I like bridging, narrowing, and deconstructing the gaps in between. Oppression is intersectional so activism has got to be, right? Right. Third Wave 101. I tend to be one of those people who emails all my activist friends about the latest movement to get involved with. I need to quit it.
See, the problem is I seem to expect, even demand that folks who are involved in certain anti-oppression work (queer rights, for example) will necessarily be interested in all the other progressive claptrap I send out. The trouble is, this isn’t the case. My queer friends are not all vegans. My female and feminist friends are not all trans advocates. And so on. Yes, I obviously wish that everyone were on the edges of third wave radicalism with regard to every issue, but if that were the case, we wouldn’t have any work to do, would we?
I’m not claiming that I endorse plurality in every case. But the trouble is, setting up these expectations actually hurts me more than anyone else. See, the fundamental principle of coalition building is exploring and capitalizing on commonalities. If I start superficially inflating these the grounds of commonality, I’ve lost valuable objectivity. I’ve lost the ability to connect along lines that make sense to other organizers or people, instead of the vague and nonsensical “well, we’re both sort of progressive.” Moreover, a barrage of pro-anything messaging can be overwhelming. Sometimes, the activist side of the brain needs to rest, and sometimes understanding a particular cause has to be a more personal and slowly unfolding process. I’ve had several friends become vegan several months after meeting me, or another veg*n acquaintance, after gathering and synthesizing information and coming to a rational decision all on eir own. My own involvement in a variety of causes followed a similar pattern, and it’s not a process I should be interrupting.
And guess what? Sometimes I just like to sit back and stay quiet. There is a strategic “less is more” quality to persuasion, yes, but there is also the relief in knowing that good activists (and proper leftists!) are smart and will seek out information as it becomes relevant to them. There is the relief in knowing that I can sometimes say just one thing, or nothing, and it’ll work out just fine. They’ll come around 
.
stevepan
September 7, 2010
Some concepts are more logically tied together imo, like racism and sexism. Trying to bridge these with dietary habits is a little bit more contrived. It also opens up any efforts to an attack from the class angle. For example, there’s a belief that vegan and vegetarianism are expensive class statements. Someone inclined to shit disturb could bring that up and derail the entire effort.
jananib
September 8, 2010
I agree that racism and sexism are more logically tied together in the general public psyche. However, I think the reason that veg*nism does not have the same reach is really a matter of our disconnect from the source of our food. I don’t want to make this comment too lengthy, so briefly, the connections between factory farming and racism: worker’s rights (most slaughterhouse and farm workers are people of color, many illegal immigrants, and most with poor compensation programs in place), rural health (factory farms are almost exclusively located in poor rural areas, populated by people of color, and as such these folks suffer the worst damages from the emissions, groundwater pollution, pesticide exposure), general public health (the connections between race/class are obvious, and those with limited access to healthy foods as a result of farm subsidies and artificially low pricing of animal products leaves folks of color most vulnerable to health issues due to inadequate nutrition and overfeeding). The Food Empowerment Project also has great info on these issues.
Links between factory farming and sexism: The animal-product industry is overpopulated with women selling animal products, as housewives (hamburger helper), sex symbols (Padma Lakshmi eating a cheeseburger anyone?), etc. We are fed (no pun intended
) information about milk curing every lady problem under the sun, from weight issues to weak bones to PMS. Studies are continually showing that in fact dairy exacerbates osteoporosis risk, heart disease, obesity, and so on. I would also recommend checking out Carol Adams’s Sexual Politics of Meat (even though it’s skewed in the white-second-wave-feminist direction, it sets up a good conversation).
Basically, if someone really would like to bring that kind of point up, research shows the opposite is true–that food is intimately connected to all sorts of anti-oppression work
.
kipwinger
September 8, 2010
I completely understand where you are coming from with this and have also found that simply walking the walk has enabled others to come to the logical conclusions on their own instead of browbeating them into it.
Stevepan, one quick objection. I don’t see any logical difference between equating sexism and racism than racism and veganism or sexism and veganism. You are off the mark in suggesting veganism is merely a matter of “dietary habits”. That’s simply eating as an herbivore. VEGANISM on the other hand, or veganISM, if you will, is both a lifestyle and political perspective based in equality and the eradication of domination. Those principles tie in directly with sexism and racism…and so many other isms for that matter.