While normal content will continue, it will be different moving forwards.
I received an undergraduate degree in sociology and social justice with the naive intent on saving the world, and while I left university with some understanding of social issues, I felt like I had few tools to actively do anything about them.
When transitioning into running a food blog the focus was just on learning new skills of photography and design, with little energy put into thinking about how to use the platform towards social justice goals. And this is still something we're all figuring out together, and it will undoubtedly continue to change. Moving forward I will continue to post, but will more actively interrogate how myself and this whole industry can address its own prejudices and proactively contribute to the goals of anti-racism and anti-fascism.
As a settler-colonial I need to do more—I need to be more vocal on injustice systemic racism and work towards a more just world and reconciliation.
There is an aspect of blogging and social media that, due to the platform itself, is performative. So how will I use this platform to go beyond symbolic representation and performativity? I think we're still figuring this out, but this is where I plan to start.
On a personal level to address prejudice:
▪️When it comes to individual prejudices, it’s not a simple binary of prejudice and non-prejudice people. Culture itself is a social process that evolves, and what it means to have prejudiced views of the world changes and adapts with it. Trying to understand my own prejudices is a lifelong process of learning and reflection, and it doesn’t have a finish line that, once you cross if, you get your anti-racist badge.
▪️ I have a social platform and a responsibility to use it ethically.
▪️Continue reading and educating myself, not just about ‘others’ but about my own history, to continually uncover internalized biases.
▪️Be an ally by calling in when I see (implicitly or explicitly) racist behaviour and thought processes.
▪️Share more work from BIPOC creatives in the food and wellness industry.
At an institutional level
▪️Examine how my own institution (food blogging, lifestyle blogging, food design, advertising, and the broader food world) has a toxic and inherently discriminatory culture. It is an industry that tends to claim to follow what culture is demanding but only listens to the demands of mostly white, affluent, and privileged people.
▪️Food is inherently political. I will give acknowledgement to where food comes from—the ingredients, techniques, and practices and where there come from and who grows them.
▪️I will do more research into brands I partner with, question their policies and practices. Declining partnerships with those who don’t meet the standards.
At a systemic level
▪️As Kyle “Guante” Tran Myhre noted, “systemic racism is not a shark in the water; it is the water.” Systemic racism goes beyond individual prejudice and institutional racism so that even without individual prejudice or a culture of racism, the system itself will still have discriminatory impacts on society.
▪️Our individual actions don’t tend to have an impact at the systems level, but collectively we can force social, political, and economic systems to be completely restructured. That being said, I will be donating 10% of site revenue to local Indigenous and Black centred organisations, as a start.
As the old saying goes—the philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it.