the personal is political

i got a link to the sistah vegan project in an email this morning.

i've been poking around the site and, well, this is hella interesting.

although animal rights activists like peta and others have been dealing with the whole issue of eating & ethics for years, how many times has this been examined within the black community?

the "no pork on my fork" link on the right margin will take you to blackvegetarians.org, one of the few resources i've found on the web by and for black people who are interested in vegan/veggie lifestyles (various myspace pages notwithstanding).

like, ok. ms. harper breaks it down like this:

For example, Dick Gregory has piqued my academic interests in linking perceptions of equality to food patterns. He has advocated the need for Blacks to better understand Black health crisis and impediments to equality by analyzing their traditional Soul Food practices. It is interesting to me that he perceives the Black Soul Food diet as being diametrically opposed to the liberation of Blacks... This slave food, in his opinion, has manifested into what is now called the Soul Food diet, hindering Blacks from understanding what true social justice is.[6] I am also interested in how food beliefs among African American females may embody internalized oppression.[7] A brief analysis of bell hooks[8] memoir, Bone Black, will portray such an example.

Raised in a heteropatriarchal household of the 1950s, hooks’ mother “whipped” her for being too skinny and for not eating enough. The punishment stemmed from a belief that Black men did not desire marriage with skinny women. With no desire to marry, hooks was still forced to eat to nourish her body for a future husband she would be expected to serve. In her household, female food consumption was linked to servitude to a husband. It is here I see a manifestation of internalized slave-master ideology within her mother’s perception of Black gender roles and food consumption... Through her mother’s food beliefs, a conundrum in her mother’s perception of equality manifests: she frequently subjected hooks to the same injustices that her ancestors endured. Strangely, hooks notes that her mother was conscious of the necessity to liberate Blacks from White racism. Her advocacy for the racial liberation of a Black collective while simultaneously practicing food beliefs that sustain heterosexism and predefined gender roles are fascinating. These are the types of paradoxes I wish to unlock.

say WHAT?

i hope she keeps this site updated, 'cause i am really interested in what she finds out.