Advocacy and Risk: Race, Class, and the Outsider

Introduction

An advocate is someone who speaks on behalf of someone else. In some cases, advocates are simply passionate volunteers, while in other instances, they may have received explicit training, and they are paid by their clients, or by organizations. Working with an advocate can be very valuable for someone who is trying to navigate an experience, with which he or she is unfamiliar, and the advocate may be able to attain more rights and other forms of support than someone would be able to obtain alone. Elitism is the belief in concept of superiority: the belief that some people or things are inherently superior to others and deserve preeminence, preferential treatment, or higher rewards because of their superiority. It is also the belief in control by small group: the belief that government or control should be in the hands of a small group of privileged, wealthy, or intelligent people, or the active promotion of such a system. Finally, it is a notion of control by a small group: government or control by a small, specially qualified, or privileged group.