In conversation with Gwenna Hunter, founder of Vegans for Black Lives Matter ❘ Changemakers
José Elias
Gwenna Hunter creates online spaces with a powerful sense of community.
Watch to learn how she sparks important conversations around veganism, the Black Lives Matter movement, and ending oppression for all.
Transcript
Gwenna Hunter: I became vegan for the animals, but to ignore human oppression, there's just something really scary and frightening about that.
Hi, my name is Gwenna Hunter. I am the founder of Vegans of LA, also Vegans for Black Lives Matter.
So Vegans of LA is a social media format and, you know, community. Initially there was mostly white women, which was totally fine, but I really was looking for my community as well, but I just didn't really know any black vegans. And one day I posted a trailer for The Invisible Vegan and the next morning my phone was going crazy. I got like 10,000 new followers, like overnight, and they were mostly all black. And I was like, this is where y'all been, y'all just been waiting for me to post some good content. So it just became my mission to just like, make sure that I highlight the work that we're doing and just encourage us, and that's been pretty much what it's been now.
And so, Vegans for Black Lives Matter started when I first got involved in the animal rights community and there would be something tragic, a tragic death or something that would happen, and I would wanna have a conversation. I mean, it would literally, people'd look at me like, I'm not interested in talking about that. It's only about the animals, and it just didn't make sense to me. The link between the two is so important because it's like, well, we're in human bodies. I became vegan for the animals, but to ignore human oppression, there's just something really scary and frightening about that, that people are able to say, I don't wanna talk about it. I don't get the luxury of doing that. I have to talk about it. I have to face it. The work that we're doing, we're literally trying to stop people from eating dead bodies. I know it's hard for people to do that and then have to deal with the horrors of what's happening with people. It's a lot of empathy to, to spread yourself into, but to shut it down and to have an entire conversation around not including this as part of it, I think is just not a really good idea. So the group has really helped me evolve my own emotions and learn how to not suppress things.
