Find our Sentientist Conversation on the Sentientism YouTube here or on the Sentientism podcast here.
Jamila (thesoulfulveganista.com & @Jamila_Anahata) is an activist, blogger & holistic lifestyle coach. She is Marketing Director of the Afro-Vegan Society. Sign up for their NAVCON2021 summit on Nov 13th – open to all!
In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “what matters?”
Sentientism is “evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” In addition to the video above, the audio is on our Podcast here on Apple and all on the other platforms too.
We discuss:
00:00 Welcome
01:12 Jamila’s Intro – Soulful Veganista & the AfroVegan Society
- Community, creativity, connection to resist oppression and help others
- “All the isms & justices”. Veganism, racial justice / food justice / climate justice…
- AVS: Veganism through a black lens
02:45 What’s Real?
- Growing up in Maryland in the Southern US
- Raised Southern Baptist Christian. Bible study, daily church, Sunday service
- “I used to down religion… that industry”
- The church as a powerful community for black southern people… “throwing our pain at the altar”
- Experiencing deep racism… beyond bias
- A hunger for something beyond the suffering of “this realm”
- “I was always a gothy kid… a punk kid”
- “3 seconds after I went vegan I decided I wasn’t going to be Christian any more”
- “If I can open my mind about veganism… I can do anything… it was so liberating”
- Leaving religion because of evidence, ethics or rebellion
- “My dad is a natural activist… he reminds me of Malcolm X”
- Learing the painful history of Christianity
- Not wanting to support the religion or animal product industries
- Empathy as a moral compass. I didn’t need religion for that
- Keeping the compassion & community
- Looking within for ethics
- Spirituality. Connection & oneness
- “There’s more to life than my own suffering or flourishing”
- Languages, class, religions, castes, hierarchies, status & how they separate us
- “I swiped away all the titles”
- Eckhart Tolle
- “I am not what they think I am… I am divinely guided”
- “If we wiped away all the oppressive things from Christianity that’s what we’d be left with”
- “I feel like I receive intuitive messages from my spiritual team”
- Scepticism & believing in science… but that can’t be all there is
- Other planes or dimensions
- “I was that faith based person where science was the enemy”
- “This pandemic helped me… I learned that medicine is OK…”
- Believing in ‘what is’ doesn’t make me a less of a spiritual person
- Naturalism on this plane, spiritualism for the others?
- Turning to conspiracy theories… Suffering oppression – class, status, race… Losing trust in institutions
- Going down a dark path looking for an answer you’ll never have. Often has a religious focus or flavour
- “What can I do in my community now?” because “What can god really do?”
- “We want to find meaning”… humans struggling with death
- Looking for answers within, not outside
- Human paranoia & exceptionalism driving anthropocentrism
39:00 What (& Who) Matters?
- Performative activism. Talking about change but not acting it
- Being an “old soul” as a child
- Queer, trans, gender non-conformance & conservative Christian values
- “Being a little black girl in the US is not easy”
- “People really are just people” despite status, class, poverty, titles
- So many people “have no choice but to just survive”
- A universal compassion for all humans
- Veganism for health/food justice/black community at first… then researching
- “What we do to non-human animals is awful”… “I didn’t even really need to see Earthlings”
- Empathy instead of desensitisation
- Total Liberation – “no oppression for anybody – no hierarchies” no needless suffering so people can remain wealthy
- “Empathy is something people need to practice”
- “Not everyone experiences empathy in the same way… it still sucks though”
- “I’m just here to offer you the information – when you’re ready – here it is”
- I’m not here to convince you that being black is draining… what it’s like to be raised without your financial needs being met…
- “A lot of people just don’t care”… I can’t make them
55:35 Making A Better Future
- AVS: Giving people the facts. Then making activism actionable & entertaining & uplifting
- Address serious issues without depressing people
- We’re individuals but we’re shaped by systems/norms
- Be kind… “I want you to come to this conclusion on your own”
- Living on the social media front line “people hate vegans!… Y’all are annoying”
- Living to 120!
- “Be passionate!”
Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at Sentientism.info.
Join our “I’m a Sentientist” wall using this simple form.
Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. The biggest so far is here on Facebook.
Thanks Graham for the post-production.