"Why do so many people care more about a lion than about human beings?"
And in equal measure...
"Humans and animals are equal! Their lives are equal!"
Whenever a case surrounds the mistreatment of an animal, the refrain is the same. The Cecil case is deeply disturbing. The deliberate stalking of this creature by luring him out of his home, shooting him with a crossbow and watching him bleed out for 40 hours, only to then shoot him with a rifle -- there is some seriously depraved behaviour going on there. The whole idea of trophy hunting is sadistic -- killing an animal to put its head on your wall??? WHAT??
But that is a different conversation. As is the fact that it's no secret that Robert Mugabe has been a vicious dictator for a long time. What was done to Cecil was barbaric. I have not seen people show anywhere near the interest in the conditions suffered by millions of Zimbabwean people that they have in one Zimbabwean lion, though. My heart finds it difficult to process this.
Returning to the dialogue heard around the web, I've always taken issue with the latter "Equal!" statement, and found myself getting into futile debates that I no longer wish to take part in. What I have not done is go beyond the relatively superficial back-and-forth to the deeper dialogue, because it's not a dialogue that I've believed the majority of people would want to have or process. With each passing year, my interest in having my personal views given the thumbs-up by other people wanes more. I share my thoughts when the larger conversation compels me to. This conversation is now doing that.
So I am now sharing what I have long believed to be a stark truth -- that the fervent "animals are equal to us" mindset is inescapably linked to White privilege.
Yes. White privilege. That's what I said. I don't say that lightly, but I say it fervently. I call things as I see them and say what I feel. I feel this to my core, and have for many years.
That will confuse approximately 97% of Caucasian people. A select few will understand. I am not saying that white people only see animals as being equal to white people; I believe they see animals as equal to all people. I am also not saying that all who espouse the equality of humans and animals are white. What I am saying is that of the many people whom I have heard assert that view, only a single person has not been. One friend of mine. One. I posit that that is not a coincidence. That also does not suggest callousness towards the animal kingdom on the part of people of colour; the majority of people of colour on the planet originate from places where human and animal often share space, co-existing without the boundaries or forced domestication of animals that exists in North America.
There is a reason why the aforementioned view seems to exist so much more predominantly in Caucasian people -- a deep-seated and resonant reason. And it is one that you simply cannot understand if you walk through this world with fair skin, because it has never applied to you.
Black people, from the moment they were first encountered in Africa until this very day in 2015, have been compared to animals.
This is not something that has happened occasionally. It is not a rarity. It is something that has happened for hundreds of years. Every attempt by black people to stand up for their rights, to raise their voices, to show basic human frustration at a system that was designed to ensure their subjugation, to simply live their lives – has been met with “They’re a bunch of animals!” This justification was used to whip slaves in 1815, and it is used to shoot blacks in 2015.
As a practitioner of a religion/philosophy that espouses equal compassion for all sentient beings, it is this that I have contemplated most. Because while I avow and espouse my spiritual practice, I am black. I am also well aware of the fact that the majority of those in the world who practice Mahayana have not had the experience of wearing black skin, and therefore do not have the same frame of reference for this discussion that I do. This is not to say that one's beliefs must only be based in one's own experience. Not at all. It does, however, mean that one's beliefs can most definitely - to a degree - be shaped by the absence of an experience.
The truth of this experience is that Black people have for time immemorial been called and compared to cockroaches, snakes, wild dogs, vermin, pigs and -- more than anything else -- monkeys. As a child I heard jokes about black people being “evolution not completed". During the Civil Rights Movement, Negro men marched with signs that read "I Am A Man" to assert basic humanity, their manhood undermined at every turn. Wild dogs were let loose on black protestors regularly, the rationale being that it was acceptable to meet beast with beast.
Go online and read for yourself articles attempting to prove that those of African descent are closer in their genetic makeup to apes than to Europeans. Racists have had a field day for the last seven years depicting the Obamas as orangutans. Black NHL players have banana peels thrown on the ice. Such comparisons you can be sure are happening in this very moment, in conversations between parents and their children around dinner tables… in high school staff rooms… in police precincts… black people are being likened to and labelled animals. Right now.
Many of the people having these conversations will convert word into deed. Gleefully. These are just a few titles of actual articles or news videos I'm come across in the last couple of years. There are more.
If you are white, you have not lived the reality of your race being spoken of this way. That said, if you are white, your relationship to the notion of egalitarianism with animal life is likely very, very different.
Perhaps the title of the article Black Baltimore Residents Aren't Animals; We Punish People For Killing Animals, says it best.
The majority of the people I meet who are the most fervent in their animals-equal-to-people views are white females. This makes perfect sense; they are the group whose lives have traditionally been assigned the greatest worth. They therefore can easily -- and perhaps some unconsciously -- make the equality of humans and animals a primary cause and share that space. For there is no threat in sharing the stage when the subconscious understanding of the value of one's life is that it is valued most. While white women they do not hold the same degree of power as white men, those men -- who DO hold the power -- have declared with that power the exalted state of the Caucasian female life. In our society there is no life considered more precious than that of a white woman or girl. That isn't my opinion. That is fact. Black men were lynched for even looking at one for too long. If you want to know who is valued most, look at 99% of the persons who become the 24-hour news cycle when they go missing or fall victim to violent crime. A white female disappears and it becomes a natural story. Meanwhile, black and brown women and girls vanish year after year while devastated loved ones sit and watch their disappearances garner nary a fraction of the media attention.
Black girls are not peaches-and-cream. They're not considered the everydaughter. They're not the girl-next-door.
We occupy the opposite end of the spectrum from white women, in terms of the designated value of our existences. Our lives have always registered least. Even within the context of Black Lives Matter, it was the brutalization of black men that made headline news. The #SayHerName campaign had to struggle to bring to the fore that black women were being treated just as inhumanely by law enforcement. That is the lifelong reality for black women -- ranking last. As slaves, we didn't have the physical power of the men, so we mattered less. We were rapeable at will. As for our men, their brute strength resulted in them being likened to oxen. Whippable and sellable without consequence. It was common for blacks to be discussed alongside the occupants of barns and stables, and yes, some did share lodging with farm animals. There was no distinction seen between them.
Even if you were half-white, the presence of black blood reduced you from person to non-person. The word "mulatto", referring to a person of mixed black and white parentage, meant "mule" -- the offspring of a horse and a donkey. (Such children have also been called zebras.) If you were black you were considered chattel. Our value was equal to that of cattle or horses.
To many -- to millions and millions -- it still is.
Caucasian people have long been the ones who hold systemic power, and therefore hold the ability to determine the perceived value of the lives of every other group.
Another page of this age-old story is jungle fever, the fetishization of white (usually male) attraction to black (usually female) people for the purposes of sexual experimentation or exotification. It's a term that refers to European colonizers entering the African jungle to ravage it -- the fascination with penetrating black flesh being seen as equivalent to the pursuit and conquering of a wild animal.
Elephants = hippos = blacks = rhinos. Whites = human.
Having our lives deemed equally valuable to animals is NOT, based on our historical experience (an experience which was created by whites) the exaltation of animals that it is viewed as by animal activists. It was and is an equating done to blatantly perpetuate the reduction and the lessening of blacks and others of colour. It was the assertion that blacks were not capable of the level of human cognition innate to whites; that we did not possess the ability to philosophize, that we could not engage in deductive reasoning, that we could not understand critical analysis. We could sense danger, develop a pack mentality, love our families, respect our masters, and very little else. Basically, we could do that which dogs and sheep could do. The belief was that our limitations were akin to the simpler base instincts, emotions and responses of animals.
THAT is the truth. That is the historical reality of equating the lives of homo sapiens with other species. It was done selectively, specifically, and even scientifically in an attempt to prove that some people were less than. And those of colour were the "some".
For those with a fair-skinned perspective, maybe equating your life with that of your cat makes you warm and fuzzy inside. If that is the case, good for you. I mean that. I know very well that pets are family and far be it from me to take a feeling of warmth from anyone else. You can feel that way, in part, because you have the privilege of declaring your life equal to a dog's without the status of your life being in any way affected. In fact, because you are in the esteemed societal position, equating your life to a dog's actually upgrades the life of the dog. From my dark-skinned perspective, that is not the case. Equating me to an animal has been established by the system run by whites as a way to demean and strip me of my womanhood, and is to this day done for precisely that purpose. Such comparisons are the continued subjugation of me and my race to a status where my breath is seen as having no more meaning than that of a rat or a donkey.
People may think I have no soft spot for animals. They would be wrong.
One of the living beings I love most in this world is a yellow Labrador Retriever.
Her name is Rosa and she is 9. She is our family dog, although she lives my with parents. My sister bought her for my father in 2005 as a joint birthday/retirement gift, and since then she has brought our family abundant joy. I adore her. For many reasons. I adore the way her tail wags with excitement everytime I enter my parents' house. She is my favourite non-human on the planet. I occasionally ponder her leaving us, or the day we may have to put her down should she grow feeble and sick, and the thought makes my stomach turn and my eyes water. I love her deeply, and attach tremendous value to her life and her health.
But... BUT... do I equate her life with that of my niece and nephew?
No. I don't. And I certainly do not and cannot equate it with that of my niece's and nephew's black lives -- lives which many in society will soon enough be more than eager to not only equate with an animal's, but rank below it.
I used to be resentful of the equating of humans and animals by (primarily white) people. As I type this, I realize that the anger has abated. I am coming to see more and more clearly everyday that there are things that those who are not of colour will never truly understand or see from my perspective. Not because they are deliberately disinterested in or intolerant of my perspective, or at all unintelligent, or in any way intentionally malice or insensitive. There is simply an area of peripheral vision that does not exist for them in this conversation -- a blind spot that is nothing but the result of never having resided in the devalued flesh. I cannot truly understand what it is to be a transgendered woman, no matter how kind I am. It is that simple. I cannot feel what I am not. I can only listen to those who are.
Human beings of colour have been equated with monkeys and mutts and mules for too long.
I have reconciled my spiritual beliefs with my feelings, and have resigned myself to living inside the nuance of it. I do not purport to speak for all black people, but I believe that I speak for many. While my deep compassion for animal life remains true, the legacy of dehumanization makes it impossible for me to feel any way other than this. If you are a Caucasian animal activist, maybe you cannot accept anything I've said. Or you feel defensive. Or you sort of get it but feel the need to add a "But..." immediately afterward. That's perfectly fine; I do not expect you to accept my viewpoint. Your lived experience is not mine, or my family's, or my ancestors', or my race's.
This from the person who, when she was 7 years old, was called a black baboon.
When you easily speak of humans and animals being equal, particularly if you are white, have the presence of mind and the consciousness to know that that is a very privileged place to be able to speak from. What is simple and unblemished for you is fraught and bloodied for others.
I do not devalue animal life. Not in the slightest. I ELEVATE the value of MY OWN LIFE -- a life that is undervalued in this society.
If you think me arrogant and wrong, think me arrogant and wrong. I know the heart I carry. I know the conscience as well.
My people have earned the right to elevate our lives over that of a goat or a chicken. And I do.
We were put on leashes and whipped.
We have earned it.
Hunted like buffalo.
We have earned it.
Collared like dogs.
We have earned it.
Branded like cows.
We have earned it.
Jesus Christ...
We have earned it.
No apologies.
- TT
So I am now sharing what I have long believed to be a stark truth -- that the fervent "animals are equal to us" mindset is inescapably linked to White privilege.
Yes. White privilege. That's what I said. I don't say that lightly, but I say it fervently. I call things as I see them and say what I feel. I feel this to my core, and have for many years.
That will confuse approximately 97% of Caucasian people. A select few will understand. I am not saying that white people only see animals as being equal to white people; I believe they see animals as equal to all people. I am also not saying that all who espouse the equality of humans and animals are white. What I am saying is that of the many people whom I have heard assert that view, only a single person has not been. One friend of mine. One. I posit that that is not a coincidence. That also does not suggest callousness towards the animal kingdom on the part of people of colour; the majority of people of colour on the planet originate from places where human and animal often share space, co-existing without the boundaries or forced domestication of animals that exists in North America.
There is a reason why the aforementioned view seems to exist so much more predominantly in Caucasian people -- a deep-seated and resonant reason. And it is one that you simply cannot understand if you walk through this world with fair skin, because it has never applied to you.
Black people, from the moment they were first encountered in Africa until this very day in 2015, have been compared to animals.
This is not something that has happened occasionally. It is not a rarity. It is something that has happened for hundreds of years. Every attempt by black people to stand up for their rights, to raise their voices, to show basic human frustration at a system that was designed to ensure their subjugation, to simply live their lives – has been met with “They’re a bunch of animals!” This justification was used to whip slaves in 1815, and it is used to shoot blacks in 2015.
As a practitioner of a religion/philosophy that espouses equal compassion for all sentient beings, it is this that I have contemplated most. Because while I avow and espouse my spiritual practice, I am black. I am also well aware of the fact that the majority of those in the world who practice Mahayana have not had the experience of wearing black skin, and therefore do not have the same frame of reference for this discussion that I do. This is not to say that one's beliefs must only be based in one's own experience. Not at all. It does, however, mean that one's beliefs can most definitely - to a degree - be shaped by the absence of an experience.
The truth of this experience is that Black people have for time immemorial been called and compared to cockroaches, snakes, wild dogs, vermin, pigs and -- more than anything else -- monkeys. As a child I heard jokes about black people being “evolution not completed". During the Civil Rights Movement, Negro men marched with signs that read "I Am A Man" to assert basic humanity, their manhood undermined at every turn. Wild dogs were let loose on black protestors regularly, the rationale being that it was acceptable to meet beast with beast.
Go online and read for yourself articles attempting to prove that those of African descent are closer in their genetic makeup to apes than to Europeans. Racists have had a field day for the last seven years depicting the Obamas as orangutans. Black NHL players have banana peels thrown on the ice. Such comparisons you can be sure are happening in this very moment, in conversations between parents and their children around dinner tables… in high school staff rooms… in police precincts… black people are being likened to and labelled animals. Right now.
Many of the people having these conversations will convert word into deed. Gleefully. These are just a few titles of actual articles or news videos I'm come across in the last couple of years. There are more.
"Things White People Love: Comparing Black People to Monkeys"
"911 Operator Fired For Comparing Black People To Animals"
"Congressman's Press Secretary Compares African-Americans To Zoo Animals"
If you are white, you have not lived the reality of your race being spoken of this way. That said, if you are white, your relationship to the notion of egalitarianism with animal life is likely very, very different.
Perhaps the title of the article Black Baltimore Residents Aren't Animals; We Punish People For Killing Animals, says it best.
Black girls are not peaches-and-cream. They're not considered the everydaughter. They're not the girl-next-door.
We occupy the opposite end of the spectrum from white women, in terms of the designated value of our existences. Our lives have always registered least. Even within the context of Black Lives Matter, it was the brutalization of black men that made headline news. The #SayHerName campaign had to struggle to bring to the fore that black women were being treated just as inhumanely by law enforcement. That is the lifelong reality for black women -- ranking last. As slaves, we didn't have the physical power of the men, so we mattered less. We were rapeable at will. As for our men, their brute strength resulted in them being likened to oxen. Whippable and sellable without consequence. It was common for blacks to be discussed alongside the occupants of barns and stables, and yes, some did share lodging with farm animals. There was no distinction seen between them.
Even if you were half-white, the presence of black blood reduced you from person to non-person. The word "mulatto", referring to a person of mixed black and white parentage, meant "mule" -- the offspring of a horse and a donkey. (Such children have also been called zebras.) If you were black you were considered chattel. Our value was equal to that of cattle or horses.
To many -- to millions and millions -- it still is.
Caucasian people have long been the ones who hold systemic power, and therefore hold the ability to determine the perceived value of the lives of every other group.
Another page of this age-old story is jungle fever, the fetishization of white (usually male) attraction to black (usually female) people for the purposes of sexual experimentation or exotification. It's a term that refers to European colonizers entering the African jungle to ravage it -- the fascination with penetrating black flesh being seen as equivalent to the pursuit and conquering of a wild animal.
Elephants = hippos = blacks = rhinos. Whites = human.
THAT is the truth. That is the historical reality of equating the lives of homo sapiens with other species. It was done selectively, specifically, and even scientifically in an attempt to prove that some people were less than. And those of colour were the "some".
For those with a fair-skinned perspective, maybe equating your life with that of your cat makes you warm and fuzzy inside. If that is the case, good for you. I mean that. I know very well that pets are family and far be it from me to take a feeling of warmth from anyone else. You can feel that way, in part, because you have the privilege of declaring your life equal to a dog's without the status of your life being in any way affected. In fact, because you are in the esteemed societal position, equating your life to a dog's actually upgrades the life of the dog. From my dark-skinned perspective, that is not the case. Equating me to an animal has been established by the system run by whites as a way to demean and strip me of my womanhood, and is to this day done for precisely that purpose. Such comparisons are the continued subjugation of me and my race to a status where my breath is seen as having no more meaning than that of a rat or a donkey.
People may think I have no soft spot for animals. They would be wrong.
One of the living beings I love most in this world is a yellow Labrador Retriever.
Her name is Rosa and she is 9. She is our family dog, although she lives my with parents. My sister bought her for my father in 2005 as a joint birthday/retirement gift, and since then she has brought our family abundant joy. I adore her. For many reasons. I adore the way her tail wags with excitement everytime I enter my parents' house. She is my favourite non-human on the planet. I occasionally ponder her leaving us, or the day we may have to put her down should she grow feeble and sick, and the thought makes my stomach turn and my eyes water. I love her deeply, and attach tremendous value to her life and her health.
But... BUT... do I equate her life with that of my niece and nephew?
No. I don't. And I certainly do not and cannot equate it with that of my niece's and nephew's black lives -- lives which many in society will soon enough be more than eager to not only equate with an animal's, but rank below it.
I used to be resentful of the equating of humans and animals by (primarily white) people. As I type this, I realize that the anger has abated. I am coming to see more and more clearly everyday that there are things that those who are not of colour will never truly understand or see from my perspective. Not because they are deliberately disinterested in or intolerant of my perspective, or at all unintelligent, or in any way intentionally malice or insensitive. There is simply an area of peripheral vision that does not exist for them in this conversation -- a blind spot that is nothing but the result of never having resided in the devalued flesh. I cannot truly understand what it is to be a transgendered woman, no matter how kind I am. It is that simple. I cannot feel what I am not. I can only listen to those who are.
Human beings of colour have been equated with monkeys and mutts and mules for too long.
I have reconciled my spiritual beliefs with my feelings, and have resigned myself to living inside the nuance of it. I do not purport to speak for all black people, but I believe that I speak for many. While my deep compassion for animal life remains true, the legacy of dehumanization makes it impossible for me to feel any way other than this. If you are a Caucasian animal activist, maybe you cannot accept anything I've said. Or you feel defensive. Or you sort of get it but feel the need to add a "But..." immediately afterward. That's perfectly fine; I do not expect you to accept my viewpoint. Your lived experience is not mine, or my family's, or my ancestors', or my race's.
This from the person who, when she was 7 years old, was called a black baboon.
When you easily speak of humans and animals being equal, particularly if you are white, have the presence of mind and the consciousness to know that that is a very privileged place to be able to speak from. What is simple and unblemished for you is fraught and bloodied for others.
I do not devalue animal life. Not in the slightest. I ELEVATE the value of MY OWN LIFE -- a life that is undervalued in this society.
If you think me arrogant and wrong, think me arrogant and wrong. I know the heart I carry. I know the conscience as well.
My people have earned the right to elevate our lives over that of a goat or a chicken. And I do.
We were put on leashes and whipped.
We have earned it.
Hunted like buffalo.
We have earned it.
Collared like dogs.
We have earned it.
Branded like cows.
We have earned it.
Jesus Christ...
We have earned it.
No apologies.
- TT
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