Examples of community-based activism

In spring 2009 I worked at my university’s writing center in one of the student dorms, meeting with walk-in appointments and basic writing students.  One of my regular students, K, was interested in some of the same subjects as I was, and at most of our meetings we talked about those things more than K’s writing.  K was in a philosophy class, and we talked about ethics, I think, at most meetings.

K was not a practicing vegetarian or vegan, but we sometimes talked about veganism at our meetings, and we had mostly the same thoughts: Who do we “think we are,” as humans?  Why is it “murder” to kill another human and “sport” to kill a nonhuman?  Why do we think we are “compassionate” to kill “free range” chickens instead of “factory farmed” ones?  One time I suggested a documentary about speciesist oppression to K, but I don’t know if he watched it.  About 8 weeks into the semester, K stopped coming to the writing center and I didn’t meet with him anymore.

This past spring one of my friends at my university, M, said he was directing a friend of his to me so I could help him go vegetarian.  M directed his friend to me because M knew I was involved in veganism and had experience living as a vegan in our town.  I found out later that M’s friend was K, and K had decided to eat vegetarian.

I told K which stores in our town had the most options for vegan groceries, and I offered to shop with him.  I told him about the natural foods store and the restaurants in our town that have vegan options.  I told him about cooking foods like pancakes and mashed potatoes so they are vegan.  K said he was grateful and that he might be able to be “completely vegan” sooner than he originally thought.

This experience demonstrated to me the value of talking about veganism with people and “being available” as a vegan.  My role with K was mostly passive: I talked about veganism in the context of maybe “philosophical musing” or something, and then later I gave him tips about eating vegan in our town.  I didn’t have to be an “activist” really, but “simply” talking about veganism and “being there” as a vegan was helpful to him.

Another example of community-based activism is that recently I added a veganism page to my poetry blog.  Having the page on my blog is pretty passive, but it gets almost as many hits as my other pages, and I’ve received multiple comments about veganism from other poets.  In the past I was excited about combining poetry and activism to make an “activist poetry.”  Now I’ve noticed that “simply” being available as a vegan—publicly mentioning veganism as “the other thing I do”—is already helpful.   I think promoting veganism like this is very easy and very valuable.

Thank you for reading this post.

Related posts:
- The value of community-based activism
- Dropping the “activist” label
- Putting it out there