Editing this post to add: https://winniemandelasfist.org/2018/07/24/individualistic-veganism-is-not-environmental-justice-repost/
And again: when you read this also picture the US doing military training in what remains of the lush habitat, they train there with guns & weapons. Guns for whom? And why do they need to go all the way there to train? (I think, couldn’t hear the documentary maker’s accent under the dubbing, I could check or watch the credits next time and google this former military who’s always in it)
There are indigenous people and animals vegans (or white people) trample on everywhere. In the same vein, there is no place to consider some oppressions within ‘vegan culture’, broadly. And this is ironic considering many use the term ‘ahimsa’, appropriated from Jainism/Buddhism and Buddhism is popular but Buddhism started as politico-religious resistance to the very system of oppression vegans now refuse to hear or engage about. The term people of colour encompasses our oppressors of colour (whom vegans love, like Gandhi but women too in a vegan movement that is largely women).
Kamala Harris is both Black and the most dominant oppressor caste, Brahmin. I wrote on casteism, before; then I got exploited by Rama Ganesan (@rama_gane, goes by Rama Ganes on fb) who distorted my words through her oppressive lens (at least once, perhaps more times I don’t know yet?)and w/ no attribution (luckily bc it was distorted). When called out, she gaslit me & closed the group where she was mining us for explanations on casteism, as in to explain to her how she oppresses us, alleging good Brahmin intentions or Brahmin guilt a-la-white-guilt. There are no social sanctions for people like her, instead Sanctuary Publishers(POC publication? who has been called in by her friend and knows but doesn’t care, see no one has to care about an oppression no one generally cares about) is publishing Rama as the authority on the oppression wherein she is the oppressor bc you have an ‘ally’ circus in intersectional veganism. It’s the definition of a failed movement. Rama, of the ‘master-race’ (according to themselves, who also decide who is born what, since 1000+ years, can you imagine what violence is used to enforce that? And there are many other brutal rapes you don’t here about in India.), thinks she is talking to ignorant savages or her servants when she is talking down to some people or when asking inane questions to famous Dalit writers. And Dalit writers are routinely undervalued, and not treated like writers so this in itself is offensive & oppressiveness at work. Before it got to that, grave things happened and vegans did not understand, or pretended not to understand, there is no accountability. Why, in such an environment, must I do any labour? For whom? It’s already hard, I have to swim upstream against colonialism. Who is responsible for deforestation, land theft and the predicament of harmed (farmed, hunted/trophy-hunted, exploited) animals? Colonialism. Can those who don’t care to end the latter help anyone?
This year (edit), I learned that millions of song birds are killed in Europe as they harvest olives for olive oil at night. Why have I never heard of this in 15+ years of following many vegans from a movement allegedly embracing the same lifestyle? The focus is on palm oil in Indonesia, ok, but in discussions we assume that is the issue everywhere (NB war-torn DRC produces palm oil, have I seen anyone be concerned by the conditions and health of the Congolese? No), or the focus is on coconuts harvested by monkeys. This is not the reality in many tropical places. Human harvesters lacking equipment or food-grade coconut oil becoming outlawed in the tropical countries where coconuts abound, allegedly it causes cholesterol but copra oil probably from the country where monkeys are used is present in so much junk food and that sale is allowed. And olive oil, imported, is probably the most-used oil after frying/sunflower/canola oil. One can’t discuss shit here, the West has reduced the level of non-debate to Aloe-has-B-12 and debate to whether it’s ethical to kill mozzies, in tropical countries with Dengue. If you are from the West or using a Western filter, you don’t know shit about the vaccine. And you/your worldview is why vegans here are thinking they’d rather a vulnerable person here dies than a mosquito. Shit comes out of the mouths of people you prop up but you’re not the ones sitting in that shit. It’s like the containers of waste you all send to developing countries, it’s like that ideologically too. But we are yet to see it as an issue.
I sometimes go through people I unfollowed, to clean my friend list, Inever fail to find someone posting about Yulin but I have yet to see a vegan post about the olive oil industry besides Abhijit Em, thanks to whom I learned of this.
I’m talking to the same followers, some since 6 years. There is nothing more to say, especially that interest dropped since the years I started to mention that caste is one of the intersections. Vegans I know irl are not rooted in reality, neither helped me with a list I had to compile by myself vs animal testing (the friend I credited is not veg*n), nor helped my disabled self try keep my diet balanced which is hard on an island where mainstream diets are pushed and some industries like seaweed go towards cosmetics and animal fodder, not human food. It was only a matter of telling me where and I send help to purchase my own seaweed or whatever food. One would think they shop and browse there anyway.
Read this perspective, see Black & follow indigenous vegans like David Lunch (8 years, and that is the issue with vegans, I’m putting the duration here for vegan readers to even consider her views?). No one I know, in many countries, ever felt like using the term Al-Ma’arrist, because veganism at the root loves denial of black or brown originators and prefers Gandhi, an upper caste racist pervert who is wrongly credited for satyagraha, he was not vegan but the UK veg society stopped ignoring Henry Salt when Gandhi paid attention to him. It then became the Vegan Soc UK, vegans’ definition and their everything.
I still maintain the fb page. [I deleted the parag of more local problems, laws to kill or torture animals etc. Vegans have been the most complacent in my view]
Who is really working for the environment, nature and animals? Answer: indigenous peoples. The forests we claim to care about are designed and maintained by them, for as long as they have state ‘permission’ to be on their land. There weren’t any on our island, originally and maintainance was not required until invasive species were introduced. Whites needed slaves and dodo meat to live here whereas slaves who escaped, if they made it alive, lived in the forest and could not be found by man-hunters. This is history we shared with other islands, called marronage. They were indigenous to somewhere, they survived whereas whites left when there was disease, cyclones or after they ate all dodos (before they introduced other animals to hunt).
Most vegans I’ve known are mostly concerned about their pets, other animals in theory, about always sounding right (for that, growing the number of vegans who agree with them or become their social capital is ideal), about vegan food and about their own pockets and white networks. I’ve known those who opened food businesses but never cared to make it affordable. They also got membership money from people and did not send items that people were promised on subscribing. Not to forget they treated the guerrilla gardener like crap when scheduling their intersectional vegan conference. They’re not interested in that or accessibility. I worked for them, never got paid in any way, but had hoped to peep Sistah Vegan on the job but I was so exploited I never could read a page.
Both businesses I speak of employed black indigenous people and one mistreated their Black staff, perhaps you will never hear of this bc the whites post pretty food pics and folks like them or their eatery. I closed down a South African vegan forum only bc it kept being full of racists, basically racism won. Admins are free to reopen it, I said nothing, nor did they but I was tired of asking for help, we were not able to manage it between the 3-4 who are pro-Black and willing to help. We only addressed anti-black racism, there was no need to address sexism and unfortunately they are pro-casteist, or casteist one admin had simply left the group when she figured out my caste in personal communication? The ‘movement’ is designed colonially, to exhaust and exploit some. Postscript to include this confirmation; in the week where Capetonian vegans held an anti-indigenous protest and got covered in the news, because they ally with mainstream agendas. They were asking people, holding a ceremony in protest to racism (because people act like they’re still barred from some beaches), why it includes a slaughter. They are living on that land, with no consideration for the culture whereas no one asks them to explain the context of their presence.
I’m ending this blog. Some resources are randomly thrown in.
Thank you to those who kept me trying to bang my head against a wall. Seriously, thanks to all of you who shared, commented or liked over these 6+ years!
I feel bitter too, not to end, but to have blogged here for so long when I am not even humanised, vegans picked and chose what they want of me, to use me. No ex-friends who are ‘intersectional vegans‘ follow me here and this is not what I refer to but as an example, some need a disabled friend to add to their collection of freaks, for inspiration porn or ally theatre. Then their ally theatre (or just putting the word ‘ableism’ in their event) becomes all that people need, radical disabled voices aren’t needed. More so mine bc of my identities. And the vegan so-called community is especially violent to disabled folks, unless only to some of us, but as you may see on the blog if you search posts, I always had to defend myself alone against ableism or backlash. Then it’s too draining so I stop speaking on the issue. Casteism is not the 2nd issue I’ve been silenced about, it depends on regions, but like the only existing vegan thing that seems to be against it is a sham. Even I wasn’t so presumtious as to start something that claims to be a rally cry, can you imagine if there was no indigenous vegans, and whites start something speaking for them and want it to be called legitimate, it would be odd but Anti-caste Vegan is doing exactly that and it is considered valid by vegans. More so, it gained their attention fast whereas I was begging to be heard on casteism and I wasn’t. That’s in line with my impression that vegans love fascism and oppressiveness. I clicked to get the link and it’s mind-boggling how her oppressive language doesn’t bother anyone, even feminists here. She’s American, her English isn’t the issue, her oppressiveness is, all sources do not report in a casteist manner.
I had written about surnames here, above, and her last post erases what I said, either she is erasing all descendants of indenture or both us and Tamils in India.
Veganism is anti-indigenous and casteist and I don’t see any prospect of change.
Al Ma'arrist 