Decolonizing Veganism: On Resisting Vegan Whiteness and Racism

Abstract

Are discourses and practices of veganism in the USA inevitably characterized by whiteness? From the infamous Thug Kitchen to PETA’s uncritical comparisons of slavery with factory farming, all the way to the practices—and often, the mere presence—of farmer’s markets, community gardens, and Whole Foods stores in low-income neighborhoods of color that are enduring renewed colonization vis-à-vis gentrification, the unmarked whiteness of veganism is ubiquitous. Nonetheless, it is difficult, if not impossible, to critically reflect on veganism as both a politically charged foodways practice and a critical/ethical commentary on animality—how have Western cultures managed to fundamentally transform dead non/human animal bodies into “meat” rather than “corpses” or “carcasses”? —without attending to the racial implications of animality. As many activists and scholars of color (discussed below) have already made clear, the very definition of “humanity” is irrevocably entrenched in Western conceptions of the value of life: to achieve (hu)Man status is fundamentally to achieve Westernized whiteness, and thus the very hierarchy of human versus non/human animal that veganism challenges is charged with the history of white supremacy from the outset. When we talk about racist language and physical violence as “dehumanizing,” we are invoking the ways that structures of whiteness have and continue to position people of color (POC) as less than human: as “animal.”