Interrogating whiteness, geopolitical privilege, and consumption philosophy of “cruelty-free” produc

Hot off the press is my new essay in the peer reviewed journal, Journal of Critical Animal Studies. The Title and abstract are below. You can click on the link after to access to journal.

Title: Race as a “Feeble Matter” in Veganism: Interrogating whiteness, geopolitical privilege, and consumption philosophy of “cruelty-free” products Amie Breeze Harper

Abstract Within the context of feminist geography, racial politics, and consumption studies, I have observed that mainstream vegan outreach models and top selling vegan-oriented books rarely, if ever, acknowledge the differing socio-historically racialized epistemologies among non-white racial groups. There is an underlying assumption among the white middle class mainstream vegan media that racialization and the production of vegan spaces are disconnected. However, space, vegan or not, is raced and simultaneously sexualized and gendered directly affecting individuals and place identities. Racialized places and spaces are at the foundation of how we develop our socio-spatial epistemologies; hence, these epistemologies are racialized. This paper will explore examples of how epistemologies of whiteness manifest within vegan rhetoric in the USA, and explain why a “post-racial” approach to vegan activism must be replaced by an anti-racist and color-conscious praxis.

Select Vol. VIII No. 3 from Link: http://www.criticalanimalstudies.org/cas-publications/journal-for-critical-animal-studies/about-jcas/