White Meat:Eating Animals and the Alt-Right by Christopher Sebastian.
General Summary of discussion held at Cornell University on February 27th, 2020
For those of you that were interested but couldn’t make it to Cornell Thursday night for the talk, “White Meat: Eating Animals and the Alt-Right” by Christopher Sebastian, here are some of the highlights. The talk was organized by the Cornell Vegan Society and had a great turnout. The subject is vast and complex, and I can’t do it justice in a brief synopsis. However, the resistance to veganism is growing and we should all be aware of the tactics that are being used against us.
As veganism continues to grow, it threatens the meat, diary, egg and fur industries’ profits, as well the politicians those industries support. As a result, they are retaliating with a campaign of misinformation, fear mongering and white identity politics.
A few examples:
Sarah Palin’s first New Year’s resolution for 2020? Eat more meat. Sebastian explains, “this is a way of signaling to other white people that this is a sign of solidarity. This is a measure of how we achieve proper whiteness. And it’s one of the ways that we show each other that we are ‘true’ Americans. Eating meat paves a path to American exceptionalism.”
Beef magazine wrote, “the fight for the center of the dinner plate is on. If tofu, beans and lentils become the number-one recommendation as the plant-based protein substitutes to beef, then we have not only failed our own industry, but we have failed the children, military, hospital patients and nursing home residents who will eat according to the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans.”
Trapping advocate Nick Catrina told the LA times that “animal rights activists are terrorist groups, mostly led by lesbians, who destroy property and burn down animal research facilities for their cause. And progressives, in their march toward communism, are trying to ban trapping. They’ll get rid of hunting too after they take over the government of the United States.” Sebastian joked that our secret is out, and he can’t figure out how they “got ahold of our manifesto.”
Televangelist Rick Wiles said this regarding vegans, “God is watching these Lucifariens destroy this planet, destroy the animal kingdom, destroy the plant kingdom, change human DNA. Why? They want to change human DNA so that you can’t be born again. That’s where they’re going with this, to change the DNA of humans so it will be impossible for a human to be born again. They want to create a race of soulless creatures on this planet.”
Its mind blowing and terrifying that people will actually buy into these paranoid theories.
Sebastian went on to talk about intersectionality. Whether we are talking about black rights, queer rights, animal rights or the rights of anyone in any marginalized community, they all intersect. As vegans, we must fight oppression everywhere.
Christopher Sebastian is the director of social media for Peace Advocacy Network, he sits on the Advisory Council for Encompass, he is senior editor at Vine Sanctuary Press, he is co-founder of VGN, and he lectures at Columbia University. In his own words he is a queer black vegan. You can find more of his talks on YouTube.
