Reasons to go Vegan

Many people always wonder why does a person need or choose to go vegan. People go vegan because they no longer want to have animals suffering for meat, milk, and other animal products that are not necessary for human survival. Many people are seeing the health benefits of a vegan diet. Some people just want change and it all starts with ourselves. Like I always tell people how can we love someone when we don't know how to love ourselves.

Environment:

People need to know that meat is not "green".
http://www.goveg.com/environment.asp ( This is a great link to show you how resources are used to produce meat and the negative affects).

I hope that people will think hard when it comes to having steak or a veggie burger.

Here's a great piece on going green from food to clothing.

Green Scene: Going green from clothes to meat - http://www.insidebayarea.com/green/ci_11463165

The Foods That African Americans Eat

I know it's been while... Missed you.

The food we chose to eat as African American is slave food if you think about it. When I think about the collard greens w/ pork and the cornbread with eggs,milk, and lard all mixed inside I yell inside. I don't understand why we continue to Enslave ourselves voluntary when we could get the fruits and vegetables so we don't have obesity and high blood pressure killing our people. I feel that black people and other people of color should be fighting and protesting the lack of healthy foods in local grocery stores in "ghetto" neighborhoods. We should not continue to accept liquor stores on ever corner and continue to have Popeye's,Chinese restaurants, and other fast food places continue to poison our bodies. I want all people to wake up and understand that we can no longer sit around and act like we are doing our bodies any good with animal flesh and by products. You do not need these Chickens,Cows,Horse( yes people eat horse) to survive in the world. We are not natural born carnivores we are herbivores check it out.

Black Vegan vs. Others

What do you feel is different about being black and vegan, as opposed to white, or perhaps another ethnicity? Do you feel more/less hostility from your family as a matter of ethnic culture?
-Drew- Thanks for this questions very important

Well I do believe there is a different between black and minority vegans compared to white vegans. Black and other minority vegan mostly come from cultures that veganism is something new and weird. I know when I went vegan the people I first met were white middle class vegans and felt it was wrong to kill animals. I feel the same way but the vegan world is so white that many minorities are always seen as trying to be "white" because they choose not to eat animal products. If you notice many group of minorities plates are usually food of meat and animal by products so it's so hard at times for the family to understand that you want to be healthy and save animals from cruel lives.

I know many white vegans and it can be hard for there families to understand why they are going vegan. But at the same time they have so many famous vegans who are white they can educate their families about who are healthy and living a great life without eating meat and any animal products. Let's take a look at literature when it comes to Veganism,Animal Rights. There is only one book written by a black woman about this topic and that was in 1989 - The Dreaded Comparison: Human and Animal Slavery ( there may be more this is the only one I know of at the time). If you were asked to write a list of books written on the same issues from white authors you could probably write a very long list. This makes a very big difference and this makes me think about ways on how the black and minority vegfolk are going to change the way people are eating and treating animals.

I do feel that their is more pressure in the black community to eat meat and animal products. When I examine the plates at black social event's that are not vegan there is always so much meat and I don't meat like steak and veggies on the side. I mean the choices are usually meat and then you have the veggie ( collard greens with pork or smokey turkey for flavor) and rice and that usually will have some juice ( animal by-product to make it taste good) and then we make it to dessert cake ( contains,eggs, dairy, and other products). I do feel that in the black community there is more focus on making things taste good then how good it is for you.