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Dear @VegNews: I am shocked that you carried the statement by the authors of #ThugKitchen announcing their name change in your 2020 holiday issue without providing any context about their racist practices and cultural appropriation over the past 8 years. 1/x
#TheBeardedVegans offered a definitive two-part series on Thug Kitchen exposing this. They explain, "Matt and Michelle, the couple behind #ThugKitchen made a habit of slyly dodging their critics & employing a litany of gaslighting techniques to explain away their behavior." 2/x
You can find the first part of #TheBeardedVegans podcast here: https://thecommentist.com/bearded-vegans/ep237/ 3/x
In the 2nd part of #TheBeardedVegans podcast they do a piece by piece break down of the last podcast under the #ThugKitchen moniker, which seemed to reveal their true feelings about their critics. https://thecommentist.com/bearded-vegans/ep238/ 4/x
For 8 years, the 2 white people behind #ThugKitchen benefited from white supremacy, variously refusing to engage with their critics, disparaging their critics, ignoring their critics, posturing as the victims. 5/x
all the while using their position as whites within a white supremacist world for profit. (We know, they told us, bragging about the success of their books.) 6/x
They tried to deracinate the idea of the word "thug" in their defense while at the same time benefiting from the contemporary meaning of the word thug, a stereotype that literally gets black men killed. Read @ThotsandPrayers https://www.all-creatures.org/articles/ar-thug-love.html 7/x
#ThugKitchen knew the problem with the word "thug" when they began, because #TrayvonMartin was killed in February 2012, many months before their first blog appeared. See @sistahvegan here: http://sistahvegan.com/2014/10/09/on-ferguson-thug-kitchen-and-trayvon-martin-intersections-of-postrace-consciousness-food-justice-and-hip-hop-vegan-ethics/ 8/x
If the decision by 2 white people to stop using the word “thug” in their branding is news to you @vegnews where were you when respected Black vegan chef @bryantterry critiqued them SIX YEARS AGO? https://www.cnn.com/2014/10/10/living/thug-kitchen-controversy-eatocracy/index.html 9/x
#ThugKitchen kept using that name despite the existence of the #blacklivesmatter 
movement in 2013, a year before the publication of their 1st cookbook. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ppmvp8/thug-kitchen-is-the-latest-iteration-of-people-profiting-off-digital-blackface-909 10/x
movement in 2013, a year before the publication of their 1st cookbook. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ppmvp8/thug-kitchen-is-the-latest-iteration-of-people-profiting-off-digital-blackface-909 10/x
They took a dangerous stereotype that has gotten Black men killed, and played with it. They then said it wasn’t a dangerous stereotype, etc. #TheBeardedVegan call their behavior gaslighting and after listening to their two-part podcast, you will probably agree. 11/x
Shame on you @vegnews by participating in their “whitewashing” of their racism, and letting them off so easy.
https://madamenoire.com/473708/bothers-big-reveal-thug-kitchen-actually-two-white-people/ 12/x
https://madamenoire.com/473708/bothers-big-reveal-thug-kitchen-actually-two-white-people/ 12/x
. @vegnews should have told your readers that it took 6 years of being told to abandon #ThugKitchen for them to do so. 6 years of implying their critics were jealous of their success. This is shameful. 13/x
For those 6 yrs, they helped regressive white vegans to continue believing that you can separate #veganism from the social, historical & political context of #whitesupremacy. But, you can't. Check out #TheBeardedVegans for links to many more articles https://thecommentist.com/bearded-vegans/ep238/ 14/14
