Are All Vegans White? The Visibility Issue for POC Creators.

Real Talk Tuesday

Now, this title may have produced an incendiary reaction from you—of COURSE not all vegans are white. But, often the way they’re represented is overwhelmingly white, supported by the fact that a lot of the more prominent vegan influencers and media creators have historically been white. But veganism and sustainable living doesn’t look one way—it doesn’t have to just be for people with picture perfect homes, desirable zip codes, or white skin.

Social media is a great tool. You can meet all kinds of new people, connect with similar interest groups, do outreach work for political and charity benefits, see every kind of cute animal on earth—and for me, it’s a great place to get inspired by other low-waste bloggers. But the problem with social media is that it is not representative of the real world.

Our algorithms are not immune to human error or biases—they were in fact designed by humans! So there is no guarantee of fair or equal representation even within these systems. So many great creators cannot develop the same followings of their peers not because there aren’t people who would be interested, but because they don’t end up getting the same visibility within the constraints of social media.

During the beginning of last summer’s revitalization of the Black Lives Matter movement, many social media moguls were seeking to address issues of racism or insufficient diversity in their corporations—a lot of big and sometimes vague promises that may or may not have yet been fulfilled. Most interestingly to me was when the CEO of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, finally acknowledged the issues with Instagram’s algorithms, admitting that “Some technologies risk repeating the patterns developed by our biased societies” in a post titled “Ensuring Black Voices Are Heard”. Both Facebook and Instagram, partner companies, have been under watchful eyes for their algorithms not only being racist, but also fatphobic, and in my mind probably a whole lot of other problems for people who don’t look like our society’s standard of beauty and value.

So if you may be saying “well I don’t follow someone just because they’re white, why would I follow someone just because they aren’t white?” The truth is, in some ways, you may be following a creator because they’re white—because they’re more favored to appear on your page in the first place.

Now, while we should continue to pressure social media companies to fix these issues, there is still a great deal of work we should all do to diversify our own feeds. I myself am still trying to enrich my feed with creators of different races, ethnicities, cultures, sizes, sexualities/gender identities and disabilities because I recognize that in the past, my feed has been a lot of thin, able-bodied, straight and cisgendered white people. It has been incredibly enriching to see so many people’s lives! Much like I think it’s valuable to interact with people in real life that aren’t like you, it’s perhaps equally important to engage with content creators who have experiences and perspectives to share on that you cannot relate to. Compassion, learning, and un-learning are practices that need to be worked towards every single day.

One reason why I think it’s particularly important to include POC (people/persons of color) in our conversations about sustainability and climate activism as a whole is because they are disproportionately affected by it. People who live closer to the equator in South America and southern parts of Asia are already experiencing the struggles of rising temperatures and sea levels, and people who live in tropical islands or coastal areas are feeling the effects of the increasingly devastating hurricanes. If climate change is not dealt with soon enough, these are the people who will be displaced from their homes or worse. What’s even more saddening about this is the fact that the countries who are going to be most affected by climate change also contribute to it the least, and have the fewest resources to combat it. (If you’d like to learn more about what climate change looks like in other countries, BBC’s new podcast The Climate Question is very informative)

We’ve talked about environmental racism before here on It’s Not Easy Being Green, but I’ll take this as an opportunity for a brief reminder. Things like air pollution, landfill & waste site locations, and a lack of access to clean water disproportionately affect people of color, even in our “developed” North American nations. “Cancer Alley” in Louisiana is known as one of the worst polluted areas in the U.S., where petrochemical plants severely affect the health of many Black Americans. The backlash over the Keystone XL Pipeline from the past couple years has helped to highlight some of the ways in which Indigenous people suffer from it, as well.

In short, we all need to engage with and uplift POC sustainable creators and climate activists because not only do they bring additionally needed perspective, but because they are most likely to suffer from the consequences of ignoring the crisis we’re in. As a white person who is passionate about environmental issues, I have to keep doing my best to listen to these voices and support them in order to be any kind of activist — even if it’s activism on a small scale such as this. Environmental work is political, and there’s no environmental justice without racial and social justice as well.

So to give you somewhere to start, I have compiled a brief list of my favorite POC creators of sustainable living and vegan cooking content. I follow these creators specifically on Instagram, but I will list their other social media profiles and websites if they have any.

Simple-ish living

Cat is a creator based in Australia who posts all kinds of low-waste tips and info including plant-based recipes, tips for minimizing food waste, reviews for sustainable products, and more. She is easy-going and genuine, and also one of the first creators I found who inspired me to look more into low-waste living.

You can follow her on Instagram @simpleishliving or read her blog here

Tabitha Brown

Tabitha is one of those few rays of sunshine on the sometimes bleak web. She is a vegan food blogger who comes up with incredibly creative recipes (she figured out how to make a vegan deviled egg, even!) whose innovation is matched only by her kindness. She describes herself as “believer, wife, mom, and actress” in her Instagram bio, but that can’t include everything she’s accomplished.

You can follow her on Instagram or Twitter @iamtabithabrown or on Youtube

Zero Waste Japan

Ran is a mother of two from Japan who posts a myriad of ways to be more conscious about your waste in everyday life. One thing I love about her posts is how she does things as simply as possible, and focuses on easy swaps that don’t require buying fancy new zero-waste gear.

You can follow her on Instagram @zerowaste.japan or check out her website here

The Earth Stewardess

DJ is a growing part of eco-conscious creators on the app TikTok, where she tackles both topics of racial justice and everyday swaps to reduce your waste. She goes beyond the topic of individual changes and moves on to how structural changes are necessary as well.

You can follow her on Instagram and TikTok @theearthstewardess

Queer Brown Vegan

Isaias posts short but informative text posts which tackle racial justice, racial diversity within veganism, and environmentalist gatekeeping among other topics. He brings succinct perspectives to hot topics in environmentalism that are really thought-provoking, such as a particularly informative post titled “The Issue With White Veganism & White Supremacy”.

You can follow him on Instagram @queerbrownvegan or read his blog here

The Korean Vegan

Joanne is a Chicago-based creator who posts vegan versions of Korean foods. Food is such an important part of culture and family for a lot of people, and it’s clear she cooks these meals with her heart and soul. Most of her videos are made with soothing voiceovers as she beautifully tells stories about her family and personal struggles, many of which have taken a few tears out of me. If you’re interested in plant-based Korean recipes or cathartic experiences, Joanne is someone worth following.

You can find her on Instagram @thekoreanvegan and her website here

She is also releasing a cookbook this fall!

Black Forager

Alexis is an Ohio-based vegan and forager who creates incredible-looking meals out of the roots, leaves, flowers, and fungi of her local environment. I find her creations fascinating because not only can I appreciate someone who takes the term “from scratch” literally, I also love learning about the local Ohio flora I hadn’t even considered edible.

You can follow her on Instagram @blackforager

Priyanka Chopra

Priyanka is a well-established self-taught vegan chef who has is not only a Food Network champion, but has her own show on Tastemade called Dish It Healthy. She incorporates his southern Indian culture into her cooking as well as dishes inspired by her immense travels. She releases tons of creative new recipes regularly and addresses ways to prevent food waste in her cooking!

Follow her on Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok @chefpriyanka, find her on Youtube, or find her full recipes here

Turnip Vegan

Co-owner of the Spoiled Vegans Cage in San Diego, Turnip Vegan (as they go by online) posts incredible looking recipes for all of your favorite traditionally non-vegan recipes. Cheeseboards, omelettes, burgers, tater tots, and nachos are among some of the mouth-watering creations on their page.

Find them on Instagram and TikTok @turnipvegan or on Youtube

There are so many more vegan chefs and sustainbility centered bloggers out there, so do your best to explore!

Happy 'gramming

Grace Kennedy

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For clarity, none of the brands or websites linked in this blog were sponsored.