21 Questions
Black Vegans Shouldn’t Be Invisible
Jasmine C. Leyva’s documentary ‘The Invisible Vegan’ makes important connections — let’s listen to her
If you’re social-distancing right now, you might think you’ve already worked your way through most of the vegan documentaries worth watching. But have you watched The Invisible Vegan yet? Available on Vimeo, Amazon, Tubi TV, and KweliTV (a black female-owned streaming service!) this documentary deserves to be one of the most-famous in the vegan canon.
Created and directed by Jasmine C. Leyva, The Invisible Vegan is about the connection between African American culture and veganism — and its erasure. Leyva covers ample ground in an extremely entertaining way, from the true history of soul food, to how food deserts and diet-based diseases disproportionately affect black people in our country. This film is required viewing.
After I re-watched The Invisible Vegan a few weeks ago, I reached out to Jasmine to learn more about what motivates this inspiring woman to create and advocate so effectively.
1. How are you holding up during quarantine, and what are you doing to take care of yourself?
Every day I drink hot lemon water with fresh garlic because garlic is antiviral. I am eating kale and fruit to build up my immune system and trying to stay stress-free. On a more spiritual note, I am trying to nourish my spirit by remembering I am a part of a community and not an every-man-for-himself individual. I just submitted to a few volunteer organizations and I hope to be of service to those that need support.
2. Are there any charities you suggest donating to in this time that addresses food access from a more vegan-friendly perspective?
Food Empowerment Project and Hip Hop is Green.
3. Those are fantastic groups. So, what’s your vegan origin story?
My plant-based journey began with far-from-noble intentions. Like most women in this country, I was conditioned to endlessly chase glamour and youth, so when I met Chef Babette Davis, a sexy black vegan woman in her sixties with the body of a 20-year-old, I immediately wanted to walk in her footsteps in hope of achieving similar results.
4. Why did you most want to make The Invisible Vegan?
One day, I was endlessly searching through Netflix, an activity that claims about 18% of my life, and I found a documentary on veganism. I don’t remember exactly which film kicked off my vegan documentary-watch spree, Forks Over Knives; Food Inc; Vegucated; Fat Sick, and Nearly Dead; or Cowspiracy, but I watched them all and they rejuvenated my interest in plant-based eating. The messages in these vegan docs were compelling, but I couldn’t personally relate to the messengers… How do you expect to have a diverse movement if all the messengers look the same? There needed to be balance and The Invisible Vegan represented the change I wanted to see.
5. It really does, so well-done. What’s been the most encouraging response to it you’ve gotten?
People of color have thanked me for putting their narrative, their genius, their faces, their concerns, and their ideas in the forefront.
6. What made you decide to use graphic footage of animals being hurt in the film? It’s a badass move that I’m assuming has repercussions for distribution ease…
What happens to animals in the industrial food system is not pretty, but it’s reality, and I wanted to make a film grounded in truth, not commercialism.
7. What’s the most frustrating thing you hear as a vegan?
The main sources of frustration come from two opposite sides of the spectrum. Even though I am vegan, a lot of people I hold dear are not, and I am protective of those I love. I understand the passion behind ethical eating, but I do not think being vegan gives one moral superiority. So when I hear divisive comments like “how can these people continue to eat like this,” it rubs me the wrong way.
On the other hand, I am equally frustrated by non-vegans who criticize plant-based eating from a place of ignorance. If you want to tear down the science of plant-based eating, at least take the time to read up on it.
8. Do you think it’s deliberate our society keeps people of color sick/in food deserts/eating school lunches with foods they are more likely to be intolerant to digesting, like lactose?
Unlike people derived from Europe, most people of color stop producing lactase, the enzyme needed to digest milk, in their adult years, but because they are told “milk does a body good,” they continue to consume dairy products. This causes inflammation and problems in the body that people associate with the natural aging process. Cutting dairy would probably help some of these minor illnesses clear up.
I do not believe there is a deliberate conspiracy to keep people of color sick, but I do believe there is an inherent and habitual disregard for the health of people of color and/or people in low income communities embedded into our current socio-political system.
9. Well-put. Can you explain how black people have been at the forefront of veganism for a long time/respond to ‘that’s a white thing’ critique of veganism?
Plant-based eating has never been a white thing, but up until the last decade I mainly saw it represented with white faces. There have always been different groups of people who have rejected meat, like Buddhists, Muslims, Indians, etc, but their narratives got eclipsed by the animal-saving white person.
10. You address the history of soul food. How do you answer when people say these animal foods are part of your culture’s history?
Animal-based foods are a part of our culture, but a fraction of our food culture. Eating healthy and organic plant-based food from the land is also a part of our culture. As we learn more as a people, we should build upon our culture and filter out things that are not serving us so we can get healthier as a people.
11. What gives you hope?
People look at this country and talk about how bad it is, but compared to where we were 300 years ago, we’ve made a lot of progress. When I look at the path of the women in my lineage, it gets better and more hopeful for each generation.
12. How do you feel when people make the slavery comparison in the animal rights movement? As a jew, I don’t mind making the holocaust comparison or when other jews do, but it’s kind of weird when non-jews do. Do you feel similarly, or prefer it be avoided altogether?
Black people were referred to animals as a form of degradation in the past, not a distant past. My mother attended segregated schools until junior high, so while people want to act like we’re so far removed from racism, we’re not. Everyone is still healing. Even though the slavery comparison doesn’t have the same racist context, it’s a reminder of when it did.
13. How would you like to see non-POC vegans improve their approach to advocacy to incorporate these ideas? What do they need to stop saying/doing?
I would like for non-POC vegans to pay close attention to how they are packaging their messages and to be mindful what role their race and privilege plays in how those messages might be received.
14. Definitely. On a different note, I’ve noticed when I’ve seen you that you seem very happy in your relationship. What is your top long term relationship advice?
People say compromise is key in a relationship, but I love my relationship because I never had to compromise. We didn’t come together to create an “US” monster. We kept our individuality, we kept our agency as adults, we never gave each other rules and we accepted each other as is.
15. You’re in an interracial relationship. What’s the most ignorant assumption you encounter with that?
Some people say things like “you seem like the type of girl who would date a white man,” which implies a lack of love and loyalty for my own people. First, it’s annoying because as pale as my baby is, he’s latino. And second, anyone who knows me would swear on a sea of bibles that I love black men, but a good man is a good man. When I met Kenny, he treated me better than any man I’d ever met and that’s why I am with him. It’s not a rejection of blackness, just a welcome of happiness.
16. You appear to be in great shape. What do you do to stay strong?
I don’t let other people get in my head regarding what I should look like because having a healthy mental foundation helps me stay on track physically. I do what’s comfortable for me. I don’t like running, so I don’t run. I try to get in the gym for one hour 5 days a week and I am conscious about what I put in my body. Instead of being overly restrictive, I negotiate. If I know I’m going to have a big greasy meal with friends later in the day, I’ll eat extra healthy early in the day.
17. What’s your biggest pet peeve about the vegan movement?
I want to eat and live a certain way, but I don’t want to feel like I’m in a religion. If someone who’s in the vegan movement gets caught going back to their original lifestyle, they’ll be condemned by the people that once embraced them. That’s cult behavior and I openly reject that part of the vegan club.
18. What’s your biggest pet peeve about the non-vegan world?
When I see what happens to animals, it’s disturbing and sadistic. It makes me sad that our population is so numb to torture.
19. But where do you get your protein?
I’m over the protein question. Aliens! I get it from aliens LOL.
20. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
Being heartbroken for no reason.
21. What’s your biggest guilty pleasure?
Tequila, but I don’t feel guilty about it.
