but I am admitting that it did make me feel quite uncomfortable…and the observations about my hair continued, 5 hours later, at the party celebration at Greens restaurant that evening.
And though I won’t mention his name, a prominent Zen Buddhist figure in the community was talking to my male friend briefly, telling him several times, “Wow, did you see that attractive black woman? Who is she?” and mentioning my cool afro.( And this prominent figure is married, mind you). Once my friend told me about the conversation, and coupled with the other comments about my hair that day and evening… I felt “exotified.” Maybe it would have been a different feeling if it weren’t such a white event, but I felt incredibly uncomfortable and throughout the entire evening, kept on thinking, “If mindfulness is a tenet of our Buddhist practice, why isn’t their a more collective mindfulness around the issues of how whiteness affect even Zen Buddhist fellowship?”
And lastly, to end the night, two women performed an “Asian” dance. They were dressed in all white: stellito shoes, leggings, corset, white wigs, and their eyes were done-up in make-up to ‘mimic ‘Japanese eyes’ (or perhaped more ‘Asianized eyes’ in the way that they may have thought that Japanese eyes are ‘supposed’ to look (?) ). They were twirling around parisols with Japanese art on them for a good 25 minutes while the rest of the crowd danced in fromt of them, clapping away enthusiastically. …Um, another uncomfortable moment for me, at least, because these women were white and I didn’t understand what or how this had anything to do with the tradition of Zen Buddhism and the celebration of SFZC. They were dancing to 90s music in a stereotypical ‘Asian submissive sensuous’ style. I was wondering how this was ‘okay’, and if I was the only one thinking that this was a form of Japanse minstrelsy. I guess you had to be there to know what I was talking about, but it just didn’t feel ‘right’. We’re in San Francisco, so was it not possible to instead ask Japanese Zen Buddhist people who also dance traditional styles, to do a performance instead of using make-up on white women to make their eyes look ‘Asian’, and then have them dress up in that manner? Maybe there should be more awareness around issues of Orientalism that Edward Said brilliantly wrote about?
I am not dismissing or knocking the dancing talent of these two women, but rather focusing on the context of the situation in which they are dancing in/for.
I don’t expect you readers to agree with all that I say, but these are my observations and what I personally felt. It doesn’t make it fact, but I always feel like I need to be honest and direct about how I am feeling. I am hoping that I can approach the SFZC rather soon about my observations and hope that they consider what my feelings may mean. I just have to figure out how to present it in the whole ‘”I’m not an angry overly sensitive black woman trying to guilt white people” way.
Though I did feel uncomfortable at times, I did enjoy the overall day and evening, the food, connecting with people, and dancing. I appreciated the time and effort that it took to put the event together, and was excited to come and see Richard Baker talk (especially since he apparently left the center on ‘bad terms’, a long time ago) to see if he could reflect on the ‘drama’ that happened so long ago. Dinner was awesome, and even though there were no vegan desserts available at this vegetarian restaurant, one of the waiters said she was vegan. She understood my sadness about not being able to eat dessert, went back into the kitchen and then came back with blackberry sorbet and vegan shortbread cookies for me. Yum!
“Webinar: Black women’s hair CAN grow: Food and Herbs to grow you hair”
Despite the myth about it being difficult to grow and manage your hair without relaxers and thermal straighteners, black women’s hair can grow and this webinar will teach you how to do it. Growing your hair and having a natural (i.e. afro) is possible through holistic vegan and herbal methods. In this webinar, I will teach you what foods and herbs you can take, as well as put on your hair and scalp, that will help your hair grow, become stronger, and healthier. In addition, I will be teaching you how to care for your hair from a pro-vegan perspective. I will also focus a portion of this webinar to growing you hair back, after giving birth.
Postpartum hair loss is all too common amongst women. I know women who had children 2 or 3 years ago and continue to have hair loss and thinning problems. With a few tips from me, they were able to grow their hair back.
Date: August 25, 2012 Time: 10:00 am PST
Cost: $29.95
Duration: 1 hour
Technology requirements: a computer with a fast internet connection and a free WebEx account (my webinars are hosted through WebEx, so if you don’t want to call a regular phone number to access it and then pay per minute, you can join the webinar with a password via a free WebEx account).
How to pay: please sent payment to my PayPal account. My email associated with that account is breezeharper (at) gmail (dot) com. In the memo field please type in “haircareAug25.”
Disclaimer: I am not a certified practitioner or medical doctor. Please consult with your practitioner before trying any of the foods or herbs that I recommend.
I drove through Gaviota, CA last recently with the kids. We stopped at Classic Organic farm and picked our own strawberries and raspberries. In this video I talk about how picking your own fruit is not always a ‘fun’ hobby, depending on how your grew up (for example, if you are working as a harvester under poor conditions).
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.
The videos below are my keynote address for the Environmental Justice Conference on April 7 2012 at the University of Oregon-Eugene, hosted by the Coalition Against Environmental Racism. I speak about Angelia Davis’s ‘vegan’ stance on social justice, Queen Afua’s Afrocentric veganism as a form of decolonial politics, and how Sistah Vegan fills the ‘gaps’ that I see in some of the Afrocentric and Afrikan Holistic Health rhetoric. I think it went “well” if you consider the fact that Eva Luna kept me awake all nite and then I had to wake up at 530 (after finally falling asleep at 430) to catch my morning flight. I love how babies don’t understand they should sleep when it is dark and that they should not want to play.
I also wanted to share this: I registered for school finally. Wahoo! Thank you all for your generous donations. I almost have everything that I need to pay off the bill that I just received last week. I am $900, short, so if you would like help with donations I appreciate it. This will help me be enrolled for spring and summer. I accept paypal donations to the email address breezeharper (at) gmail (dot) com. Your donations help me do the work that Ido and I truly appreciate it.
Part I
Part II
I did want to note that in the talk I say that Queen Afua’s Sacred Woman doesn’t mention the terms animal rights, speciesism, or animal liberation. However, she draws her healing philosophies from the principles of Ma’at, that have the stipulation of “I shall not mistreat animals.” I did not make this clear during my lecture, so I do apologize.
In this video, I am talking at Southwestern University’s “Brown Symposium: Back to the Foodture”, which looks at food from all different perspectives. This took place in Georgetown, TX on February 27, 2012
Also, these are the things I want to mention but didn’t get a chance to. I also want to give more context to this video.
This took place in Texas, at a university that was overwhelmingly white called Southwestern University. I have never been to Texas and didn’t know what to expect, since I had been invited to literally talk about race, whiteness, and veganism: three things I thought would probably be difficult to talk about in Texas. LOL. But I am conditioned to think these things because of media constructions of Texas. Of course Texas is not a monolith and that Rick Perry doesn’t necessarily represent a definitive consciousness of all living in Texas who are white racialized subjects.
Was given a vegan care package of “tastes of Texas” and discovered that Texas makes olives and olive oil. Was give the local brand “Texas Olive Ranch.” I was excited because I love olive oil tasting! Click here: Texas Olive Ranch
I really appreciated the mindfulness around “where my food comes from” by the students there. Southwestern University definitely has a “green” and “social justice” conscious. I certainly felt this throughout my stay there. Students held a food exhibition event in which audiences could learn about local food justice, food and sustainability, and food/nutrition education initiatives occurring in the local area. I met a young woman who was excited about figuring out creative ways for young children to enjoy “healthy” foods that most would think is “tasteless”.
Mad props go out to Laura Hobgood-Oster and Sue Smith for pulling this event off and really being their for us keynote speakers. Laura did something that I never seem to receive: being taken seriously as a professional woman who also wants to put her newborn FIRST. When I originally was asked to attend and be a keynote speaker, I think I signed my contract BEFORE I knew I was pregnant with Eva Luna (who is now 6.5 months old). Several months ago, I had the the courage to ask Laura if I could bring my daughter with me because I nurse on demand and do not want to leave her home on formula for two days. I asked if I could get this support, which would mean I would need a babysitter for about 2.5 hours for two of the talks I was required to give. Not only did she say yes, she and others made sure I had a stroller, a car seat, a high chair, a Pack n Play to make sure Eva Luna was comfortable. This is what it looks like to support a woman who wants to simultaneously do the type of work I do and be there for her newborn. It seriously takes a village y’all, and I thank Laura and others for simply understanding this.
Professor Michael Cooper is awesome. I had dinner with him with other faculty on Monday evening. He is a music professor and he was uber excited that I had begun my talk with a song. He got me thinking about how I can merge my love of music with food justice. I told him about hip hop musicians/activists/vegans Supa Nova Slom, DJ Cavem Moetavation, and Stic.Man, and how I would love to do a post-doctoral research fellow that allows me to research how these young men are fusing hip hop consciousness with vegan food consciousness.
I got to meet Winona LaDuke, but have to admit that even though we were both keynote speakers, I was too shy to talk more. I am stupid for being shy, so sorry Winona if you’re wondering why I didn’t try to talk more.
The original title of my talk is something I didn’t explain during my talk. The original title in the Food symposium brochure is “On Being and Not Being the Wretched of the Earth: A Critical Race Feminist Analysis of Vegan Consciousness”. The reference of Wretched of the Earth is a book title by psychoanalysist and anti-racist, anti-colonialist Frantz Fanon. The Wretched the Earth refers to those who have been racialized as “black subjects” and gone through hell due to a white supremacist/colonial society. My title inferred that those who are collectively part of the demographic of “wretched of the earth” (brown and black demographic I am studying in veganism) and those who are not (white middle class collectivity) have thematically different relationships with food, veganism, and the concept of animal rights.
Lastly, I am going to admit this now: what I am reading to the audience was completely IMPROV. I had written a 23 page talk about whiteness and vegan consciousness that I was going to read, but then literally changed my mind once I arrived on stage and felt that maybe I should talk about something else, or at least try to convey race, food, and consciousness in a very different way than what I had planned. I am a very open person, so I will admit that I had anxiety around talking only about whiteness to an audience of what seemed to be mostly white people, despite the energy of the campus being “liberal”. After my talk, an older white man came up to me and introduced himself as a speech coach. He said my message was powerful, but got lost in the 153 times I said “kind of”. I explained to him that I was nervous, had done it improv, and that I said “kind of ” because of the psychological difficulty I was having with talking about “whiteness” in that environment. I was intimidated. I will have to work on this, but I am wondering if he fully understood my reasons for being nervous. However, I do thank him for letting me know I said “kind of” and “um” one million times. I can try to be conscious of that and not say it next time, even when or if I am nervous.
Breeze Harper
melissa danielle
