The Forgotten Vegan Society

Writer: Alexandria Morgan

With plant-based options becoming more accessible, today’s herbivores, vegetarians, and vegans now have an easier time following their diet and maintaining their lifestyle as well as influencing a newer and healthier lifestyle for omnivores across the world.

People from different backgrounds are partaking in the recent plant-based trend, and companies that produce plant-based products such as Beyond Meat and Impossible Burger have become popular within the last year. While many races embrace their new vegetarian and vegan lifestyles, black people are still scrutinized for adopting a plant-based style; the reason being, a vegetarian lifestyle or a vegan lifestyle is considered to be “for white people”.

Instead of succumbing to these comments, many members of the black community have found a way to influence and incorporate veganism into the black community with the hope that black people will see veganism as a healthy lifestyle for everyone rather than just a white people thing. Aph Ko, a 28 year old Florida native, took her part and started the “Black Vegans Rock” movement on social media encouraging the black community that there’s more to being vegan besides animal rights.

“When you say ‘vegan’, a lot of people tend to only think of PETA, which doesn’t reflect the massive landscape of vegan activism. The black vegan movement is one of the most diverse, decolonial, complex and creative movements”, Ko says.

Veganism as well as vegetarianism within the black community is being reinvented for not only emphasizing the importance of animal welfare and health, but also emphasizing the historical roots of African culture as well as spirituality; groups such as the Nation of Islam emphasize a core principle of a vegetarian diet for blacks. Whether it’s health, spirituality, or animal welfare, blacks have added their own politics and reasons to become a vegan or vegetarian.

Although considered a ‘white movement’, the list of black vegetarians and vegans continues to grow as the black vegan movement becomes more and more influential. Jenee Clairborne adds that there is more to veganism besides giving up fried chicken and other animal delicacies; it’s about continuing and finishing a health movement that has been long disregarded by the black community. She along with Zachary Toliver have even encouraged the black community to eat at black vegan restaurants that have begun to resurface thanks to the vegan movement.

Black vegans are even creating their own language to communicate to other members of the black community to let them know that they are not alone. A survival method, one may add, and a positive encouragement that you don’t need to face this alone. The community has even made the effort to start vibrant, and exuberant vegan festivals within the community.

Celebrities like Beyonce’ have started a 22 day vegan cleanse and created cookbooks that allow and help you to incorporate vegan recipes into your meals at home.

Needless to say, black veganism is no longer a stranger within the black community. With encouragement and positivity, the vegan/vegetarian movement being seen as a ‘white people thing can finally be eliminated and the vegan movement can be something that involves all cultures and races. Black veganism rocks and we have the power to make a difference.