Zero Waste, Veganism, and Privilege
This post has been a long time coming. I’ve had a lot of conversations with friends on this topic lately, and I realize that these important conversations don’t happen very much in our online communities. There are three main things I’d like to address.
1. Environmentalism absolutely must do a better job of reflecting intersectionality.
I’m a member of the activist community at my school and in North Carolina in general. This means that I do everything I can to show up for black lives, trans lives, Muslim lives, native lives and more. I see intersectionality in everything I do and work hard to educate myself as a white, middle class person. I am part of the Divestment Student Network which cannot divorce these environmental issues from the social issues they impact. Environmental racism is real. The same systems of oppression that are creating environmental catastrophe are also hitting queer people, women, and poc the hardest. This cannot, must not, be forgotten. I believe that it is easy to talk about environmental issues in a way that centralizes narratives about landfills, marine life destruction, facts about carbon footprints, and endangered animals. Often times, the human side of things is left out, and those narratives must be just as important. We all suffer as a result of climate change, and certain populations suffer first and most. Our narratives should strive to be more inclusive.
2. The environmentalism movement absolutely must recognize that it takes enormous privilege to be zero waste, vegan, minimalist, etc.
I had a friend point out to me recently that they admired my lifestyle choices, but felt that certain things were exclusive to them because they lived with disability. They had a perspective that I had never considered and really appreciated hearing. I often see people in this community push back against these statements and argue about the ease of “simple swaps” or “lazy veganism” but this just silences and closes out those voices even more. This seriously needs to change. I love figures like the Vegan Bros because they don’t think purity should ever be the goal of veganism. The goal should be drawing people in to this community as much as possible, and listening to the very real challenges and barriers that people face. For example, buying high-quality, long-lasting clothing plainly is not an option for people of low income, and buying second-hand is nothing new or revolutionary when that’s what you’ve always done to get by. This needs to be acknowledged. Most importantly though, shutting down marginalized people when they express their struggles needs to stop, because we should be trying to draw a wider circle to grow as a movement.
3. I come from a place of privilege, which makes it my responsibility to be better and do everything I can to dismantle systems of oppression.
I am white, middle class, able-bodied, neurotypical and educated. I am “woke” to the deep problems in our current food system, and our fashion industry. I have enough financial independence and autonomy to chose to support better products and businesses. I live in a city where I can recycle and compost almost anything, so there’s no reason I should be sending much at all to the landfill. I have a job that allows me to push my university community to do better, and educate others. Because all of this is true, I choose to be vegan, to be zero waste, and to work for environmental and social justice as much as possible. As a friend of mine keeps reminding me “if you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor” (Desmond Tutu). I firmly believe that complacency is a privilege, and I choose to use my privilege for good whenever and wherever I can.
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