No need for a title?

thatangryblackgrrrl:

1. Money Privilege - Implying that non-westernized countries do not have currency or don’t have the ability to access goods.

2. Meat Privilege - How the fuck are you privileged with something that is completely accessible to MOST people? I have to take a train ride into Manhattan for a fucking whole foods but there are 5 fast food places near my house. Food Deserts, look them up. They exist here too.

3. Country privilege - Still implying that western countries are better than non-westernized countries and that they are so much worst than us. It is important when discussing privileges based on class and status to acknowledge that not everyone in America has these privileges either. You are further proving our point that vegan activism is mostly white, privileged, middle to upper class people who do not understand or acknowledge INTERSECTIONALITY. 

4. Species Privilege - Still, what the fuck are you even saying? 

So, since I see you didn’t understand what I meant, I’ll make it clear for you. I’ll delete the gifs though, they’re distracting.

1. No. Money privilege as in “you have money”. Money to buy meat, dairy, and other animal sub products, and to buy a refrigerator to prevent them from rotting. And to pay for electricity. It’s not quite exactly class privilege, but maybe we could agree that it’s similar.

2. Meat privilege as in “you have money to buy meat, which I stated on the post is expensive”. Not all countries subsidize their meat and dairy production to make them cheap, and that’s, for example, the situation in Chile. Saying “But you have to be rich to be vegan” is just ignoring the fact that meat is expensive, and that poor people can’t afford it. Maybe this will make it more clear to you:

Meat = Expensive =/= Accesible for poor people = Meat as a privilege

3. Country privilege as in “some countries like the US like to subsidize animal products and give food stamps so people don’t starve. That’s not how it works on most countries”. You have country privilege when you can, for example, attend to an awesome University for free (Germany), or get food stamps (US), which wouldn’t happen if you lived on another country. Nice try twisting my words though. Oh, and btw, most vegans I know are Chileans, Argentinians, Venezuelans, Peruvians. POC. Poor, rich, middle class. HOMELESS. That plays no role when you realize that you’re not the center of the world, and that some have it worse than you.

4. Species privilege: I think we covered that before, when I answered your reblog. But, after that, I got new information (looking for your extense essay about how speciecism doesn’t exist).

Anon asked:

so, this might just be cause ctrl-f doesn’t really work on yr page, but i can’t find any instance of you actually seriously discussing the idea of species privilege in any depth. like, you kinda seem to dismiss it out of hand, which is totally fine, it’s your blog, but also i’d be interested to know why cause it seems to me to make a lot of sense. x

thatangryblackgrrrrl replied:

I think species privilege is a joke because not every human being has the same amount of privileges to begin with, so how can we compare the two?

Human beings do not have equal rights and are being slaughtered in unfair ways throughout this world, I’d rather focus on that than the slaughtering of animals. And this is coming from a former vegan.

I believe people who speak of species privilege ignore the fact that they in fact have privileges (like racial privilege, gender privilege, etc). The same people who talk about how the poor animals are treated won’t consider the people in their own country, their own neighborhoods, in their own lives who are treated poorly.

Most vegans also ignore the fact that the people who provide their “cruelty-free” food are being tortured and treated inhumanely on what are close to slave wages. Blood is still being shed, just not an animal’s.

I’ll critically consider veganism AGAIN when humans aren’t treated like animals first.

So, step by step.

Not every human has the same amount of privilege so how can we compare that with the absolute lack of privilege that non humans face? Well, that just ignores everything we know about intersectionality. Would anybody say that, if we have a poor male, he’s just as privileged/oppressed as a poor female? No, because even if he is in a position of oppression due his lack of money, he still has male privilege. Same principle applies for human privilege. Nevermind that someone’s being really, really oppressed. Ze still has human privilege, because ze will still have the right to not be considered an object (aka not being commodified).

And what happens with human slaves? Because we know that there are human slaves. Well, first off, they are still legally recognized has individuals with rights, but those rights are being violated. And secondly, those people were turned into slaves because of reasons that have nothing to do with their species. Nobody said: “Oh, I’ll “traffic” her because she’s a human!”, but most likely because she was: a woman, poor, uneducated, etc, etc. 

The part when you go: “I’d rather concentrate on humans being slaughtered than animals” reminded me of: http://speciesism-denying-humans.tumblr.com/post/5263783899/picture-background-8-piece-pie-style-color#notes

What do you exactly do to help humans in need? I’m just curious. And, how does veganism get in the way of that? You can do more than you think you can. Particularly when you do things that you know are right.

And I like how you asume that vegans don’t care about humans. That’s just fallacious. In a high degree. First off: Humans are animals. Vegans care about animals. Since humans are animals, and vegans care about animals, vegans also care about the human species. 

You’re also ignoring several organizations that try their harder to provide vegan food to famine affected areas, like A well fed world. http://awellfedworld.org/. And you should know that animal farming wastes a lot of resources (water, grains, etc), and is the number one cause of global warming, while also polluting earth, water and air. So eating meat does nothing to help starving people (even in your own country, because expecting one country to ship food for free to an impoverished one is to be a dreamer), and actually fucks up the environment.

Do you ever stop and think about the (human) people that got injured while producing your food? Like, slaughterhouse workers, who can be kicked by a desperate animal while murdering hir? Who are subjected to unfair and dangerous work conditions, develop mental diseases like stress, and after all their work, feel guilty as hell? Have you ever talked to a slaughterhouse worker and the nightmare that their daily rutine is for them? Well, look no further! You can check that info here: http://boingboing.net/2012/03/08/working-undercover-in-a-slaugh.html.

Also, do you check were do your veggies come from? Are they not picked by an immigrant? Is your food not cruel to humans too? Question your own food too. “It’s easy to see the straw on the eye of somebody else, while having a stone on ours.”

As I red somewhere in Tumblr a long while ago: “Animal products are inherently cruel, while vegan products only incidentally cruel”. Vegans actually try their best to avoid all forms of animal exploitation, and that considers humans too.  

You should consider veganism because that’s the best you can do using your human privilege to make it easier for non human animals (aka the oppressed).