Review: Social Justice Weekend and the Intersectional Justice Conference

Recently, my spouse and I had the opportunity to attend the first Intersectional Justice conference Toward a Whole-Earth Community at The Whidbey Institute. A fantastic event! Great people, great place, great vegan food. A friend asked if they would be able to accommodate my plant-based diet at this event. Yes, of course! Justice = eat your greens.

Being a fan and Twitter friend
of Carol J. Adams, center.

I decided to attend because Carol J. Adams author of The Sexual Politics of Meat (see my review at EcoLit books) was going to be there (!). So close to my home. I had to go. I registered early and then the organizers kept adding more and more phenomenal sounding speakers.

We started our "social justice weekend" by attending an event with U.S. Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey at Town Hall Seattle. Booker is a witty Twitter friend and much discussed Vegan Pal. His talk was moving, heartwarming and even Sherman Alexie funny. His warm humor felt refreshing and needed in politics.

Next, ferrying off to Whidbey Island, I wondered what the weekend had in store. In the end, it felt like participating in a high level graduate school course on intersectional justice. And it felt good to be in a community of passionate and compassionate people.

A quick definition, I heard:

Intersectional: Means looking for solutions to social justice issues by finding their interconnected causes. Instead of being a "single issue" activist, using systems thinking to problem-solve the struts underpinning multiple issues. Being simultaneously aware of a lot of different things at the same time. Sexism, racism, ableism, and speciesism are all important dilemmas of human behavior.

A key theme, I heard:

Speciesism is foundational to other ways of oppression. It's a dangerous way of being that leads directly to the abuse of people, leads to violence, callousness, disconnection. See "Intersectionality and Animals" by Pattrice Jones of Vine Sanctuary. 

One thing I especially appreciated about this experience was how wonderfully emotions were expressed and included in this learning environment. Speakers showed anger. They let tears fall. Presenters hugged.

Emotion was included and added to the discourse, not separated from it or excluded altogether.

I've read a lot on effective altruism and often it's said that people have trouble caring when confronted with large numbers. So, I loved how Dawn Moncrief of A Well-Fed World, who clearly appreciates numbers and accuracy, teared up while showing a slide of data on hunger — 20,000 people die of hunger and hunger-related causes a day (one-third are children under the age of five). The vastness of the problem did not cause dispassion.

The expression of emotion felt healthy and refreshing.

My main question during this weekend was: What am I going to do with all this information? That, I will continue to explore. One answer is: pay more attention. A theme of my current writing project, Space Explorer 365, and this conference was standpoint, you only see from your own circumstances and you only pay attention to what you are paying attention to.

I like this quote from A Well-Fed World's humanefacts.org website:

“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”  – Maya Angelou

To which, I'll add, don't be afraid of knowing better. We are all capable of thinking and living differently and it can be fun to explore and make change. It makes us feel alive and vital. There's no benefit to turning away, to not knowing. As I learned as a hospice volunteer, fear and guilt hinder good works, whereas acting from love and a genuine spirit "to do the best we can" makes connection possible.

Videos of each speaker from the conference will be posted at whidbeyinstitute.org.

Some key questions raised:

How can we...?
...reform America's criminal justice system? Cory Booker has some ideas.
...target the intersections, destablize the systems and solve problems animals have as a result of people? —  pattrice jones of Vine, an ecofeminist, LGBQT, solar-powered animal sanctuary
...imagine a better future? "Imagination is the key to revolution." — Aph Ko (being a utopian sci-fi writer, afrofuturism was my favorite thought from this conference)
...feed every one? — Dawn Moncrief
...design a way of living where we can all flourish? — Brian Henning
...make connections that are meaningful? Will Tuttle

Do we know...?
...who, where and why we are? Are we connected? — Zarna Joshi
...where the chickens are? "Don't mix metaphors. Don't contribute to the absent referent." — Carol J. Adams. Learn more about chickens at: Triangle Chance for All
...where our food comes from? Where is your chocolate sourced? — lauren Ornelas of Food Empowerment Project
...who is being affected, harmed by our actions and choices?

I added wildly to my to-read list again over the weekend.

• United: Thoughts on Finding Common Ground and Advancing the Common Good by Cory Booker 
• Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankel (which inspired Booker - and many others) 
• Letters to a New Vegan: Words to Inform, Inspire, and Support a Vegan Lifestyle, Lantern Books
• The Color of Hunger: Race and Hunger in National and International Perspective by David L.L. Shields
• Sistah Vegan by A. Breeze Harper
• The Oxen at the Intersection: A Collision (or, Bill and Lou Must Die: A Real-Life Murder Mystery from the Green Mountains of Vermont) by pattrice jones (My review)
• Towards Collective Liberation: Anti-Racist Organizing, Feminist Praxis, and Movement Building Strategy by Criss Crass via PM Press
  

These books were already on my to-read list, but have now moved back up the queue:

• Ecofemism by Carol J. Adams
• Defiant Daughters: 21 Women on Art, Activism, Animals, and the Sexual Politics of Meat edited by Kara Davis and Wendy Lee
• Circles of Compassion: Essays Connecting Issues of Justice edited by Will Tuttle — includes essays by Melanie Joy, Christopher-Sebastian McJetters, Dawn Moncrief, lauren Ornelas, Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, Marla Rose, Ruby Roth, and Jasmin Singer

These are on my list, but forthcoming:

• A Vegan Ethic: Embracing a Life of Compassion Toward All, Mark Hawthorne, expected publication July 29, 2016
• The Carol J. Adams Reader: Writings and Conversations 1995-2015 by Carol J. Adams, expected publication October 6, 2016

Oh dear, I have been trying to keep my to-read list culled to no more than 200 books (so that I will have hope of actually reading and keeping track of what's on it). After this weekend, I am up to 197 books. Then the new issue of Driftwood Magazine arrives. Much goodness. Much reading ahead.

In addition, these blogs have great content to check in on:

• Funcrunch by Pax Ahimsa Gethen, for another view of the event read "Making Connections at Whidbey"
• Striving With Systems — collaborators include Aph Ko, Christopher Sebastian McJetters, and Justin Van Kleek
• Black Vegans Rock - because they do, like Keith Tucker of Hip Hop is Green
• Aphro-ism black feminist thought by Aph and Syl Ko

To watch list:

• The Last Pig - a documentary about a "humane" pig farmer who questions his ethics
• Street Fight - a documentary about Cory Booker's 2002 mayoral campaign
• Always in Season - a documentary about lynching in America
• Lauryn Hill, Black Rage - a music video

Additional resources:

• Kimberlé Crenshaw, black feminist and legal scholar, Why intersectionality can’t wait, The Washington Post 
• Vegan Praxis of Black Lives Matter, Sistah Vegan Project's conference held last spring, lectures online
• Eileen Crist, ecologist
• Thomas Berry, ecologist, The Ecozoic Era
• Moonstone Farm Sanctuary on Whidbey Island