As a 50+ year old white woman, who has attempted to adopt a plant based lifestyle (and struggled) since October 2019, I am always eager to read, listen or watch any new information on the subject. When I was offered the opportunity to watch and review The Invisible Vegan by Jasmine Leyva, I jumped at the chance. What I learned was much different and on a much deeper level than what I had expected.
The documentary discusses Jasmine's personal story and her commitment to veganism over the past seven years. As a filmmaker she has taken her commitment not only personally in her lifestyle but also in her research and her work as a filmmaker. The film explains how plant-based eating is directly linked to African roots and how the African-American eating habits have been debased over years by a chain of oppression. Jasmine uses her narrative to share professional and personal experiences of prominent vegan activists, interviews with popular African-American pop culture luminaries while also weaving in some of the African-American history surrounding culture and food.
The film gives much of the same information and data regarding the benefits of a plant-based/vegan lifestyle that can be found in most of the recent plant based documentaries. References to improved health and decrease in disease development as a result of one's change in diet are prominent throughout the film. The film provided the basic information that someone considering embarking on this journey would need to get them started. For me, I didn't really learn anything new about the benefits of becoming vegan, but for someone new to the idea, this documentary is a great starting point.
What I believe this film did beautifully was present the same material but from a different cultural perspective. This film helped to bring visibility to the African-American culture and it's relationship with food. A relationship that has changed over years and was borne from decades of oppression. Jasmine talks about how veganism is viewed as a "white people" thing in the African-American culture, yet prior to being brought to the United States, Africans lived off a predominately plant based diet. Many don't know this. The concept of Vegan is foreign in the black community. Up until now ads, commercials, documentaries have shown veganism in the homes of skinny white people. There is not a view of someone of color or with curves. Jasmine is working to change that with this film. People need to see change from a lens they can relate to. People need to see people like "them" eating vegan. In order to garner trust it matters who the messenger of the information is. Jasmine stressed that when campaigning for veganism we must consider the audience. Jasmine then moves on to discuss while seeing people "like them" eating vegan is a start, there remains the systemic issues that perpetuate poor eating. Food deserts, lack of access, lack of knowledge and overall lack of resources. Jasmine highlighted an additional barrier that she sees amongst the African-American culture and eating vegan. The dichotomy of hating to be stereotyped but then also being criticized by peers if you try and step out to try something new. Jasmine spoke of sometimes feeling alone or not part of a community because she chose to be vegan and her hope that this film and the sharing of information can help someone else not feel alone.
Overall, this film was very well done. It was very thought provoking and gave an entirely different viewpoint than the mainstream vegan films. I would encourage everyone to watch this film. African-Americans to gain knowledge about veganism if it happens to be foreign to them personally, however, everyone should watch this film. Something we can all do to bring us together is learn more about each other. Our cultures, our struggles and yet what we all have in common. The need to save our health and our planet.
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