Interview
CHALLENGES AND TRIUMPHS Quinnie Cook-Richardson has been vegan for over 30 years and raised six vegan children. Here she reflects on the challenges and triumphs of her life as a Black vegan living in the US.
Quinnie, her husband and their six vegan children
I started my vegan journey in the 1980s, when I was in my early 20s. As a Black person, living in a southern state in America, there was definitely a lot of isolation – but I knew it was the right thing to do. It was definitely challenging, but I was committed to it. To start with, I would get a lot of “How can you not eat meat?” and ”Where do you get your protein from?” And of course, raising the children, people would question how I could have a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby. It was isolating, but most of my friends at that time were vegan, which was a blessing.
There were many times where it was challenging for the children to be the only vegans in their classroom. I knew that there would be so many other situations in life where they would be the only one – whether it’s the only person of colour in the room, or whether other children were doing things that they couldn’t do – who would be different. We are a very African-centred family – the children have African names and we don’t perm our hair. So starting off in life not being able to eat what other children were eating at parties, I feel like it prepared them for other situations where they would be the only one.
Representation
Quinnie Cook-Richardson
We live in Atlanta, Georgia. Atlanta is not as integrated as people probably think it is, given that it is the birthplace of Dr Martin Luther King. There are a lot of vegan events where you see mostly Black people. Or a mainly white vegan event, hosted by white people. I do show up to those types of events – I don’t feel uncomfortable. There is separation in what I’ve seen from the movement, and Black people definitely aren’t represented well. Often when I saw who was speaking at vegan events, I never saw any Black people. That’s been a real issue for me over the years. The picture and the face of veganism has been white – all the vegan magazines would always show white people. Social media has really allowed us to be seen, but prior to
Issue 1 2021 The Vegan | 33
