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.
