1. 10:59 4th Feb 2012

    Notes: 11

    Tags: veganismelitismstereotypes

    Veganism and Elitism

    I practice a vegan lifestyle and I don’t have dreads (cultural appropriation, duh). I don’t ride a vintage bike, and I don’t know all of the cool underground music venues. I hate PBR and beets. Josh is a practicing vegan as well and just so happens to be in the U.S. Marine Corps. Not all people who live this lifestyle are elitist ass holes who should be threatened with physical harm or should have their “manhood” questioned. Not all people who choose to be vegan are wealthy kids with a trust fund. We don’t push our beliefs on ANYONE and we understand fully that being vegan is a privilege. We just go our own way and live our own life. People often approach us with questions and never are they received with hatred or pressure to conform to our ideas on what is right or wrong. We’re good, quiet, realistic vegans from poor families who know what it’s like to struggle to survive. 

    I’ve been seeing a lot of this on tumblr lately and I just felt the need to put this out there: I fucking love you. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable or feel like you can’t be yourself around me. As long as who you are isn’t hurting anyone’s feelings then scream your personality on the rooftops. 

    There is a certain empowerment that one inherits from deciding to boycott the meat and dairy industry, a certain kind of feeling I would imagine floating in the air at a protest or a sit-in. I can see how people become self-righteous with veganism. Some people don’t realize the social and economic constructs that prevent others from being able to purchase more expensive produce, and organic non-GMO foods, or drive out of their low income neighborhoods to a wealthier district to shop at a Whole Foods. It’s the same kind of attitude many organizations hold… We’re doing it right and you’re doing it wrong.

    Emma Goldman said, “crime is naught but misdirected energy,” and I feel it is relevant in the posts I’ve been reading about veganism—considering crime is the action produced first from thoughts. Instead of directing one’s anger to dread- head vegans, one should direct one’s anger to the self righteous attitudes and elitist thinking prevalent in all schools of thought and action. An attitude that is not so distant from oneself as one would like to believe. 

     
    1. wemel reblogged this from kaichelle
    2. kaichelle reblogged this from blendingginseng
    3. heydarlindoyougamble said: I love Emma Goldman. But really, you’re such a genuine, honest, caring, straightforward, good person. It’s so very admirable. If a friendship is lost solely because someone isn’t vegan anymore, what was that friendship based on to begin with?
    4. blendingginseng posted this