I am a year old 18 born and raised African American. I am a sophomore at a university in Virginia and I am most definitely vegan. America is the land of the free and home of the home... at least that is what we are told. I see many brave men and women within America fighting for many different causes and in many different ways theoretically, they are "free" to do that. But what happens when people no longer feel free, what happens when people are scared of the very organizations that are supposed to protect us, what happens when people no longer just consider themselves as deserving of freedom?
Being black in America means being scared. It means never being free. Racism in America is something white people like to pretend does not exist unless it benefits them politically and many are racist and do not even know they are racist. If you are trying to figure out if you are racist, I am going to help you out. If you find yourself saying, thinking or doing any of these things or anything similar, worry no longer because you are racist.
- black people are ghetto
- black people belong in prison
- black people deserved to get shot because he had weed/ a phone/ candy/ talked back to the officer
- name one country run by blacks that isn't a shithole
- I am going to give reparations to the black community so that black people will vote for me and then not hold my word
- black people don't work hard enough to be successful and deserve to be poor/ broke/ uneducated/ died etc
- I don't ever want to work for a black person
- nigga/er
- (this black person) did (this thing) thus every black person has the same equal opportunities as white people
- you're not like other black people
- all lives matter not just black lives
See, back people are not free to sleep, to drive, to walk, to play, or to live without fear. Every time a cop car rides by black people have to wonder if today is the last day they live. I do not blame the police entirely; police departments were created to catch and punish slaves. That was their job and their only job thus making the entire system against us from the very beginning. While most police officers actually want to do good, it is way too many killing innocent black people and only a small portion of that can be contributed to the way officers are trained and another small portion to the lack of proper representation from the media. so, if for me, a small part of being African American is being scared of the very people that are supposed to protect me.
while police brutality is the easy one to discuss, we face all types of problems from housing to employment to violence and drugs to being thrown in prison at higher rates than anyone else. To me, the worst part is not the fact that this happens in my community, it is the fact that it is ignored, and we are silenced. Our fears are silenced. Our struggles are silenced. we are not even free to wear our natural hair but yet you claim this is the land of the free. The land of the free but we are not free to voice our pain, but this is the home of the brave. We are not free to talk about our history, but white people are free to pick and choose what and when we need to learn about our people.
We are brave enough to voice our pain loud enough to make you listen. we are brave enough to defend our community by any means necessary. we are brave enough to tell you that you are wrong. we are brave enough to speak not just for ourselves but for others as well. we are brave enough not to just think about ourselves but even consider those who are not human. We are brave enough not to let you whitewash our history.
we are brave enough to fight for freedom.
That is what being American means to me. It means being brave enough to fight not just for my freedom and my people's freedom but everyone's freedom and through being vegan, that is exactly what I am doing. I am fighting for the freedom of my people. the freedom of those fleeing their country looking for a better life, fighting for the freedom of the next generation, fighting for the freedom of the LGBTQ community, fighting for the freedom of animals, etc. Everyone should be free. Everyone should be able to live without fear and to be American is to fight for everyone's freedom even those that don't look like you. I can not see myself fighting for the freedom of one and not fighting for everyone. To fight for the freedom of one and not for all is hypocrisy, cowardly, and greedy. It is valuing one over the other and not treating everyone as equal and if you are fighting for the freedom you are fighting for equality and to fight for equality is to fight for equality of everyone. To fight you need to be fighting not just for black people, not just for Latinos, not just for immigrants, not just for animals, not just for the LGBT community, not just for this Jewish, not just for you but for everyone and if you are not willing to do that then you are the part of America that I wish we didn't have.
The part of America that only cares about themselves. The part of America that is the reason we have Donald Trump in office. the part of America that only cares about what they want and not what is best for America as a whole. It is best for you to turn a blind eye to the suffering of other if you get a tax cut, it best for you to turn a blind eye to suffering of others if you get a promotion, it is best for you to turn a blind eye to the suffering of others because you are scared of them, it is best for you to turn a blind eye to the suffering of others because you want 5 minutes of joy. That is not being brave. That is not what America is about.
America is the land of the free and home of the brave. America is about being brave enough to fight for the freedom of everyone.
Veganism is something that is truly important to the world. Veganism is about peace and love for all beings and the understanding that everyone wants to be able to experience happiness but they’re beings in the world that will never experience peace, love and happiness because they are considered less than. Since America’s existence there has been a group fighting for their rights weather it was the Native Americans, African Americans, the Jewish or dogs and cats. In America people continue to pick and choose who they fight for instead of fighting for everyone. An African American woman do not have to give up her fight for equality to fight for the rights of animals too. A Latino do not have to give up their fight for equal rights to fight for the rights of animals too. A Native American do not have to give up their fight to fight for animals too. Women do not have to give up their fight for equality to fight for animals too. Way too many people believe that it is privilege to fight for animal rights and not have to fight for “your people” but the truth of the matter is that animal rights is human rights and to fight for animal rights is to fight for all rights!
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