This contribution looks at the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests that took place in Bolzano-Bozen, the capital of the autonomous province of South Tyrol (Italy). As part of the BLM protests, an iconic statue of Italian cultural heritage was doused with red paint, transmitting a message with local, national, and international resonance. The case demonstrates how the USA BLM diffusion in Europe interacted with the ongoing statue wars to not only advance national level dialogues around racist legacies related to imperialism and colonialism but also specific local grievances. I marshal the concept of ‘ideological vandalism’ to argue that red paint attacks on public monuments can link transnational messages around racism and colonialism with local and national debates particularly regarding participation in heritage politics. This case underscores how claims can arise when national and international sociopolitical debates connected to colonialism and imperialism activate and surface additional local grievances around participation.

Multiple national polls have shown that members of the Black community in the United States identify as vegetarian/vegan at a rate about 3 times as high as the overall population.^[1] For many Black vegans these dietary choices are viewed as a powerful form of ‘decolonization’ of diet and as a crucial part of a broader quest for integral liberation. The adoption of a vegan lifestyle is viewed as a way of reconnecting with largely plant-based diets of West Africa, a way of rejecting the legacy of slavery, a way of connecting with the vegetarianism present in several Black religious traditions, a way of affirming ecological responsibility and interspecies solidarity, and a way of reclaiming health in a society that has systematically undermined Black physical and mental wellbeing. Amirah Mercer, for example, speaks of her adoption of a vegan diet as a reconnection with and reaffirmation of her Black identity. “Plant-based eating,” she says, “is probably one of the Blackest things I could do. As a Black woman in America, my veganism is, in fact, a homecoming.”[2]

In this paper I will examine Black veganism through the voices of Black vegans, highlighting the movement’s distinctive features as a decolonial and intersectional approach to food ethics. I will also highlight several ways that Catholic social teaching and its understanding of human rights and integral development could be enhanced through dialogue with the insights of the Black vegan tradition.

[1] BBC News, “Why Black Americans Are More Likely to Be Vegan” (September 11, 2020), www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53787329

[2] Amirah Mercer, “A Homecoming: How I Found Empowerment in the Black History of Plant-Based Diets”, www.eater.com/22229322/black-veganism-history-black-panthers-dick-gregory-nation-of-islam-alvenia-fulton