Episode Details

Longtime animal advocates may be familiar with the term total liberation, but what exactly does this mean? Yvette Baker joins us today for an exploration of total liberation activism and its profound influence on her own animal advocacy. In our conversation, she sheds light on oppressive language commonly used when representing animals and urges everyone to unlearn and challenge it for the sake of progress. Yvette also tells how growing up in an Indigenous household impacted her perspective on animal activism, lending a unique lens to her advocacy work. We also explore the interconnectedness of various forms of oppression, illustrating how animal activism is an integral part of a broader continuum.

*We are thrilled to expand the accessibility of our podcast by offering written transcripts of the interviews! Click here to read Mariann’s interview with Yvette Baker*

Yvette Baker is a writer, educator, social critic, and animal liberation activist. Her work is devoted to exposing and analyzing the intersections of human and nonhuman oppression through an Afro-Indigenous lens. As a lifelong social justice advocate for human rights with experience in strategic grassroots organizing, she has become passionate about furthering collective liberationist frameworks and aims to empower the vegan movement as a movement for total liberation.

“Language is powerful, and we could learn a lot from other social justice movements by understanding the power of language and how it can help reframe the dialogue within society.” – Yvette Baker

Highlights for Episode 699: 

• What total liberation activism means to Yvette and how it guides her animal activism
• How people can make a shift toward embracing a total liberation approach
• How local pressure campaigns fit into the puzzle of deconstructing animal exploitation
• Yvette’s journey into animal activism, veganism, and how her activism can be traced back to local civil unrest after the Rodney King assault
• Yvette’s upbringing in an Indigenous household and its impact on her animal activism 
• The story of how Yvette became a vegan after helping to open an upscale plant-based restaurant
• Meat eating as imposed by colonizers rather than being a true reflection of Indigenous culture
• How we can represent animal activism as part of a continuity of oppression
• Examples of oppressive, problematic language when representing animals and why we should unlearn and challenge it
• The white vegan mindset and how it can be problematic for the animal liberation movement

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