I respectfully acknowledge that I live and work on the ancestral and unceded lands of the Coast Salish peoples—the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations.
WHE IS committed to listening, decolonizing our ways, and continually striving towards anti-racism. This is addressed on three levels:
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.