But this isn’t about a few racist tweets, or...

Monday, August 15, 2011

“

But this isn’t about a few racist tweets, or really even about Moby himself. It’s about Moby’s brand of liberalism. He has what I’ll call the “but I’m a vegan” problem—BIAV, for short—but it can also be the “but I’m a feminist problem” or the “but I voted for Obama” problem. You probably know someone who has this illness; perhaps you even suffer from it yourself. It’s very easy to diagnose: Thanks to a history of supporting liberal causes like Greenpeace or the NAACP, the person afflicted with BIAV—Moby, in this case—thinks it impossible for him to be racist or sexist or, indeed, to hold any bigoted view whatsoever. “What do you mean I’m not a feminist?” asks the misogynist with BIAV, “My first wife was in the women’s movement.”

Anyone can have BIAV—white people, black people, women, men, Jews, Muslims, Christians, anyone. And though it sounds a lot like privilege, it’s different. Privilege is a toxic yet unintentional default setting, whereas BIAV is willful ignorance. Privilege is what causes Moby, as a wealthy white guy, to think it’s funny for black rappers to name-check museums; BIAV is what prompts him to snark at anyone who would dare suggest he is in the wrong. Privilege is forgivable; BIAV is inexcusable.

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http://m.good.is/post/shut-up-moby-how-the-but-i-m-a-vegan-problem-is-ruining-progressives/ (via creatrixtiara)

Being involved in the vegan activist community, I have seen this first hand. Especially when Earth Balance’s questionable palm oil source is mentioned.

(via cooledskin)