Written By : Vegan Out The Mud
Vegan Is Pro-Black
In growing numbers across the world, more black people are starting their journey towards a vegan lifestyle. The stigma is shedding and people are finding that it pays to take care of yourself inside and out. That being said, veganism not only benefits our individual health but also strengthens us as a community.
For too long this lifestyle was looked at as something reserved for white Americans with yoga mats. This dangerous way of thinking has kept us behind and is killing us. Too often black people associate chronic health conditions as being genetic. From the time you are a child, your parents condition your eating habits based on what they feed you. As you grow older it only makes sense you would adopt their same diet. If they grew up eating foods high in fat, salt and sugar you will likely repeat their behavior. This leads to the almost never ending cycle of heart problems and diabetes we see in each other. That is not a genetic predisposition, that is generational conditioning and unlike genetics this can be easily altered.
Another way veganism can heal our community is by not funding industries that have actively abused us for centuries. We don’t have to get into black people’s first interaction with the American farming complex but we can fast forward 400 years to see they are still taking advantage of us. Black and brown workers make up the majority of field and slaughterhouse work and are worked long hours for little pay. This fact ironically is sometimes used against veganism when it actually speaks volumes of how corrupt the farming industry is. Also farms are built in rural areas where land is cheap and you can guess which community of people’s land is often the cheapest to build on. With these massive farms comes massive amounts of animal waste. The waste can carry into the drinking water supplies via runoff from rain. Some farms actually collect the waste in pools and then “redistribute” it into the air with sprinklers. Spraying animal feces in the air does more than make your town smell, it can cause asthma to develop and even cancer.
The phrase “Health is wealth” has become a staple in the culture recently and is often used when reasoning a conversion to veganism. In the black community we are making strides to improve our community as a whole by doing things such as supporting black owned business but should also move towards living the healthiest lifestyle we can. Vegan is Pro-Black.