VICE magazine published an article on August 14 headlined: “Dear White Vegans, Stop Appropriating Food.”
“Veganism is going through its own racial reckoning that’s a long time coming, considering white vegan influencers have appropriated traditional foods forever,” the article said.
It goes on to quote Afia Amoako who complains that she doesn’t see herself reflected in the vegan community, which she says, is dominated by wealthy white women.
“They often touted recipes – ”African peanut stew” or “Asian stir fry” – that rely on racial stereotypes,” Amoako said.
“One, they don’t look like you, and, two, they are appropriating your food. Those are ways to turn racialized people away.”
Well there’s Amoako’s problem. She’s racialized. Maybe if she was less racialized and a bit more, you know, human, she’d be able to look at food without being oppressed!
When you can’t think of a single thing more racist than some cracker eating a tofu dumpling, you’re the problem!
When you feel like vegetables and salad have that micro-aggression of racism built in to them, you’re no longer eating the plants, you’re smoking them.
If Amoako has her way, we won’t be able to eat anything without first making certain that what we are eating was first eaten by someone who shared our skin colour…or else!
Come to think about it, there’s a Japanese noodle restaurant in my city that serves Kimchi. I don’t know whether to wokesplain to them why this is wrong, or just set fire to the place.
Vice Magazine said that Amoako, a vegan Instagrammer and blogger based in Toronto, wasn’t the only racialized vegan who felt sidelined by the community.
“Black vegan influencer Tabitha Brown told Vice that before she cut out meat and dairy she thought vegans were “white ladies who do yoga.” White people and their blogs dominate the results when key terms like “vegans,” “vegetarians,” or “vegan recipes” are plugged into Google.”
Well, let’s ensure some black women eating spicy Chinese eggplant are bumped up the Google search results – or George Floyd will have died in vain!
Wait a second, I thought veganism was about eliminating as far as practically possible the use and abuse of animals. The fact these people are choosing to look at veganism through the lens of race means they have zero care for the actual cause of vegans.
It’s almost like they sat down and thought: “Damn white people and their ….. shuffles deck …… veganism!
Cooking and enjoying food from another culture is not cultural appropriation so much as cultural appreciation.
But the geniuses at Vice Magazine seem to think learning something from another culture and using it yourself is a heinous act of racial oppression.
I was actually very close to going vegan. But after reading the article in Vice, I decided to honor my whiteness with another helping of ribs and bacon.
Maybe it’s a good thing I don’t cook any of that foreign rubbish. I’m accidentally Woke!
I do look forward to Vice Magazine doing a story on cultural appropriation in things like pants, and air travel. And the telephone, internet, the PC and the stuff like that. They could start with the cultural appropriation of “Desk Top Publishing”.
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James Macpherson is a sought after international speaker with a background in journalism at the Courier Mail and Daily Telegraph. He previously pastored a significant church in Australia and South Africa. James' weekly Good Sauce podcast comes out every Tuesday. He also writes regularly for The Spectator.
