CFP_2008_Race_Class_Ethical_Consumption

TO PRINT THIS PAGE, PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR PRINT VERSION

Welcome

Many people do not understand why a critical class studies, critical race theory and/or critical whiteness studies lens is necessary for more holistic analysis of the eco-sustainable movement, ethical consumption philosophies, and animal rights organizations. If you would like to understand this better, you can click at the end of this welcome message to read downloadable literature that explains whiteness and critical race theory. Ask yourself how it is connected to better understanding philosophies such as animal rights, “ethical consumption”, health (which is greatly impacted by access to “ethical consumption”), etc. I implore you to take time to read this literature. I hope that it will help folks understand how they can make eco-sustainable, holistic health, and ethical consumption practices and philosophies more accessible to people of color, people who do not live in the First World, and low-income peoples; people whose realities and everyday lives do not not parallel those of white middle-class or white upper-class Americans. Historically to the present, this demographic’s collective philosophies of “ethics” and “conscious living” has been culturally consctruced as the “norm to live by” here in the United States. Because of the lack of reflection on the implications of race, class, and USA national privilege, such “norms” have become one of the major reasons why the ethical consumption and eco-sustainable movements are usually only “appealing” to white middle and white upper class Americans. I hope that we can all learn how to reflect on how institutionalized racism and classism, as well our own privileges and power (derived from institutionalized “-isms” we may not even realize we feed ) may actually be obstructing marginalized people from embarking on eco-friendly, healthy whole foods eco-sustainable diets, and ethical consumptive practices into their daily lives that reflect their realities and cultural beliefs-- beliefs that may not necessarily align with that of the 1st World’s status quo or agenda, or align with the “normalized” white middle-class embodied experience of “nature” or “veganism” .
If you are well-read in critical race theory and/or experienced in anti-racist praxis, anti-poverty activism, and whiteness studies, but are skeptical about why it is important to consider how eco-sustainable, animal rights, “ethical consumption”, holistic health and nutrition practices (i.e., veganism, organic, vegetarianism, etc.) can affect your social activism, click below on the brown link to explore how these practices influence work and philosophical foundations of racial and class social justice.

Abstract Deadline: Accepting abstracts until September 1, 2008

Full Chapter Deadline: January 1, 2009

Approximate Date of Book Publication: Fall 2009

Description:

The alternative foods, ethical consumption, and environmental sustainability movements in the USA, have grown exponentially in the past decade. The fusion of white racialized consciousness, 1st Worldism, and middle/upper class experience drives the formulation of "ethics", "morality", and "sustainability" that the “status quo” dominating these movements espouse. Rarely, if ever, has the status quo of these movements written about how [white] racialized consciousness and class status impact their philosophies and advocacy of animal rights, veganism, fair trade, eco-sustainable living, etc., in the USA. Deeper investigations by academic scholars have found that collectively, this “privileged” demographic tends to view their ethics as “colorblind”, thereby passively discouraging reflections on white and class privilege within alternative food movements (Slocum 2006) and animal rights activism (Nagra 2003; Poldervaart 2001). Consequently, academic scholars such as Dr. Rachel Slocum feel that rather than fostering equality, "alternative food practice reproduces white privilege in American society". (Slocum 2006, 13) This oversight deserves critical redress if the goals of these movements are to be globalized and accessible to people of color and low-income people.

In addition, this dynamic within these movements leads a significant number of people of color in the U.S. to perceive the animal rights/ethical consumption movement as being "elitist," "racist" and insensitive to the experiences and struggles of racial minorities and working class people. One of the clearest and most recent examples of movement-initiated acts that encourage this perception by people of color has been communicated through ethical consumption campaigns. PETA's 2005 use of images of lynched black men, Holocaust victims, and Native American genocide to parallel non-human animal suffering was perceived as most offensive by people of color. Complaints about these images by people of color are often collectively viewed by white middle-class animal rights activists as "speciesist" or "selfish" ; collectively, people of color view such advertisements as “racist”. Neither “wrong” nor “right”, such responses deserve deeper understanding and analysis of the complexities and clashes of race, racialized consciousness, Eurocentric concepts of modernity, and speciesism within all communities in the USA and beyond.

Simultaneously, one can see contradictions within certain pockets of communities of color that uphold anti-racism and anti-poverty practices from an anthropocentric praxis, espousing philosophies of “freedom” and “equality” that do not take non-human animals rights, holistic health practices, or eco-sustainable living into mind. Such an example can be seen from the 2007 NFL player Michael Vick dogfighting case, in which many of his supporters defend him and dogfighting as “cultural”-- exempt from scrutiny from white middle-class society that often ignore the “cruelty” involved in “acceptable” animal entertainment past times of the status quo; for example, duck shooting and horse racing.

Because these misalignments of interests and differing perceptions of “justice” and “equality” are real and cannot be taken lightly, this is a call for papers to address the contradictions and clashes of "ethics" and "equality" within white middle-class dominated ethical consumption, alternative foods and eco-sustainable movements as well as within certain communities of color that often focus solely on antiracist and antipoverty rhetoric without incorporating the effects of over-consumption, non-human animal rights, encouragement of healthier eating, and eco-sustainable into their liberation and equality strategies. It is also a call for papers to begin to resolve and reconcile these contradictions and clashes on all sides; particularly for those with racial privilege and middle/upper class status in the 1st World, who do not acknowledge the impact of racialized consciousness and 1st World perception on the production of knowledge, power and policy; and view the movement as "colorblind”, a concept Law Professor, Jerry Kang, theorizes as equaling “default whiteness” (Kang 2000).

Through lenses such as whiteness studies, critical race theory, humane education, decolonial theory, dependency theory, critical race feminism, womanism and working class studies, this anthology welcomes voices from people who support the many concepts of eco-sustainability, alternative foods, and ethical consumption philosophy, regardless of the challenges they may present. All disciplines are welcomed. Interdisciplinary approaches, voices from people of color, working class folk, and activists from the global South are strongly encouraged.

The book will tentatively have these sections:

1. “’White’ or Right?” Comparing ethnic minority suffering to non-human animal suffering by “cruelty-free” consumption organizations.
2. “Healthy” as Skinny, White/Light, and Vegan: How whiteness shapes the concept of “healthy alternative food practices” and the “healthy” body in the USA.
3. Culture or Cruelty Argument: Analysis of creating ethnically-based cultural identity and solidarity around ecocidal and non-human animal suffering philosophies.
4. The Unbearable Whiteness of Being [Green]: Analyzing the impact of white racialized consciousness and class privilege on the eco-sustainable and ethical consumption movement in the USA and globally.
5. “It’s a White Thing, Not Our Thing”: Consequences of eco-sustainable, “health” foods, and “cruelty-free” consumption perceived strictly as a “white thing” by people and communities of color engaged in anti-racist and anti-poverty activism.
6. “The Only Color We Care About is Green”: Reproductions of systemic and institutionalized racism, 1st Worldism, and/or classism within literature or “colorblind” organizations dedicated to “cruelty-free” consumption or eco-sustainable praxis
.
7. Resolutions and Reconciliation: Ideas on successfully dismantling these challenges and clashes.

Abstract: 1 page maximum

Citation: Footnotes: CMS or MLA. Avoid creating a bibliography.

Document Format: Margins: 1". Spacing: 2 Font Size: 12

Word Processing File Format: MicroSoft Word or Apple Pages accepted. Please DO NOT send a .pdf (Adobe Acrobat file) of your materials.

Pages: Minimum: 10 pages Maximum: 30 pages

Email abstract to Breeze Harper at breezeharper@gmail.com

TO PRINT THIS PAGE, PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR PRINT VERSION

Sources Cited

Clark, Dylan. "The Raw and the Rotten: Punk Cuisine." Ethnology 43, no. 1 (2004): 19+.

Farr, Arnold. "6 Whiteness Visible." In What White Looks like: African-American Philosophers on the Whiteness Question, edited by Yancy, George, 143-158. New York: Routledge, 2004.

Kang, Jerry. "Cyber-Race." Harvard Law Review 113, no. 5 (2000): 1131-1209.

Nagra, Narina. "Whiteness in Seattle: Anti-GlobalizationnActivists Examine Racism within the Movement." Alternatives Journal, Wntr 2003, 27+.

Poldervaart, Saskia. "Utopian Aspects of Social Movements in "Postmodern Times: Some Examples of DIY Politics in the Netherlands." Utopian Studies 12, no. 2 (2001): 143+.

Slocum, Rachel. "Anti-racist Practice and the Work of Community Food Organizations." Antipode 38.2 (2006) 327-349.