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116: "As people who are harmed - how can we possibly perpetrate harm?" - LoriKim Alexander - Sentientism
Sentientism
English - June 08, 2022 14:50 - 1 hour - 65.6 MB - ★★★★★ - 19 ratingsPhilosophy Society & Culture Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
LoriKim (she/her/we/our) describes herself as an educator, organiser, activist, conservationist, abolitionist, naturalist & healer. Originally from Jamaica & now living in the Bronx, USA, LoriKim has dedicated her life to working for social & environmental justice specifically organizing around LGBTQIA+, Black, Brown & Indigenous communities. LoriKim’s work in anthropology & her training as a biologist has helped her work against environmental racism, in providing environmental education for People of Color & in working towards decolonialism & liberation through veganism for over 25 years. LoriKim works as a founder, facilitator and organiser with organisations including BlackVegFest https://blackvegfest.org/ & The Cypher.
In Sentientist Conversations we talk about the two most important questions: “what’s real?” & “what matters?”
Sentientism is "evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings." The video of our conversation is here on YouTube.
We discuss:
00:00 Welcome
01:26 LoriKim's Intro
- Educator, organiser, activist, conservationist, abolitionist, naturalist, healer
- "Black liberation practice" with "a queer & vegan lens"
02:38 What's Real?
- Growing up in Kingston, Jamaica
- "Being a Black country... what that means is that we had to really hold tight to our traditions, our histories that were muddled, were removed... because of slavery"
- "Highly colonised", stringent laws, highly carceral
- "Missionaries saw opportunity to come in and bring their various and sundry versions of the truth"
- Synchronising traditions into Christianity as the only way they could survive
- Growing up Catholic "A very white and blond Jesus... this is not someone I can relate to."
- "I never believed in Santa Claus"
- "Religion... as the framework I had to live under in order to go about my daily life"
- Communion, saying rosary, prayer
- "What I saw in the natural world did not reflect this idea that god created all of these things... I watched creation happen."
- Moving to the US at 13
- "This religion doesn't make any sense to me" & "bruk out" from church
- Coming out & stopping eating meat at 14
- "I could not equate this idea of loving all beings... and also eating them"
- "Yes - I'm an atheist... I don't believe any of this"
- "However, spirit moves you."
- Talking with ancestors "I thought that was me talking to myself, but..."
- "I would ask for things in my head & it would happen"
- "I never really strayed away from thinking about the world beyond"
- A multitude of universes & studying science
- "A hybrid of really being rooted in science... & there's so much more that's unknown that I know that I feel"
- "I'm an Aquarius & we don't follow anybody else's rules"
- Practising things that come from a lot of African ancestral traditions, "but not strictly"
...and much more. Full show notes at Sentientism.info.
Sentientism is “Evidence, reason & compassion for all sentient beings.” More at Sentientism.info. Join our "I'm a Sentientist" wall via this simple form.
Everyone, Sentientist or not, is welcome in our groups. The biggest so far is here on FaceBook. Come join us there!
Thanks Graham.