Image Problems for the Animal Rights Community

Let's start this off with a question. What do you see when you picture a person who has animal rights sympathies and environmental concerns? If you answered a person who wears Birkenstocks,Buys local and Organic, and lives in an exclusive neighborhood, then you're not alone. This is a major problem for the animal rights community as a whole because many working class vegans feel alienated and alone. They have good reason to feel this way too because if you work in a factory and you say to your fellow workers that you're vegan, more than likely they'll laugh and tell you that shit's for rich folks. The truth is that many vegans are actually working class folks who work hard in the movement, but who get put to the side in favor of more monied people.

In order for this movement to grow, I think it is imperative that we put the working class at the forefront of this movement. we can no longer rely on celebrities and monied people to carry this movement home. Furthermore, we do a great disservice to those who are working class by not making them feel welcome. If you have a prop on the ballot for example, the obvious way to get this prop passed in many states is to show that the working class is on your side. Without them, you're prop fails horribly. Many people hate it when rich white celebrities go on the air to talk to them them, or sometimes even talk down to them, about animal issues. However if a person from a GM plant went on a comercial and talked about the wrongs of eating meat, for example, many people might think of this as more than a rich white issue and one that involves actual life.

Some of you are probably like "yeah well how do we get by the cost issue?". Good question, but one that isn't an impossible thing to do. For example, we could publish more vegan books for the working class. Show them that Veganism isn't all about fancy foods. For example I can make tofu scramble for 2 people with pretty much whatever I have in my pantry and both will love it. This isn't rocket science and it's high time we get on board with showing people how cheap vegan food can actually be.


Remember, image is everything in politics and in order to move this movement forward we need to adopt a new image. The working class image will make much more headway than our current image we have now.