The broken system
It was 2017. I was scrolling through twitter and stumbled upon the 'Gates notes' - a yearly review from Melinda & Bill Gates about the work they've done with BMGF (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation). I was inspired: billionaires doing charitable works in Africa, donating money and resources to make the world suck less. The notes they wrote were always hopeful: hinting changes and progress; positive movements made possible because of the foundation. Every year I waited for their new notes, wanting to know what other works and numbers they managed to churn out to convince me that all is well.
Fast forward 2019. I started following more environmentalists than beauty gurus. I was fully committed to veganism. I decided to be more mindful of my waste and environmental impacts. All of a sudden my timeline looked different. I wanted everybody to be vegan and practice zero waste. I stopped believing in church and all its hypocrisy. How could they preach love and compassion while animals suffer every day in the name of humans' greed and ego? How could they follow Jesus and disposing plastic that chokes the earth? I also started questioning rich people's diet. Is Bill Gates vegan? Why isn't he vegan, given all the options, privilege and money he has? Why doesn't he insist on better treatments for animals and farm workers, with all the resources and power he has? I could not comprehend any of it. The world seems to be so broken.
Suddenly in 2020 the whole world stops due to a global pandemic. Then The Black Lives Matter movement gained more traction than ever in 2020. Once again, my timeline changed. Eager to learn more about BLM, I followed some black and brown influencers who happen to also be environmentalists and vegans. From their accounts, I was exposed to the problems of food justice, racism, white supremacy, and the lack of intersectionality in veganism and zero waste movements. Everything was new and unfamiliar; everything made me uncomfortable. My lack of knowledge and my blissful ignorance were made clear. I realised that I, too, was racist and hypocritical. I was made aware of the broken system I live in.
Here are a few things I've learned in the past few months:
Everything should be intersectional. We can't talk about veganism without admitting that for many communities, healthy diet is a luxury. Many people have limited access to vegetables and fruits, despite coming from cultures that are mostly plant-based and have abundance of those in nature. Capitalism leaves minorities even more vulnerable; BIPOCs (Black, indigenous, and people of colors) are fallen victims to white supremacists. How can we tell people to ditch meat when they don't even know if food will be on the table each day? Intersectional veganism views food and diet as privilege. Some people are born with it, others simply not. Veganism is not the panache to world problems. People can capitalise on veganism, and things will not get better: more lands are stolen from the locals to meet demands, more waste is generated, and people will still go hungry. We can't demonise and terrorise slaughterhouse workers for killing those animals without admitting that these workers, too, are under privileged and struggle to meet ends' meet. Many of them don't have the options to work elsewhere. Many are oppressed and underpaid. Heck, they don't even eat steak for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day. We are putting the blame on the wrong people. If we don't recognise the capitalistic nature of food and dismantle the system from its root, we can't effectively work towards better treatments for animals.
There is such thing as white veganism: veganism that is elitist and too white for people of colors to understand. White vegans suddenly come up with 'exotic recipes', appropriating cultures from countries they know very little about, or labelling their recipes 'african style dish', as if Africa is one big country, and not a continent with many nations. 'Woke' vegans discovering and praising tofu and tempeh as the next big thing, while failing to recognise that these two soy-based products are common and cheap food in Asian countries. In fact, in Indonesia, you are considered poor if you only have tofu, tempeh, rice, and veggies on your plate. It's ironic, but this is the result of deep-rooted white supremacy and colonialism.
You can't be vegans and not be anti-racists. The whole food system is racist. The overconsumption of meat is a product of white colonialism. Meat is heavily linked with social status and class. Talking about food and diet is difficult and should be in the correct nuance. Thus, all vegans who shout 'all lives matter cause animal lives matter' should get off their high horse and shut up.
Am I still vegan? Yes, I am. It's an ethical choice that I'm most in line with, and I still believe in the cause. But now I'm trying to approach it from many different point of views and be sensitive when talking about the issue to people who may not have the same resources like I do. However, if you have the money and don't have to worry about providing food for your family, do not talk as if veganism is not for you cause you don't want people working in slaughterhouses to lose their terrible jobs. It is not your place to say so, and you have no right to preach for their well-being. There is a high chance that you benefit from the broken system that allows these workers to work under such stressful conditions and be underpaid while providing you with your 'ethically sourced, free range, hormone free meat and eggs'. Admit and face your privilege.
It is the same with zero waste movement and sustainable living. The movement for reducing waste and sustainability should also be accompanied with the movements for women's rights and environmental justice. The current zero waste movement is not inclusive, and most often is too white.
Plastics in landfills pollute the surrounding soil, water, and air, and landfills and toxic waste facilities are primarily located in communities of color. And ironically, these same communities that suffer at the hands of pollution tend only to have access to food that comes packaged in plastic, if they have any access at all. (intersectionalenvironmentalist.com)
-Jhanneu Roberts
We need to work on being more inclusive when talking about such issues, and make sure we don't leave out communities who are actually affected the most by toxic waste and climate change.
There is also the problem of billionaires and how toxic it is for global wealth and power to be in the hand of only the top 1%. These billionaires have the power to make real changes and possibly end poverty and world hunger if only they didn't hoard their money. Apparently they pay less taxes (in percentages, not amount) than working class people, are often invincible to laws, and are highly respected for no good reasons. They sell dreams and set unhealthy expectations to common people. How many of us wish to be billionaires? But how many are actually able to be one? Billionaires are billionaires because they have inherited the money from previous generations and benefitted from labourers who are probably underpaid and overworked. They evade taxes, and to gain the public support they build facades and images of seemingly good people through charitable organisations and foundations. In the end, they capitalise on even the most altruistic cause, and distribute only less than 1% of their wealth to others. The money they spend on charities barely means anything to them. Ironically, we keep defending them, and using them as role models without even questioning how they are able to accumulate such wealth in the first place, and who they have taken advantage of to get to such high position of power. In an ideal world, there would be no billionaires.
All of these lessons have brought me to my last point:
I no longer think BMGF as something more than rich people's playground full of white saviours when they come to third world countries in Africa and Asia. I no longer read their yearly notes eagerly and with sparkly huge eyes, admiring their very acts without questioning their intentions and the whiteness of it all.
PS: did you know that BMGF spends more for aids than any governments in the world? How much power and influence that much money gives them over the government and people in countries they work at? Shuddering, when I think about it.
As much as I want to discuss it here, white savior complex is something I'm incapable of explaining well, and I'd rather give credits to those who actually do real work to dismantle this system (listed below).
Organisations & Resources:
Intersectional Environmentalist (where you can find plenty resources and activists from different backgrounds to follow)
No White Saviors (to learn more about white saviorism and the amazing work they do in and from Uganda)
Articles:
What have you learned so far in 2020?
