Monday, November 2, 2009

Racism...



I find it amazing that society looks at the events that occurred during The Holocaust and they criticize those who were part of it and didn’t do anything to make a change. The same thing applies to slavery. Many people feel ashamed for being born in the U.S. because of slavery, yet they go to a meat market and buy the biggest steaks they can find or they go haunting to entertain themselves. What does this tell us? This tells us that things haven’t changed and that we should be ashamed for contributing to animal cruelty. Yes, we’ve moved on from killing and mistreating people and we’ve given them the same value as we give ourselves, but what about animals? Animals are no different than us because “animals share with us the privilege of having a soul.” (311B). There is no reason to look at animals differently only because we speak a shared dialect and they don’t or because we are rational. Rationality is nothing, but judiciousness that makes us midjudge the value of other living creatures. We all must understand that “The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans anymore than black people were made for whites or women for men.” (Walker 314)


The PETA display had a great impact on me. I had heard of PETA before, but seeing the similarities shown on the posters between animals and human beings made me see animal cruelty differently. One of the displays said that animals are just like people and they showed how both people and animals have been experimented on, banded, exploited, and that there are no good justifications for any of these injustices. If I witnessed any of these injustices, I would try to find a way to defend my rights since I live in a free country, the sad thing is that animals can’t do this because they don’t speak English, they’re not human, and because there is no law that says that animals shouldn’t be killed to be eaten, used a coats, belts, etc. all over the country. Sadly, but truly “...we are surrounded by an enterprise of degradation, cruelty, and killing.” (311A) Furthermore, “As long as man continues to be the ruthless destroyer of lower living beings, he will never know health or peace.” (Pythagoras 311B)


I think that the PETA display was close to MLK's statue becuase blacks were once treated unfairly just like animals are still being treated today. The quote on the statue,"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere," is very similar to the quotes that were on the PETA display. Our exploitation for animals has made us all into tyrants and that is definitely something we don’t want to be. That is, if we honestly believe that The Holocaust and slavery were erroneous. Like Peter Singer said, “[The tyranny of human over non-human animals] has caused and today is still causing an amount of pain and suffering that can only be compared with that which resulted from the centuries of tyranny by white humans over black humans.” (319) The same suffering would obviously apply to slaves. It is important to know that a change can still be made; even one person can make a difference. “Little baby steps is what it will take [to stop animal cruelty],” is what one of the PETA representatives told me and I believe her. Change is in our hands and it is up to us. “The suffering animals currently endure at the hands of human beings in laboratories, on ‘factory farms,’ as pets, and in the wild, sadly parallels that endured by black people…”(321)
Next time you see that an animal can use your help, please remember that “A good deed done to an animal is as meritorious as a good deed done to a human being, while an act of cruelty to an animal is as bad as an act of cruelty to a human being.” (Mohammed 311C)

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