The Bigoted Vegans Among Us

Our world is awash in hatred and no one seems to be immune, not even vegans.

Having learned about the interconnectedness of all systematic forms of oppression and their root in nonhuman exploitation, it confounds me how some vegans can advocate for nonhumans while disparaging fellow humans over race, sex, class, religion, etc. It's like "shelters" for cats and dogs that hold fundraising events where they serve up the bodies of pigs, chickens, and cows. How can anyone who abhors the oppression of one group support the persecution of another?

"To see real change for nonhuman animals, advocates must challenge inequality for all," wrote Corey Wrenn in "Status Contamination: Women, Nonhuman Animals, and Intersectional Liberation."

Earlier this year, two former senior officials at the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) were accused of sexually harassing employees for some ten years. "According to interviews, emails and an internal document reviewed by POLITICO, [Paul] Shapiro suggested a female employee should 'take one for the team' by having sex with a donor, sent pornography and lewd emails to male employees, and discussed with colleagues his sexual philosophies, such as having as many sexual partners as possible." According to another employee who attended a work trip in 2006, former CEO Wayne Pacelle "asked her to take off her clothes and perform oral sex, and asked her whether he could masturbate in front of her."

At HSUS, Shapiro and Pacelle apparently sought to reduce the objectification of nonhumans as things to be used and consumed all the while objectifying their own female colleagues as sexual playthings to be used and consumed.

Carol J. Adams, author of the Sexual Politics of Meat, referred to Shapiro as a perpetrator. "You can be an anti-feminist and be in the vegan movement," she said in an interview with Erin Red for T.O.F.U. magazine. "I think some people are willing to deal with their privilege over other animals, but not deal with their privilege over women or people of color. They don't want to examine that privilege."

When Colin Kaepernick chose to take a knee during the national anthem at NFL games in protest of racial injustice and police violence, I supported him. As protests expanded to include other NFL players, I noticed the anger, hatred, and racism it aroused, including nationalism and militarism—all cloaked as patriotism.

A vegan (and Trump supporter) responded negatively to Kaepernick's actions on Facebook, to which I responded. Not only was I stunned by the misogynist hate lobbed at me by his friends but, what's worse, this particular vegan ignored their comments (below) until I called him out on it, and then he only did so superficially.

Another time I joined a group called Vegans for Jesus, assuming once again that it would be one of inclusiveness and social justice, but was quickly met with other vegans' concerns over the "gay lobby."

Most of us think of a vegan "community" but the fact is that vegans are simply many individuals who identify with veganism (some of whom are not even vegan!) and who are susceptible to bigotry and ignorance. Those who are less secure and who benefit from the status quo (speciesism, racism, sexism, etc.) do not want to relinquish their power or see their place in society disrupted.

What many vegans fail to realize is that—in addition to nonhumans—women, children, immigrants, the poor, and other vulnerable populations are part of the argument for ethical veganism, not against it.

A few months ago a picture of a slaughterhouse worker punctured in the face by one of the tools he used to stab food-industry captives was circulated across social media. Some people found the grotesque image humorous and deserving. I found it horrifying. I surely don't condone what slaughterhouse workers do, but I know that they tend to be people with the fewest opportunities.

The enslavement and slaughter food industry has a history of exploiting nonhumans, as well as humans of color. The vast majority of slaughterhouse laborers are immigrants, undocumented workers, and refugees from Central and South America, Southeast Asia, and East Africa who take the least desirable jobs offering low wages, grueling hours, and dangerous work conditions. Slaughterhouse work is among the most deadliest and injurious, and requires that workers be a witness to and/or participate in daily violence.

"The line speed on the kill floor is approximately three hundred cattle per hour," Timothy Pachirat revealed in Every Twelve Seconds. It is hard to imagine anyone who would want to work in an environment slitting another being's throat every twelve seconds for ten hours a day while wading in ankle-deep blood.

The pressure to kill as many nonhumans as fast as possible has forced some slaughterhouse workers to wear adult diapers at work. A new US Government Accountability Office (GAO) report found, among other abuses, that slaughterhouse workers are often denied bathroom breaks so as not to disrupt productivity (killing).

President Trump doesn't need to build a wall. Iron-clad walls already exist that sever the contemporary front office spaces from the blood, feces, and fetuses of the slaughterhouses behind them. "This wall both demarcates and enables the volatile combinations of citizenship, race, class, and education that separate the industrialized slaughterhouse's zones of privilege from its zones of production," observed Pachirat. "Those who benefit at a distance, delegating this terrible work to others while disclaiming responsibility for it, [bear] more moral responsibility, particularly in contexts like the slaughterhouse, where those with the fewest opportunities in society perform the dirty work."

Racism, ethnocentrism, and xenophobia among activists are also prevalent in single-issue campaigns such as those targeting the Yulin Dog Meat Festival and the eating of dogs in Asia. Dr. Linda Alvarez, Co-Founder and Director of the Vegan Advocacy Initiative, attended one such protest in California and watched as a participant yelled "You're sick! You're sick people!" at Asia bystanders ("Up and Downs: Facing Racism in the Animal Rights/Vegan Community," Issue 12, T.O.F.U. magazine).

Not only are these campaigns racist, but they are speciesist, too, insist Gary Francione and Anna Charlton in Advocate for Animals! These protests imply that eating dogs is morally worse than eating any other animal. Furthermore, many of the people who support these welfarist campaigns are not vegan, so they condone the abuse and exploitation of other animals; they are not promoting veganism at these events, only the idea that eating dogs is wrong.

Something else I had been unaware of was just how common fat-shaming is within vegan circles. I suppose it reflects the same amount of fat-shaming in society as a whole; still, I thought vegans would behave better than the hoi polloi.

"Animals have always been who I lean on for support. . . ." wrote Chelsea Lincoln in "Unconditional Compassion: The Need for Fat Acceptance in the Animal Rights Community in the Book of T.O.F.U. "When it comes to humans, however, I have always felt I was looked at and treated differently because I am fat. I have been discriminated against and even experienced this prejudice within the 'animal rights' community. I do not fit the stereotype of what a vegan looks like and have been told that I am a bad vegan example. . . . Thin privilege does exist."

Like white supremacists, there are also human supremacists. "Human supremacists resist applying the same vocabulary to humans and nonhumans," wrote Joan Dunayer in Animal Equality: Language and Liberation. "Separate lexicons help maintain a false dichotomy that bolsters human conceit and soothes human conscience. The greater the apparent psychological distance between nonhuman and human animals, the more secure humans' assumption of species superiority and uniqueness. This assumption provides a rationale for exploitation."

Intersectionality recognizes that different forms of oppression interact and strengthen one another. "We can and should identify the various forms of oppression that catalyze into injurious outcomes, but we cannot and should not try to treat them as separate forces operating independently of each other," wrote Pattrice Jones in The Oxen at the Intersection.

Ethical, intersectional veganism can appear radical and destabilizing, which makes people anxious. But "why are we trying to accommodate veganism to a dominant world in which that dominance includes oppressing other[s]?" asked Adams. "It's irreconcilable."

In response to the latest sexual harassment allegations at HSUS, James LaVeck and Jenny Stein wrote in Domination Games, "It is time to recognize and support the leadership potential of people of all gender identities, races, religions, abilities, sexual orientations, and ages, and to take special care to include people from less privileged backgrounds and other underrepresented groups in our movement. It is also time to recognize that membership in a particular group does not make one immune to power addiction and abusive behavior."

Ethical vegans typically can't make it through a single day without being flooded with images and accounts of society's prejudices, injustices, and violence against nonhuman animals. As we work toward nonhuman liberation, we mustn't ignore other forms of oppression and we certainly shouldn't contribute to them. After all, better human beings make better activists.

Bigotry graphic provided by VeganShift.org.

Intersectionality by Vegan Voices of Color