When I say APEX Advocacy is redefining veganism, I don’t mean into something necessarily new, but rather returning to its original intention: to live gently, consciously, and with ethical consideration for every body. No exceptions.
It seems simple enough and yet the mainstream movement to liberate animals repeatedly harms and represses people within, alienates Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), and outright ignores anything or anyone who might pose political or financial risk, e.g., the animals of Gaza. (See Complicity & Selective Compassion.)
In other words, the white-dominated, single-issue vegan movement is missing a critical and irrefutable point:
Animals cannot be free without true liberation for all.
Black-led, justice-centered animal advocacy
For five years, APEX Advocacy, a U.S.-based, Black-founded, and Black-led nonprofit, has been nurturing BIPOC advocates and amplifying communtiy-driven efforts against bitter odds, both within the vegan advocacy space and the broader nonprofit sector. They’re still standing strong, with a network of deeply caring and passionate individuals behind them.
They have remained uncompromising in their activism for animal protection and social justice—willing to critique popular opinion, while encouraging crucial dialogue, and underscoring the interconnectedness of various systems of oppression.
“When we act against injustice while in solidarity with one another—making sure we advocate for solutions that don’t leave anyone behind—we not only reimagine a better world, we start living one.” —APEX Advocacy
APEX Advocacy’s revolutionary approach is grounded in political education, anti-racism, and solidarity. Not charity, not consumerism, and certainly not reform that caters to corporate interests.
Collective liberation in practice
[L]iberation is never confined to one group, one issue, or one struggle. Instead, it is a battle for collective liberation against all forces that devalue life. —APEX Advocacy
Case in point #1: Factory farms are more than an animal rights issue
Factory farms are the horrifically cruel industrial breeding grounds responsible for 99% of all animals reared for food. In the U.S. alone, we farm and slaughter roughly 10 billion land animals annually.
These industrial hell holes operate predominantly in low-income communities, disproportionately harming Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. As APEX Advocacy summarizes, “This proximity leads to elevated rates of respiratory illnesses, cancer, heart disease, and other health complications.”
Activist Elsie Herring stands on the porch of her family home, holding a handkerchief over her mouth—hardly impervious protection from the manure being sprayed on the field next door. © Jo-Anne McArthur / #unboundproject / We Animals
One woman, Elsie Herring, fought for years for her right to clean air and clean water. A commercial pig farm was built beside her family’s strawberry-hued home, on land her grandfather purchased after claiming his freedom from slavery. She could not escape the stench of pig waste nor the cries of the animals trapped inside.
“When we go outside, we can’t stay outside for very long because the odor is so offensive that we start gagging, we start coughing, our heart rate [is] increased. We become depressed, we have a sense of hopeless- and helplessness.”
Elsie turned despair into action, taking on North Carolina’s pork industry and becoming a fierce organizer for environmental justice. Her story has been documented in more than one film, including The Smell of Money.
APEX Advocacy is committed to elevating BIPOC voices just like hers—leaders who are challenging the animal-industrial complex while centering community. APEX has hosted more than half a dozen screenings of The Smell of Money, highlighting the importance of cross-movement outreach and advocacy.
CASE IN POINT #2: CAGES AND THE NEED FOR CONSISTENT ANTI-OPPRESSION
I’ve worked professionally in the vegan advocacy space since early 2017. So I’ve heard firsthand, countless times, the argument against showing solidarity with other movements.
“Argument” is too generous, really, as it’s always been a short and definitive “No.” To deviate from our specific organizational mission would be a distraction. In the beginning I took it in stride but became increasingly frustrated over time, sensing a lack of evolution and acknowledgment of the wider world around us.
Now I can see more clearly how this misguided, exclusionary framework perpetuates silos rather than cooperation, and addresses symptoms rather than the basis of animal oppression.
This year, and in the months since live-streaming of Israel’s genocide of Palestinians began, the silence of the animal rights movement has been louder than ever. Psychologically, it has been an especially dark period for me. Like many others, I’ve been exposed to more violent truths and incessant horror than ever before. Yet Monday through Friday, 9–5, we operate in a twilight zone of denial and privilege.
Glass House Farms, Camarillo, CA
July was a time of peak disillusionment. A massive ICE raid happened at a cannabis farm here in my hometown. When I heard the news, I rushed to the familiar fields, where dozens of community members were at a standoff with armed men in military gear. The worst had already happened. Hundreds of workers were taken. Amid the chaos, one farmworker, Jaime Alanís Garcia, fell about 30 feet from a greenhouse roof. He did not survive his injuries.
Also in July, the rapidly constructed concentration camp in the Everglades opened, built to hold around 3,000 Brown and Black bodies in cages, with plans to expand. APEX Advocacy responded with a call to free the Everglades and protect all life, shared here in part:
The fight to dismantle “Alligator Alcatraz” must be rooted in anti-speciesist, abolitionist praxis—a vision of freedom that refuses to separate human, nonhuman, and ecological liberation.
This demands more than outrage. It demands we confront:
- Colonial systems that seize land and erase sovereignty.
- Capitalist logics that monetize suffering and disposability.
- Speciesist ideologies that cage life and normalize confinement.
To tear down this facility is to tear down the worldview that built it: Where migration is a threat. Where nature is a weapon. Where violence is repackaged as policy and profit.
Total liberation refuses fragmentation. Our struggles are not parallel—they are braided. Only by recognizing their interconnectedness can our resistance become transformative.
This is not just about ending one prison. It’s about ending the conditions that make such cages possible—everywhere.
By this point, I had completely withdrawn from people at work and even friends and family. I felt alone and angry and heartbroken. But in APEX’s critical, all-encompassing analysis and call to action, I found comfort and hope.
APEX Advocacy leaves no one out. And that’s the powerful difference between a rigid environment that rejects inclusivity and one that cultivates community care and solidarity.
I encourage you to follow APEX Advocacy on Instagram and read the post in its entirety.
Want more from APEX Advocacy? Start here:
From Revolution to Liberation—For All Beings
Too often, well-meaning movements unintentionally fragment justice, prioritizing one cause while neglecting the interconnected systems of oppression that sustain exploitation.
Complicity & Selective Compassion
The tragedy in Palestine has unmasked that into which mainstream animal advocacy has devolved: an exercise in consumer branding and apolitical allyship.
Theriocide: Naming the Killing of Animals
We must respect the context and character of individual injustices unique to each form of moral wrong or oppression.
Animal Activism Starter Guide
While we hope this guide will be beneficial to all readers, it is specifically intended for individuals and communities identifying as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). This one is for us, by us.
I’m looking forward to seeing everything the APEX team does in the next five years. 🖤
P.S. For non-vegans who care about social justice, it goes both ways: None of us are free until all of us are free. White supremacy’s foundational “human”-to-”less-than-human” hierarchy gives those with power the warped ability to exploit others in good conscience. All animals—human and nonhuman—as well as the earth suffer by this anthropocentric ideology and many of the same oppressive systems.
“With the world we inhabit being far from a vegan one, it is imperative to accept that veganism is not about striving for perfection, but rather doing our absolute best under the circumstances we face, and fighting like hell to better them.” —APEX Advocacy
Featured image: Weary and defeated, a mother pig lies on the floor of her cage inside a factory farm. © Shatabdi Chakrabarti / We Animals