Racism

“The question is not, Can they reason? Nor, Can they talk? But rather, Can they suffer?” (P. 311C) Animals are mammals just like us humans. Animals can also communicate with their families and feel pain, so obviously they suffer when we attempt to separate, murder, and consume them. In the PETA displays on of the focus poster said, “JUSITIFICATION.” People try to justify the murder of millions of species, because they aren’t the ones actually killing the animals in slaughterhouses. “We are used to drinking milk from containers showing “contented” cows, whose real lives we want to hear nothing about, eating eggs and drumsticks from “happy” hens, and munching hamburgers advertised by bulls of integrity who see, to command their fate.” (P.316C)The public want to believe the lies instead of the ugly truth, we are murdering innocent and helpless animals for our own personal gains.



“Racism…a belief that human race have distinctive characteristics that determine their respective cultures, usually the idea that one’s own race is superior.” (P.317)We may chose to be oblivious to the racism we are inflicting to non-human mammals, but none the less we are all guilty of a crime. We are accomplices of murder. After eating out at our favorite restaurants, “however scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity.” (P.311C) You may think that African-Americans suffered more during slavery or perhaps the Jewish prisoners at Auschwitz did. There’s no correct answer both endured a great deal before the “superior race” was stopped from eliminating and/or exploiting the other. “Both humans and animals share the ability to suffer from restricted freedom of movement, from the loss of social freedom, and to experience pain at the loss of a loved one.” (P.321)