racist vegans are the worst https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/bv833z/dear-white-vegans-stop-appropriating-food Dear White Vegans, Stop Appropriating Food Veganism is going through its own racial reckoning that's a long time coming, considering white vegan influencers have appropriated traditional foods forever. By Anya Zoledziowski August 13, 2020, 12:51pm When Afia Amoako became a vegan five years ago, she said she didn’t see herself reflected in the community, which was dominated by wealthy white women. They often touted recipes—”African peanut stew” or “Asian stir fry”—that rely on racial stereotypes, said Amoako. “One, they don’t look like you, and, two, they are appropriating your food. Those are ways to turn racialized people away.” Amoako, 23, is a vegan Instagrammer and blogger based in Toronto (@thecanadianafrican). She said the weeks and months following the killing of George Floyd have been marked with an onslaught of support for Black creators, particularly from white-run accounts. It's a stark departure from the white norm. “These white women, they are the gatekeepers of the vegan movement,” Amoako said. “We Black creators have been here this whole time.” White women are starting to acknowledge Black and racialized vegans now, following a string of racial reckonings happening in several sectors and communities, Amoako said, but “I’m not gonna lie to you, some of us are still skeptical.” Amoako isn’t the only racialized vegan who felt sidelined by the community. Black vegan influencer Tabitha Brown previously told VICE that before she cut out meat and dairy she thought vegans were “white ladies who do yoga.” White people and their blogs dominate the results when key terms like “vegans,” “vegetarians,” or “vegan recipes” are plugged into Google. Nital Jethalal, a board member for Toronto Vegetarians Association, told VICE News he has been putting together a conference for vegans and it has been a lot easier to find prominent panellists online who are white. “The problem is few people think to go to the second page of Google results,” Jethalal said. The reality is that people of colour, especially Black people, are more likely to give up meat than white people. According to a 2018 Gallup poll, only 3 percent of white Americans said they follow a vegetarian diet, whereas 9 percent of “nonwhite” Americans identified as vegetarian. A 2016 Pew Research Center Poll found that 3 percent of people in the U.S. follow a vegan diet, but the number jumps to 8 percent for Black people. In fact, Black people make up the fastest growing vegan demographic right now. In this post-Floyd world of racial reckonings, many vegans are starting to look inwards at their own privilege. White vegan influencers are urging people to follow BIPOC accounts as part of the #AmplifyMelanatedVoices campaign, while racialized vegans who have amassed large followings continue to post about Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Stories are surfacing in the vegan corners of the internet, highlighting vegan Black Instagram accounts and vegan Black-owned businesses. Even pop star Lizzo has come out as vegan, coupling her new diet with the body positivity movement and racial justice. Thug Kitchen, a white-owned vegan blog that has faced years of consistent criticism for its use of anti-Black stereotypes in its branding, finally changed its name to “Bad Manners” in June. More and more Instagram accounts I follow (I’m vegan myself) are calling on Westerners to stop whitewashing vegan and vegetarian diets. Amoako told VICE News she started her Instagram account after going vegan five years ago because she wanted to create space for people like her. “I was like, ‘A lot of cultural foods are easily plant-based and no one is talking about this,’” said Amoaka, whose family is part of the Ashanti tribe in inland Ghana. “There are some huge vegan bloggers even in Canada who are guilty.” Amoako said she’s also not surprised Black people are turning to veganism, considering health outcomes in Black communities are disproportionately worse than in white ones. By going vegan or adopting nutritious diets, “Black people take matters into their own hands,” she said. But she added that vegetable-rich diets are not new for people of colour. “It almost seems like now veganism is a new thing when in reality it's been here for centuries,” she said. In fact, several communities globally, most of which are racialized, are either plant-based or largely so. According to the latest counts, Brazil and India have the largest vegetarian populations in the world: about a third of Indians—375 million people—and 14 percent of Brazilians, or 29 million people, are vegetarian. Taiwan, Jamaica, Mexico, and Vietnam also have sizable vegetarian or vegan populations. And while that’s not to discount the growing popularity of plant-based diets in predominantly white countries like Switzerland, New Zealand, Germany, and Australia, mainstream portrayals of vegetarianism and veganism are largely white. more at the link
There's a point in there somewhere. Vegan food made by White folks is nasty and heavily processed. As a kid I went to a Buddhist camp and was stressing about the vegetarian food thinking it was nothing but salad and fake meat patties. Then i saw the cook who was overweight and thought okay, I'm in good hands. Mushrooms, umami and gluten can make a damn tasty and filling meal. It can't replace meat (animal fat has a certain scent you get used to). It just makes eating interesting and satisfying. Leave it to the vegetarians with billions of people to come up with an answer.
Maybe, but she's also a Cougar; and those hips have Moody's Tower phillies, Frenchy's jambalaya, Oberholtzer vanilla double-scoop and Navy Seafood all over them.
Some people work EXTREMELY hard to make issues very few people care about try and appear like they are somehow part of some mainstream concern.
Yes, both the left and the right do this. The issue is - the mainstream media is pretty left leaning. There’s not denying that and with the majority of our population consisting of a bunch of followers, it is concerning. If it was all right leaning, I’d say the same thing. I only say this because if you watch any cable TV or see any magazine lately, you’ll quickly realize it’s full of a bunch of “what the rich and privileged are doing and follow their lives” (Kardasians, Housewives, any celebrities and on and on). Why do so many people want to live other people’s lives? It’s ridiculous IMO.
Mainstream media is based far more on what will get clicks, views, ratings, and selling ads. They are more concerned with not being left out of a happening story, trying to get a scoop over other media outlets, and things like that than they are concerned about pushing a left or right agenda unless that helps towards those other goals.
While this is very true, let’s take a look at every news stream in this country. How many are “left” and how many are “right”? I’ll go ahead and give you the statistics to save your time: https://www.journalism.org/2014/10/...edia-habits/pj_14-10-21_mediapolarization-08/ https://guides.lib.umich.edu/c.php?g=637508&p=4462444 A simpleton can see where the weight lies. Riddle me this... How many are neutral and actually tell the public how it is?
Well. I only skim most cable news. I know where their biases lie. No matter what news story catches my interest, I like to try and investigate more behind the story. It is possible but puts the responsibility on the news consumer. I get it that isn't the norm for consumers of media. I will say there is a difference between being anti-Trump and being left-wing. There are some outlets that will attack Trump because he'll lash out back at them and make their media part of the story. It's free publicity for them. But that is Trump's choice and responsibility as well.
Again, agree wholeheartedly. While on the subject, and appreciate this conversation, do you think athletes or celebrities have any say in the way the general public thinks? What I mean is, why should a guy like Kaepernick or Mike Gundy even be in a article? This fact that people base opinions on this kind of stuff is insane.
I'm split on the celebrity input. The media covers them. They have people that follow what they say. So whatever they say will reach a lot of people. Some will automatically discount it simply because they are celebrities. So it can work against them as well. That being said, there is a sense among many successful people that they don't exactly deserve their luck and they want to try and do something more significant. They are entitled to voice their opinion. Sadly, their opinion carries extra weight.
