From the vegan duo The Pleasants, who were kind enough to travel across North America with me for issue three, to photographer Jo-Anne McArthur, who continues to challenge our view of animals within our world, the T.O.F.U. grant has been our way to give back to a community that has supported what we do since day one.

So, when work started on the sixth issue we knew we also had to keep our eyes open for the recipient of the third grant. Given the serious focus of the issue, it seemed logical that the recipient would be heavily involved in pushing the envelope on the topics we knew we would only be able to touch on. Thus, the decision came easy to choose A. Breeze Harper.

Truly Ethical Veganism

A PhD Candidate at the University of California, Harper’s work focuses on intersections of critical food studies, critical race theory, and black feminist thought. She is also the founder of The Sistah Vegan Project, which explores the lives of black female vegans. The project also looks at how geopolitical status, race, class, gender, and sexuality affect vegan philosophy. In 2010, Lantern Books published Harper’s edited volume Sistah Vegan: Black Female Vegans on Food, Identity, Health and Society, the first book of its kind to look at the experiences of American veganism through the lens of race and gender.

In an interview with the Creative Director for issue six, Harper goes into detail about the importance of critically thinking about veganism and its intersectionality with forms of oppression:

“…it’s not that I have a problem if a vegan still chooses to eat a vegan tomato product, but I have issues with the lack of transparency of how the vegan food actually got to your plate. Marking it as ‘cruelty-free’ elides the possibility that human beings may suffer in order to get that product to you. I actually feel that framing a vegan product as ‘cruelty-free’ creates a one-dimensional “it’s only about the animals not being exploited” approach to vegan consumerism.”

It is due to her continued efforts to put such problems on the table that we proudly support A. Breeze Harper and her work to make veganism, and the world, better.

Show Your Support

A. Breeze Harper is trying to finish her dissertation work, titled Situating Racialization, Racisms, and Anti-Racisms: Critical Race Feminist and Socio-spatial Epistemological Analysis of Vegan Philosophy in the USA. Due to California budget cuts, her dissertation fellowship for 2011-2012 was not renewed. If you would like to support her finishing her PhD and social activist scholarship for 2012 summer graduation, she is accepting donations through paypal: breezeharper@gmail.com

You know the one. The kind of feeling where you try to explain something to someone, but they turn a blind eye to it. Or, even worse, they tell you to stop making such a big deal out of it.

That feeling, the one that is probably lurking in the back of your throat right now due to recalling such incidents, is similar to the one so many people are feeling when the newest PETA campaign is laughed at or applauded.

Here at T.O.F.U., I drew the line in early February, and I’m standing behind it. I watched the ad and my immediate reaction was one of disgust. I’ve railed against PETA before, but this newest stunt upset me more than usual. It just seemed obvious why such a campaign was a bad idea. So, I waited to see what the reaction would be as other vegans tweeted, shared, and talked about it.

Sadly, most of the voices came from outside of the vegan camp.

Open Your Ears Before Your Mouth

Since our last issue attempted to push other areas of concern into the vegan discussion, I felt it appropriate to try and continue to promote this idea with this campaign in mind.

Fighting oppression shouldn’t stop at your kitchen table or down the street at the protest against the local factory farm. Deciding to fight against such a force should start within and follow in everything you do. The animals are not the only ones being oppressed, and any fight for them should be sensitive to this.

It’s one thing to choose to be the voice for those who are unable to represent themselves, but to choose to ignore or downplay the voice of those who can represent themselves is just placing you at the table of the oppressor. That table is full, trust me. They don’t need any more mouths.

Stepping Out of the Vegan Bubble

Vegans often joke about how great the world would be if everyone was vegan. We could eat wherever we please, and no one would critique anything on our plate. It seems like a dream.

However, in the real world, I don’t like the vegan bubble. The kind of mentality that puts the PETA campaigns up on a pedestal because they’re fighting for the animals is not something I can support. In many ways, it seems that you’re either with PETA or against them, and if you’re against them, then you’re against the animals.

I’m calling bullshit on that mentality, and I think it needs to change. In fact, I think a lot of things within the vegan bubble need to change.

Biting Off More than You can Chew

The sad truth is that being vegan is not the finish line. There is plenty more to fight for, but the good news is that there are plenty of people out there fighting. They believe in their cause(s) just as much as you do, and they’re willing to stand up for it against all odds. So, if you don’t understand why someone would be offended by the PETA campaign, or if you do but you don’t want to say anything against our big famous uncle, give those who are fighting it the attention you feel you deserve in regards to your own fight.

Step out of the vegan bubble, listen, and discuss:

Vegansaurus – PETA’s “Boyfriend Went Vegan” ad makes me want to hurl!

Stop Patriarchy – Making Sexual Violence Against Women “Cool” … This Time from PETA

Connect the Dots – One Plus Negative One Equals Zero: A Response to PETA’s Rapey Ad

Carol J. Adams – Sigh, the sexual politics of meat once again

Policymic – Why PETA Should Use Food Justice, Not Sexy Sexual Innuendo, to Attract More to Their Cause

Women 24 – Animals Deserve More Respect than Women

Women 24 – Respect ALL Women, nonhuman women too

The problem is Bob Parsons should have been on everyone’s radar a long time ago, and he should have received the scuzzy CEO award from PETA much earlier as well. Shooting an elephant in the dark is not the only reason Parsons should be criticized. In fact, given my ignorance of the situation in that part of Zimbabwe, where he was hunting, this lone incident may be the least of our concerns, making GoDaddy a real NoDaddy.

What is he selling?

Ironically enough, I would say GoDaddy’s ads are up there with PETA as the most degrading to women. Honestly, it takes a unique individual to decide that men joking about women’s breast sizes is the best way to sell a domain registration service. In a world where sex can be used to sell everything from jeans to dishwashers, it would seem that something as boring as web hosting and domains would be a safe bet for tech speak and the promise of cheap prices. In the world of Bob Parsons, and the one you too can inhabit if you register with GoDaddy (Domains, Websites & Everything in between!), you can demean, humiliate and objectify gorgeous women (or get one for free as a signing bonus). The last I checked, this was not the kind of world the majority of people wanted to live in, but yet GoDaddy remains an incredibly popular service provider. So, why is it that so many of us are just now complaining about Mr. Parsons?

Superhero syndrome

So, maybe old Bob just has a problem with how he relates to women? Maybe he’s done plenty of good things for other people, who just happen to not be women, right? In fact, if you take Bob’s word for it, this whole event is being taken out of context, and he’s actually doing a great deed for an impoverished nation.

“What it takes is someone like me to go into the field at night, find a bull elephant and kill it. Then the rest of the herd will leave the field for good.”

- Bob Parsons, New York Times interview

That’s right, Bob Parsons is superman with a big gun (probably the biggest gun on the block if you ask him).

There are so many underlying issues with this part of the problem that I’m not even sure I can tackle them all, and I’m very confident in the fact that I am in no way qualified to do so. The short, simplified version of it is that Bob Parsons suffers from the same sort of ideal that so many other people have in terms of Africa (which is usually spoken of in these cases as one monolithic entity, rather than 47 distinct countries), and the ways in which they can help. He may honestly believe that flying in to shoot an elephant or so, and then leaving a few GoDaddy hats behind, makes him some sort of modern day “African Santa Claus.” Of course, plenty of people fall for this comforting delusion when it comes to a continent that many of us know little about. Spending a weekend hunting elephants is not going to solve the problems of a village, and neither is spending your summer vacation working to “save those poor children” in an under-developed country. Both of these measures only camouflage the structural foundations of poverty. If Bob Parsons was truly worried about the plight of a village in Zimbabwe, and not just interested in the adrenaline rush of shooting an endangered animal in the dark, there are many, many ways he could have spent his money and his time to provide a more long-term solution. At this point, Bob Parsons is a part of the problem, not the solution.

The (pink) elephant

So, I’m hoping by now you’re already looking into the steps necessary to switch your domain, but I request that you also take the time to consider why it is that you’re only doing it now. There are plenty of options out there for domain hosting, so why were you with GoDaddy?

Whether or not you believe that your dollars make a difference, choosing where you spend them should be as informed a choice as you can make it. To me, making those choices based on whether or not the CEO is getting his rocks off by shooting elephants is just as important as whether or not he uses women’s bodies to sell his services. Sadly, one just makes for a more sensational story than the other.