by Dr. Steven Best
Real vegan outreach must reach outside the white elitist enclaves.
Capitalism exploits all animals — human and nonhuman — and hunger and homelessness do not discriminate. Poverty and speciesism are two huge issues that need to be connected.
Vegan outreach will be far more meaningful in the context of addressing complex social problems than if it remains the domain of an elite white middle class. With Thanksgiving approaching this week, we have a perfect opportunity to begin to bring vegan food to the homeless populations in our own communities. Media attention is always drawn to shelters and missions that offer the hungry a holiday meal. And vegans need to become a part of this community outreach and continue to bring our food to the homeless all year long.
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e simple strategy is to do a vegan food drive for the benefit of a local shelter.
Or volunteer your time and energy. Make a huge batch of vegan chili with corn bread and iced tea. Keep it simple. Inform the media and bring a rescue dog to draw connections between animal homelessness and human homelessness.
Far from misanthropes who are unconcerned with human tragedy, vegans can actively address human and nonhuman exploitation by making vegan outreach a meaningful strategy; one that bridges social issues and becomes an effective tool for total liberation.
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Dr. Steven Best is NIO’s Senior Editor of Total Liberation. Associate professor of philosophy at UTEP, award-winning writer, noted speaker, public intellectual, and seasoned activist, Dr. Best engages the issues of the day such as animal rights, ecological crisis, biotechnology, liberation politics, terrorism, mass media, globalization, and capitalist domination. Best has published 10 books, over 100 articles and reviews, spoken in over a dozen countries, interviewed with media throughout the world, appeared in numerous documentaries, and was voted by VegNews as one of the nations “25 Most Fascinating Vegetarians.” He has come under fire for his uncompromising advocacy of “total liberation” (humans, animals, and the earth) and has been banned from the UK for the power of his thoughts. From the US to Norway, from Sweden to France, from Germany to South Africa, Best shows what philosophy means in a world in crisis.
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