The Sistah Vegan Project

28 Mar 2013
5 Comments

Ask Dr. Breeze: How do I grow my hair back because of postpartum hair loss?

1. High protein diet (70-90g per day if you are lactating)

2. Diet high in the ‘good’ fats, such as avocados, coconut, and walnuts.

4. Maca Root. 1 tsp per day, in the morning, mixed in a smoothie or cooled down hot cereal, or some yogurt. Don’t take on an empty stomach, it could irritate it. Don’t take after 3pm or you may not sleep. Take for 3 days and get off 1 day.

5. Nettles tea. 3 tbsp of nettles leaf to 12 oz of water. Simmer the nettles leaf for 3 minutes in the 12 0z of water to neutralize the stinging component. Drink 2 cups per day, several times per week.

6. Use black and clear castor oil. Rub the oil (mix with a thinner oil to thin it out and make it easier to apply) on thinning parts of your hair. I rubbed it on my hair line. You can also add a few drops to your shampoo and conditioner. You can put a large amount onto your hair and wear a cap on it for about an hour and then shampoo it out and add conditioner.

Timeline of Hair Loss and Recovery

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November 2011. Lost one whole inch from my hair line. You can see the little bits of fuzzy hair around the edges that will break off completely in the next few weeks. I am 3 months postpartum here.

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November 2012. Hair line has come back. Hair is stronger, shinier, and thicker. I have it pulled back, but it’s actually down to my shoulders.

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March 2013. Hairline fully recovered.

Disclaimer: I am not a medical doctor. Please consult with your physician or practitioner before attempting anything I have suggested.

Posted by Breeze Harper in Health and Healing, Natural Haircare (Animal-Free), Pregnancy & Breastfeeding and tagged , , , ,
19 Mar 2013
3 Comments

“Never Be Silent”: On Trayvon Martin, PETA, and the Packaging of Neoliberal Whiteness

 

Posted by Breeze Harper in Animal Rights, Food Justice and Activism, Race, Class, Gender Issues, Upcoming Events and tagged , , ,
08 Mar 2013
31 Comments

I am now Dr. Amie “Breeze” Harper…and you all helped to make it possible

Today it became official: I am Dr. Amie “Breeze” Harper. Thank you to everyone who helped to make this possible.

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The photo above is of me holding my baby daughter this morning with the document stating I have been awarded my PhD.

Dissertation Title: Vegan Consciousness and the Commodity Chain: On the Neoliberal, Afrocentric, and Decolonial Politics of ‘Cruelty-Free.’

Dissertation Abstract

In this dissertation, I analyze how neoliberal whiteness, race consciousness, decolonization, and anti-racism operate within three different vegan food guides: PETA’s Vegan Shopping Guide, Queen Afua’s Sacred Woman, and Food Empowerment Project’s Ethical Food Choices. PETA, Queen Afua, and Food Empowerment Project are all located within the landscape of vegan politics to produce “ethical” spaces across multiple scales (i.e. consciousness, the body and the home). However, these three sites represent different engagements with food commodities for achieving ethical consumption. Such differences are not so much about food, as much as they are about the social, political, and economic relationships underlying the food commodity chain. This manuscript will reveal that these ‘differing’ vegan guides, actually effect and are affected by whiteness; both in its historical (i.e. colonial whiteness and Jim Crow segregation) and contemporary forms (i.e. neoliberal whiteness). These connections will be revealed and articulated through the primary framework of critical race materialism and the lens of critical food studies.

Chapter two is titled “’Never Be Silent’: On Trayvon Martin, PETA and the Packaging of Neoliberal Whiteness”. Vegan tomato products and So Delicious® are advocated as “cruelty-free” in PETA’s online Vegan Shopping Guide. I will engage critical race materialist and decolonial analysis of the meanings PETA has applied to these two commodities. Such analysis will reveal how PETA’s marketing of vegan products, as “cruelty-free,” conceals human exploitation that makes these foods possible. I also show how PETA’s ‘anti-racist’ use of Trayvon Martin’s 2012 murder for their new campaign, signify how both post-humanism and post-racialism work to conceal the violence of neoliberalism and racism.

Chapter three is titled, “Feed a Wom[b]man, Feed the Black Nation: Afrocentric Vegan Politics and Queen Afua’s Kitchen.” Queen Afua is one of the most popular and widely read health activists amongst Black women in the USA. In this chapter, I analyze the food that Sacred Woman recommends or abhors to ‘purify’, ‘decolonize,’ and ‘liberate’ Black Americans from legacies of colonialism and racism. First, through an Afrocentric framework, I show how Afua’s vegan philosophy resists anti-black conceptualizations of Black women as “unfeminine” and “breeders.” After this analysis, I use Black feminist theorizing to explore how the meanings Afua places on particular vegan commodities simultaneously reproduces heterosexist, ableist, and black middle-class ‘reformist’ conceptualizations of a ‘healthy’ Black nation.

Lastly chapter four is named “Food Empowerment Project and the Underside of Veganized Modernity.” Food Empowerment Project (FEP) is a pro-vegan food justice organization in South Bay California. They place great emphasis on farmworker rights and alleviating environmental racism. I show that their Ethical Food Choices guide exposes how neoliberalism, corporate-capitalist profits, and hyper-consumerism dictate “ethical” vegan marketing schemes and labels such as “sustainable,” “ethically sourced,” and “Fair Trade.” They achieve this by re-signifying the neoliberal meaning of ‘sustainable’ palm oil products and cocoa, to reflect the cruel and unethical conditions they create. Analysis of FEP’s boycott of popular ‘eco-conscious’ and ‘sustainable’ labeled vegan brands Earth Balance® and CLIF Bar® will be undertaken.

Ultimately, this dissertation articulates how something as `mundane’ as vegan food guides can be used to create new critical literacies around ethical consumption and racial dynamics, as well as reveal how neoliberal whiteness operates within the food commodity chain.

 

Posted by Breeze Harper in Race, Class, Gender Issues, Scientific/Social Science Based Research
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 , , , , ,
05 Feb 2013
3 Comments

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

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’?”:

Critical Race and Decolonial Approaches to Ethical Consumption in the USA

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: March 17, 2013; 11:00 am – 1:00 pm PST.

Webinar Cost: $29.95

Pre-requisites: Though all are welcomed to enroll, this class is for beginners who are curious about how race and class matter and affect mainstream vegan consumer philosophy. 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)

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 $29.95 to the paypal email of breezeharper (at) gmail (dot) com. Please type in the message box of the payment as “March172013 ” and the subject heading “March172013″ 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.

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 Upcoming Events, Webinar and tagged , ,
25 Jan 2013
3 Comments

[Fountain] penning whiteness as the civilized norm

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In January of 2013, I was in Munich, Germany walking around downtown. I adore the art of pre-digital writing tools such as parchment paper and fountain pens, so naturally I became excited when I saw a store that sold fountain pens. I went in and had a terrific time looking at the hundreds of styles of fountain pens, ranging  in price from 5 Euros to over 5,000 Euros.

But I did notice something that I have always noticed when looking at the ‘special’ editions of fountain pens that have been sold by the most ‘elite’ fountain pen companies: the special edition commemorates and perpetuates the narrative that the greatest artists, writers, philosophers and scientists are always white/lighter skinned people from the Occident (i.e. Europe).

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W.E.B. DuBois, James Baldwin, Edward Said, Frantz Fanon, and Nella Larsen fall into my personal category of “greatest thinkers” that I would love to see represented in a line of commemorative fine fountain pens. Thus yet, I have never seen such commemoration of these ‘types’ of great thinkers while I have been living in the global West. While perusing fountain pens on on-line stores, I have failed to see anything like this as well. Of course there are many reasons for this, but the most obvious to me is that my “great thinker’s” ideas do not promote a ‘civilized norm’ for the producers and collective clientele of fine writing pens such as Mont Blanc. If anything, their ideas, political stance, activism, etc., greatly contest the normativity of Eurocentricism as the benchmark of “superior” art, math, science, and philosophy. And yes, I do know that companies like Mont Blanc are trying to appeal to a demographic of people that can afford $3000+ pens, and that this demographic is most likely white and of European descent…. But, I just wanted to share my thoughts of what was going on through my head while looking at the ‘special edition’ of fountain pens.

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What are your thoughts about this?

Posted by Breeze Harper in Race, Class, Gender Issues and tagged , , , , ,
23 Jan 2013
6 Comments

“How do you like Germany so far? I mean, you’re Black”: On [Anti-]Racism and Food Erotica

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Breeze Harper, 2012 New Years Eve at a club in München. Failed afro attempt. Ended looking like a ‘poodle.’ The Afro just wouldn’t stay up. LOL.

On December 30, 2012, I went to one of the few cafes open on Sunday in Germany. The manager tried to speak to me in German, but I failed big time and answered in Spanish. I do this weird thing that when I’m spoken to in German,  I respond in Spanish 50% of the time. Weird, no? Talk to me in Spanish and I will respond in English 50% of the time. Anyway, I digress…

…The manager ended up speaking to me in Spanish and English. After a few minutes of chatting about where I learned Spanish and what I am doing in Germany, he bluntly said, “How do you like Germany so far? I mean, [because] you’re Black.” I replied that I get stared at all the time, but I’m still enjoying myself. He folded his arms and shook his head, “Germany is full of Nazis once you leave the metropolitan [München] area. They are racists.” He shook his head, “I don’t really like it [here in Germany]. I don’t have a problem with anybody, black, white, whatever, but they do.” I have to admit that this is the first time I have encountered someone living in München, during my trip, who  offered to share this particular interpretation of Germany with me. I couldn’t agree with him about Germany being ‘full of Nazis’, as I have only spent most of my time in the metropolitan area. I was wondering how he was even defining the word ‘Nazi’, or was that his way of explaining that he encountered a significant number of white Germans who are ‘xenophobic’?

I told him that I get stared at in the USA all the time, once I leave most cities and enter mostly white areas, so my Germany experience is not a surprise for me. I was unable to read his ethnicity, but he  did not ‘pass’ as white– or, rather, how I have come to define ‘whiteness’, which is in the USA socio-historical context. He had an olive complexion and black hair.

The other day, someone commented on my post about my Tollwood experience, wishing that my in-laws move somewhere in which I would feel ‘at home’ versus a ‘racialized other.’ I appreciated their concern about me not feeling as comfortable or ‘at home’ as I should be in predominantly white spaces, but in my opinion, my in-laws shouldn’t have to move anywhere for me (or anyone else who doesn’t look like the ‘tribe’ of a particular region) to feel ‘at home.’ I would like to see that my in laws ‘stay’ and that Germany’s white collective consciousness continue to ‘move’ more forward, towards a creation of an unconditional love for all people who exist in these [socially constructed] borders of the German nation. Let’s remember: Germany has come a long way since the era of nationalized and institutionalized white supremacist Nazism. The mere fact that I can travel to here, get around the city, and be alive at the end of the day is an indication of a ‘move’ of national consciousness. But I am still really thinking about the cafe manager’s brief conversation with me and his strong use– maybe even inflammatory (?)– of the phrase, “Germany is full of Nazis….” Actually, in tandem with this, I think this about my own homeland: “USA is full of white supremacists who have no problem publicly displaying their enragement about the POTUS being non-white.” Fresh in my mind is the Facebook page that depicts Obama being lynched, with the caption “Rope”, instead of “Hope”with the sentence, “Hang the bastard.”

But, I am hopeful. The other day, while waiting for the S Bahn (subway train) at Rosenheimer platz , I saw an advertisement on one of the many widescreen monitors they have on the subway walls. Portrayed was a ‘brown’ man accidently bumping into someone at a biergarten. He trips and accidently touches the shoulder of a white woman sitting down. The white man across from her becomes very angry and violent that this ‘brown’ man touched her. He grabs the brown man and is about to beat him up. The image freezes and then pans out to show that all of Germany is watching and will NOT tolerate such racialized and violent responses/behaviors to this ‘brown’ man’s sincere mistake. I didn’t know this was going on until the captions were translated for me. Has anyone else seen these ads? I have been trying to search for them on the Internet all morning.

Food Erotica!!!!!

On New Year’s Eve, I visited a shopping center dedicated to edible yumminess. My end goal was the new vegan shoppe called Boonian. Not all the photos below are from Boonian. The first ones are from Boonian. I spoke with the founder and he is from South Dakota, USA. I ended up eating a seitan sandwich and broccoli salad for lunch.

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Sandwich: Seitan yumminess from Boonian.

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And array of vegan wines offered by Boonian….

And wishing these were vegan……

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Posted by Breeze Harper in Food, Race, Class, Gender Issues and tagged , , , , , , ,
21 Jan 2013
11 Comments

Tollwood, [Not] Getting Drunk, and More Damn Staring: Sistah Vegan in Europe Part III

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Breeze Harper at Tollwood. December 22, 2012.

Don’t let the picture of me smiling fool you. I’m at Tollwood, the ginormous Christmas Market in München  Germany. I have not had alcohol since 2007, because I am usually pregnant or nursing. And when I did drink, it was once a year on my birthday….

…But here I am, trying to stomach the smell of traditional hot wine drink with spices called Glühwein. The aroma alone was literally making me feel nauseous. Every time I smell it, I quiver with chills. But hey, I’m in the Fatherland, so when in Rome….

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3 German bartenders who cheerfully sold me this “elixir of life!”

Um, this drink does not taste good. I had one cup and I didn’t get drunk. Didn’t even get a buzz…just wanted to vomit. And seriously, don’t take what I say too serious. Once again, remember: You’re talking to someone who hasn’t had a drink since 2007. My concept of ‘drinking’ involves raw kale blended with water and Spirulina. Generally, I’m so sensitive to alcohol that if you said “Nyquil,” I will just pass out drunk….On a slightly different note….

Another “Look, a Negro”! experience!!!

Inside one of the eatery tents, 3 young women stared at me forever and whispered when I passed by. My friend was like, “Wow, that’s weird. Why are they staring at you like that?” He then decided to go back and ask the girls, but they just giggled and pretended to be too shy to respond.

Okay blog followers, next time this happens, I am whipping out my camera and will video record me asking why folk are staring at me. Seriously, we need answers! It’s a mystery I will solve before I head back to Berkeley CA!

Posted by Breeze Harper in Food
19 Jan 2013
9 Comments

“Look, a Negro!” and Vegan Cheese Heaven: Sistah Vegan in Europe Part II

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Okay, when I tasted this cheese, it was from half opened package that was in my mother in law’s refrigerator. It was marked with the label vegan, so I ate it thinking it was vegan.

But it couldn’t be.

It tasted so damn good. Like no other vegan cheese I had ever tasted before.

I was convinced my mother in law had used an old vegan cheese package for her real dairy cheese.

But then I opened a new package of one and tasted it and could not believe it. It was vegan, but it tasted like cow dairy.

Why don’t I have access to this in California. Sorry to you Daiya lovers out there, but Wilmersburger rules! 

On a different, note…. I’m kinda getting sick of being stared at in München these days. Perhaps I am hyper-sensitive (the ‘safe’ term to use when you are a black woman calling out people’s racialized curiosities), but damn. Didn’t yo mama ever teach you not to stare at people! It’s rude and impolite...

…perhaps [white] folk in Germany aren’t taught that? I mean, there is ‘glancing’ at a person that you are curious about for micro second and then there is STARING for 10, 20, 25 seconds. Yea, I got the afro, but that can’t be it. And yea, I’m pushing around my “lighter than me” babies in the stroller and perhaps there is some ‘confusion’ as how it’s possible that these babies could be mine? Just really weird stares that give the vibe of not ‘innocent’ curiosity, but stares that give the energy “you are not one of us, racially or nationally; you seem out of place”. This 9 or 10 year old girl on the train the other day would not stop staring at me FOREVER. I do not remember experiencing this in München when I was here in Summer 2010. I was like, “Yes, I’m a negro!” I am not making this up! (Okay, I am making up the part about telling her, ‘Yes, I’m a negro.’ )

By the way, since it’s hard to read tone here, I am taking these observations lightly. I’m not traumatized, upset and nor is my stay here being ruined by being stared at by grown ass adults and their children. I am attempting to be humorous. Hey, maybe they are like, “Wow, what a drop-dead gorgeous Negro,” instead of the whole Fanonian spin I have given it.

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Plate of vegan cheese during Christmas Eve dinner. A sample has been sent to be analyzed so I can finally accept that I have been duped and that it is real cow dairy cheese…. results will come in next week.

Posted by Breeze Harper in Food and tagged , , ,
17 Jan 2013
9 Comments

Food Porn or Food Erotica….? Sistah Vegan in Europe Part I

Breeze Harper eating her Vegan Wurst Sandwich from Heart of Joy, coming back from Salzburg, Austria on the train.

Breeze Harper eating her Vegan Wurst Sandwich from Heart of Joy, coming back from Salzburg, Austria on the train.

I have to admit that I am not a fan of the use of ‘porn’ in describing food. But, that is just me. I prefer the word ‘erotica’ instead so….

Today I will be kicking off my Sistah Vegan in Europe series with “Food Erotica” as a way to share my experiences in Europe. Today I share with you Salzburg, Austria.

I am hyperaware of the commodities I saw that obscure the resources and people exploited to make these items possible. For example, so many cocoa products with no indication of how the cocoa was sourced, showered store case displays in Salzburg. I am quite confident that this means that a majority of the cocoa was sourced from child slave labor in West Africa, but the “happy” images of “Holiday cheer” (i.e. hundreds of chocolates Santa Claus items, Xmas trees, ornaments, etc) are strategically used to sell ‘nostalgia’ and ‘pleasure.’ Who wants to see pictures of actual enslaved African Children making ‘our’ holiday cheer and tourist attractions possible!? What a drab! But of course, I know it is a tourist town and myth is what makes a town a successful tourist town. Hence, I can’t be surprised by this and won’t say more…

Oh, and I did end up finding 2 organic cafes with vegan food options. The first was Bio-Burger . I ate a housemade vegan burger and potato chips. The last picture is a vegan apple cake that I ate at Heart of Joy. As a main meal I ended up eating a vegan wurst sandwich (first picture above).

And lastly, saw 4 other black folk there in the entire tourist packed town, but that is not surprising. I did see representations of “blackness” in the city, via a place called Afro Coffee. Apparently Black people are really cool to look at while drinking coffee and eating food from Africa– especially images of Black folk with ‘retro’ fashions from the 1960s with very large afros. Seriously, check it out! I want to know the meaning behind this and would love to do an ethnography of the cafe. But come on, how can you have an Afro Cafe and there ain’t any black people there as patrons! ha ha (well, there weren’t any there at the moment I passed by, so who knows!?). Anyway, seems to be food “from Africa” that was sold there and I really did dig the images of afro wearing Black folk that decorated the place.

Here are the photos of food I took at various shoppes and cafes.

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Bio-Burger's Vegan patty.

Bio-Burger’s Vegan patty.

Vegan organic yumminess.

Vegan organic yumminess from Heart of Joy.

Posted by Breeze Harper in Food and tagged , , ,

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