Hemp seeds for racial tension headaches: Building solidarity with mainstream vegan products companie
Today, another well known vegan products company responded to my request for sponsorship for our conference with a “no”. They explained that they simply cannot do it because they receive too many requests to say yes to. I answered them in a appreciative letter, letting them know that their products have been essential for my healthy pregnancies and the new book I am working on.
I think most mainstream vegan products companies probably don’t think about the ‘racial healing’ aspect of their ingredients. I am hoping that my letter can get them and many other companies who take a ‘post-racial’ approach to their marketing and meaning of their products, to think about the possibility of partnering with the Sistah Vegan Project in the future and enact solidarity with anti-racism movements with something as ‘simple’ as hemp seeds, Spirulina, kale and other super food ingredients I suggest for racial healing.
I assume the best in people and truly believe that most of the mainstream vegan companies just need a little alternative education to understand how their products can fit into anti-racism AND anti-speciesism movements at the same time. They just need to understand that eating hemp seeds for their usual post-racial mainstream animal rights vegan may mean ‘I eat chia seeds to get calcium and magnesium in a way that doesn’t hurt animals’. Alternatively, an anti-racism vegan of color dealing with racism-induced relaxation problems at night applies a different meaning to hemp seeds: “I eat hemp seeds at night because the high amount of magnesium has been proven to relax me and give me a calmer sleep through the emotional turmoil I am experiencing after Ferguson… and I don’t have to hurt a non-human animal to do it.”
Here is an excerpt from a letter I sent below to the company that just emailed me an hour ago that they are unable to sponsor us:
“I will apply again next year for your company’s consideration to sponsor our annual conference. Also I am integrating many of your products into a new book I am writing called ‘Recipes for Racial Tension Headaches’ which is part recipe book and part critical analysis of systemic racism in the USA and how eating certain vegan foods can help with the emotional and physical toll that events such as Trayvon Martin’s murder and Ferguson can have on people of color engaged in anti-racism activism. I only want to suggest ingredients made by companies that are ethical and sell mostly vegan products. The high amount of magnesium found in hemp seeds is relaxing and helps for a better sleep and brain health during stress for many of my fans and activists who ask me for tips about eating a healthy plant based diet while surviving through systemic racism. The don’t need to just survive…I want them to be able thrive, and I know your products will help.”
For more info about sponsoring our conference: http://sistahvegan.com/sponsor-the-conference/
Official Conference URL: http://www.sistahveganconference.com
Can’t attend the conference but like what we do? Donate to the Sistah Vegan Project.
