Social change is not something we should expect to make a career out of. Yet this is the allure of the nonprofit-industrial complex (NPIC). As Andrea Smith writes in her book, Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide (South End Press, 2005), a career in the NPIC is invested in perpetuating the existing social order. (Read More...)
nonprofit industry
Veganism: A Cure for Apathy
Why are people so apathetic when it comes to the oppression of other animals or any other oppression, including their own? I think this apathy is largely rooted the structure of oppression. In a way, apathy is a form of learned helplessness; that is, apathy is actively produced through ideological control for the purpose of domination and exploitation. It's certainly more than simple ignorance, because even if people are knowledgeable of the existing oppressive situation they are unlikely to act if they believe the situation is unchangeable. (Read more...)
The Non-Profit Industrial Complex Will Never Be 'The Movement'
PETA is often confused with "the movement," as is the annual FARM conference. However, it's hard to define what this "movement" actually is. It is not a vegan movment, it is not an animal rights movement, it is not even a "movement" in any meaningful sense of the term. Organizations like PETA, FARM, HSUS, etc. are all part of the Non-Profit Industrial Complex (NPIC).
The Assumption of Universal Whiteness
On the Vegans of Color blog, Johanna posted about "Engaging" POCs in AR Work? in response to the program for an upcoming animal rights conference that includes sessions on "Engaging Ethnic Minorities (African-Americans, Latin Americans, Asian-Americans)"; "Commonality of Oppression (commonalities of oppressing animals, children, women, others)"; and "Engaging Other Movements (health, environment, hunger, women, justice, peace movements)."
The titles for these sessions illustrate what Ana Clarissa Rojas Durazo calls "an assumption of universal whiteness." (Read more...)
