It’s been a while since I posted here due to a very busy few months and because I got locked out of my account (they had to reset everything). I plan to keep writing at least monthly in this blog. FYI, I wrote this post nearly 1 month back for the Boston Vegan Association forum.
Note: I don’t personally have a problem with elitism in the abstract and, in some ways, I am happily elitist, but I do, however, have a big problem with the negatively weighted claim that vegans are, by virtue of making a serious and difficult commitment to nonviolence, “elitist” & thus this post.
———————————————————
In my opinion, one of the most damaging arguments against veganism is the charge of elitism. This is a common, vehement and sticky accusation.
QUOTE:
e·lit·ism [i-lee-tiz-uhm, ey-lee-]
noun (c/o dictionary.com)
1. practice of or belief in rule by an elite.
2. consciousness of or pride in belonging to a select or favored group.
In at least one sense, this charge is clearly fallacious: people who believe that humans “rule” over most/all non-human animals and can use them as property and/or take pride in that state of affairs are elitist. In this sense, vegans are anti-elitist — they reject the inherent elitism of human “superiority” over non-human animals (where humans are the select or favored group).
In other senses, however, the elitism charge is trickier.
In terms of representation, at vegan meetings, conferences, speaking, authorship and marketing, the vegan community is overwhelmingly white, college-educated, middle-class (by virtue of parents at least, if not by actual current job pay scale), heterosexual, cisgendered and generally in a certain age range (usually early 20s to late 30s). I don’t think this is the actual representation of real vegans, but they often appear to be a subset of the same ultra-privileged group that gets most of the benefits (and representation) in mainstream society (aka, the “elite” ). I don’t know the best way to resolve this issue, but it’s something worth thinking about.
On a related note, human beings are animals. Yes, we all know that on some level, but my point is that if non-human animals have rights, so too do humans, and we cannot expect people to take vegans seriously if we’re not going to fight for the rights of all animals, including the species that people care about most (our own). This is not to say that I think the primary focus of veganism should be shifted to human rights, but I don’t think we should ever focus on non-human animal rights to the complete exclusion of human rights. More specifically, I don’t think espousing (or tacitly accepting) any sort of sexist, racist, heterosexist, ageist, cisgenderist or other disenfranchising rhetoric within the vegan movement (including the delightful PETA marketing compaigns) is in any sense OK. And we probably should be partnering with or at least talking with other groups that are focused on human rights (especially those focused on the excessive incarceration and or violence/torture against humans as these run parallel to the bulk of [non-human] animal abuses). This is not only because it’s the right thing to do, but also because it is valuable strategically – people do not have the attention to dedicate energy to other animal rights when their own liberty or safety is at stake.
On another note, some, perhaps many, vegans are absolutists. In a sense, they are elitist because they claim to be absolutely vegan and therefore superior to anyone who is not. I think the absolute rejection of all animal products is a noble ideal and well worth striving for, however, it is a fact that all of us living in industrialized society are at least contributing in small ways to animal exploitation (by paying taxes, using metal objects [most of which are manufactured with animal fats], etc.). That is to say, there is no perfect vegan and no one should claim to be one. We should encourage each other to take what steps we can, but not be absolutist about it. We can definitely debate strategies and ethics of particular actions, but should overall support the variety of vegan lifestyles.
In summary:
1. Vegans are inherently anti-elitist by their rejection of human superiority over other animals.
2. Public representation of vegans appears to comprise only an elite sub-section of the population – we must work to change this.
3. Vegans have a responsibility to actively combat mainstream elitism (sexism, et. al.) and support human rights (at least the rights to physical safety and equal consideration).
4. Veganism is at root a “best effort” philosophy – clearly we can and will avoid obvious animal products (leather, eggs, etc.), but we can only make best efforts to avoid all animal exploitation and need to avoid elitist sentiments in that regard.
p.s. For those who are wondering, cisgendered means conforming to expected gender roles (i.e., transgendered/genderqueer folk are not cisgendered and are discriminated against for that reason).
p.p.s. In many ways, elitism is tied up with concepts of privilege (the privileged folks are often elite by default, even when they’re not aware of it – for example, see most white people) – dismantle “natural” privilege and you damage the lifeblood of elitism.
