A couple months ago I posted about the assumption of universal Whiteness built into the scheduled program for "Animal Rights 2008" (AR2008), a national conference that took place this past weekend. In a blog posting on the conference, Debra Erenberg of Rainforest Action Network wrote about the ways Whiteness played out over the weekend. (Read more...)
anti-oppression
Veganism and Prison Abolition
I've noticed that whenever people talk about "humane treatment" they're usually referring to either nonhuman animals or humans who are imprisoned or otherwise institutionally confined and controlled. I guess this makes sense since keeping people in cages and under complete control resembles how nonhuman animals are general treated in our society. Similarly, the term "cruelty" is usually applied to the treatment of nonhuman animals, human children, and human prisoners. In fact, "humane treatment" and "cruelty" are really paired terms, with the former suggested as the remedy to the latter. (Read more...)
The Personal is Political
Veganism is a good example of how consciousness-raising about our everyday actions is important to challenging the structure of oppression and exploitation. Veganism takes everyday "personal" actions (e.g., eating, dressing, and recreating) and calls out the political dimensions of these actions. It reveals how eating, wearing, and otherwise using nonhuman animals is not a mere "personal" act, but a dimension of exploitation and human privilege. It makes a connection between the personal action and the political structure of our society. (Read more...)
'Abolition of Every Possibility of Oppression and Exploitation'
The slogan "abolition of every possibility of oppression and exploitation" has broader applications than early twentieth-century Marxist-Leninism. In Yo' Mama's Disfunktional!: Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America, Robin Kelley writes: "The beauty of the line 'Abolition of Every Possibility of Oppression and Exploitation' is that it resists hierarchies. It refuses to privilege class over race, or race over gender, or sexuality over class, race, or gender."
Challenging the Structure of Nonhuman Oppression
Oppression exists when one social group, whether knowingly or unconsciously, exploits another social group for its own benefit. Social oppression is distinct from situation of simple brute force in that it is an interlocking system that involves ideological control as well as domination and control of the social institutions and resources of the society, resulting in a condition of privilege for the agent group relative to the disenfranchisement and exploitation of the target group. – Rita Hardiman and Bailey W. Jackson, "Conceptual Foundations for Social Justice Courses"
The same sort of oppressive dynamic is behind human supremacy and the oppression of other animals. (Read more...)
The Assumption of Universal Whiteness
On the Vegans of Color blog, Johanna posted about "Engaging" POCs in AR Work? in response to the program for an upcoming animal rights conference that includes sessions on "Engaging Ethnic Minorities (African-Americans, Latin Americans, Asian-Americans)"; "Commonality of Oppression (commonalities of oppressing animals, children, women, others)"; and "Engaging Other Movements (health, environment, hunger, women, justice, peace movements)."
The titles for these sessions illustrate what Ana Clarissa Rojas Durazo calls "an assumption of universal whiteness." (Read more...)
Veganism, Social Change, Solidarity
In the mid-1940s, when the founding members of the vegan movement organized themselves into The Vegan Society they set out a clear purpose for the movement that "seeks to abolish [humans'] dependence on [other] animals, with it inevitable cruelty and slaughter, and to create instead a more reasonable and humane order of society. Whilst honouring the efforts of all who are striving to achieve the emancipation of [humans] and of [other] animals." (Read more...)
Veganism is Anti-Oppression: Not a Consumer Activity
Peter Gelderloos, a self-identified anarchist and author of How Nonviolence Protects the State (South End Press, 2007), claims that veganism is a consumer activity. His arguments are a combination of ignorance and problematic assertions. There really isn't much point in responding to Gelderloos claims about "veganism" since he presents absolutely no understanding of veganism, but I'll do it anyway.
Gelderloos starts out by misrepresenting veganism as simply "a consumer activity. It is ultimately an attempt to change capitalism and human civilization through the exercise of one's privileges as a consumer." From there he goes on to argue how this is "an impossible approach." Gelderloos even goes as far as to claim that veganism is not a lifestyle because a lifestyle is not a consumer choice.
I suppose Gelderloos may have just opened up a dictionary and read "vegan: a vegetarian who omits all animal products from the diet." But this definition is not how vegans, at least not those with a historical understanding of the vegan movement, define themselves. (Read more...)
Veganism and Anti-Oppression
Keeping in mind the centrality of exploitation to oppression, I think it is important to place the vegan ideal of non-exploitation firmly in the context of anti-oppression organizing. Viewing veganism as a broadly anti-oppression movement is not to redefine veganism as something new, but instead to "clarify the goal towards which the movement aspires." (Read more...)
The centrality of exploitation to oppression
Oppression exists when one social group, whether knowingly or unconsciously, exploits another social group for its own benefit. Social oppression is distinct from situation of simple brute force in that it is an interlocking system that involves ideological control as well as domination and control of the social institutions and resources of the society, resulting in a condition of privilege for the agent group relative to the disenfranchisement and exploitation of the target group.
(Rita Hardiman and Bailey W. Jackson, "Conceptual Foundations for Social Justice Courses")
It is perhaps (hopefully) a commonplace to define oppression as discrimination plus power, that is, a distinction or differentiation made between people which is backed up and exploited by a difference of power between the two parties. We emphasize the element of exploitation as it is precisely this 'turning to account' which gives an active sense to oppression, as distinct from it being a passive state. ...
In terms of moral philosophy and ethical and professional practice, 'non exploitation' may be viewed as a part of the practitioner's commitment to 'non maleficence' or doing no harm.
(Barbara Smith and Keith Tudor, "Oppression and Pedagogy: Anti-oppressive Practice in the Education of Therapists")
I'm going to come back to these two quotes in future posts, but I just wanted to start by posting them together.