ANIMAL RIGHTS AND RACISM

[Guest guest]

http://www.satyamag.com/jun05/hamanaka.html

 

Racism and the Animal Rights Movement

By Sheila Hamanaka with Tracy Basile

 

 

 

Checklist

 

Here are some concrete steps we can take to build a diverse,

anti-racist movement.

 

• Talk about it. Be open and listen. Make

anti-racism a top priority. Seek mentors. Set goals. Ask diverse

groups how they work on it.

 

• Get anti-racist training. We've all had a lifetime of racism. It

takes time, attention, and study to undo it. It's a transformative,

rewarding process. For an online curriculum on whiteness, go to

www.antiracistalliance.com. For an excellent, free guide to

anti-racist trainers visit www.aspeninstitute.org/programresults.asp.

Anti-racist trainers with a power analysis:

www.thepeoplesinstitute.org.

 

• Take responsibility. " If everyone is responsible, no one is

responsible. " Assign someone, a real go-getter, to take leadership.

And not just the person of color!

 

• Strategize with diverse groups. Activists are thinkers. They'll see

the global connections between

animals-agribusiness-food-health-labor-immigration-environmental

racism. They want to be healthy and ethical, too!

 

• Be thoughtful when planning campaigns. Arrest is quite a different

experience for people of color in a racist criminal justice system.

It's expensive, and dangerous. If you're an immigrant, it might mean

deportation. Support people who hang back and always have choices.

 

• Write diversity into your Mission. This will make everyone sit up

and take notice.

 

• Think: location, location, location. Where is your meeting held? How

about in a free, accessible location in a diverse neighborhood?

 

•Table in neighborhoods of color. White people can do this, too.

Network and translate your materials. PETA has a website in Spanish:

www.petaenespanol.com.

 

• Co-sponsor events with diverse

groups. Be creative! Go outside the " same 'ol, same 'ol " box. Check

out ethnic, career, and social groups, too. Many Asian, South Asian

and African people and eastern religious groups are vegetarian. Also

take note where you advertise your events.

 

• Practice affirmative action. Set goals

and be accountable. Look at your city, strive to reflect it. Start at

the top. Share power. If you want a diverse membership, have a diverse

staff. Power in numbers: it's very stressful for people of color to be

alone amongst white people, even nice ones! Hire for talent and

enthusiasm, not experience. —S.H.

 

The author would like to thank Patrick Kwan for many of these

suggestions. Thanks also to Cat Clyne.

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result

of a hundred battles.

— Sun Tzu, The Art of War

 

Why Talk About Racism?

We love animals. We hate racism. So what's to talk about? In fact, two

South Asian activists I interviewed both felt that they had not

experienced any overt racism in the animal rights (AR) movement. Yet,

like the peace and environmental movements, the AR movement is

predominantly white and middle class. Andrew Rowan, a VP at the Humane

Society of the U.S., said surveys indicate the AR movement is " less

than three percent " people of color. In April, 316 people from over 20

states attended the first Grassroots AR Conference in NYC, but the

people of color caucus numbered only eight. If no one is racist, why

is the movement largely segregated?

 

Is it " us " or " them " ?

Most of us want to be inclusive. But why? Is it because it is the

" right " thing to do? Because then our march would look like a

beautiful rainbow? Because we have to be diverse to get funding?

Pattrice Jones, a white AR activist who has a page about racism at

bravebirds.org states, " The fact is that a predominantly white

movement will not and indeed cannot bring about animal liberation. "

 

Jim Mason, a well-known white AR activist and author of An Unnatural

Order (reprinted by Lantern Books, 2005) which looks at the history of

racism as part of " dominionism, " agrees. He feels the imbalance " keeps

AR from being a mass movement. It adds to the perception that it is

just another trivial concern of the comfortable classes, which repels

people who might otherwise be involved. "

 

But is it just looking white that keeps people of color away from the

movement? Or are white activists who lack awareness making people of

color feel uncomfortable?

 

Patrick Kwan, founder and Executive Director of the Student Animal

Rights Alliance, said, " At the first demonstration I went to someone

asked me 'Do you speak English?'—and that was in New York City! " He's

gotten these comments from white staffers of " pretty big AR

organizations " : " I can't believe how Asians treat animals " and " I

don't like Asians. "

 

Kris, an African American activist, describes how it feels to

experience tokenism: " They haven't done outreach to the community, but

they call—'Hey we need a black face at the protest.' I go, but it's

not a unifying way, it's a marginalizing way of organizing. You're not

one of us, but we need you. "

 

Are AR Organizations Serious About Outreach?

According to Patrick, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

(PETA) is the only major group doing active outreach into communities

of color. A PETA employee concurs, " PETA…with its outreach to

Hispanics, African Americans, and Indians, has made fantastic inroads

into those communities. " PETA assigns several staff members to this

work and has two separate websites, one in Spanish and another,

PETAWorld.com, geared toward African Americans.

 

On the other hand, Kris calls it " lip service " when one organization

failed to put the " human capital " and provide enough leadership into

their efforts to reach the African American community.

 

" Large organizations have no excuse, " says Patrick.

 

Do People of Color Care About Animals?

According to Patrick, there is a preconception that people of color do

not care about animals. But, he says, surveys have shown that African

Americans are actually more likely to consider vegetarianism than

whites after being informed about the plight of farmed animals.

Surveys of Latinos and Asians also show positive attitudes toward

animal protection.

 

Olivia, who grew up in the projects and lives in Spanish Harlem,

reports that people eagerly take her flyers. Another African American

activist found people snapped up samples of vegan cooking. A young

white woman active in the PETA KFC campaign noticed that " older white

men never take our flyers. The people who show the most interest in

talking to us are African American men and women and Latino men and

women, and young white people. "

 

Another self-defeating attitude is that people of color are too busy

organizing around civil rights or other issues. But, as in the white

communities, only a small percentage of people are active. There are

still millions of others out there.

 

The Big Picture

It's one thing for a white person to pass out vegan flyers. But

attempts by white AR activists to set the agenda for other cultures

bears an uncomfortable resemblance to the historical pattern of

suppression by dominant nations. Instead of exporting " democracy, " AR

activists are exporting their cultural concepts of the proper

relationship between human and nonhuman animals.

 

Let's step back for a moment from what may seem to outsiders like a

tempest in a teapot. Okay, the AR movement needs to be more diverse,

but what's all the fuss about? Can't we all just get along? I opened

with a quote from Sun Tzu because as we see it, we are engaged in a

battle for life. For the compassionate, it begins with the lives of

more than 52 billion land animals slaughtered globally every year, and

expands to the lives of millions of humans lost to the wars and

privations of a vastly unequal society where " darker " and " poorer " are

often synonymous. Causing or benefiting from this situation are

powerful militarized states, multinational corporations, and an

intricate web of civil and penal institutions so heartlessly

interlocked they are often referred to in popular culture as one

entity: " The Machine. "

 

It's an unequal battle. Animals have no power. Defending them are

pockets of Indigenous peoples and a small AR movement. The same could

be said for every injustice: small groups confronting gargantuan

tasks, and sometimes, each other. Indian writer Arundhati Roy sagely

notes what she calls " the N-G-O-ization of the movement. " (NGO =

Non-Governmental Organization.) Governments and corporations, lacking

roots in communities but needing to stem social unrest, toss out

thousands of carrots to activists who otherwise might have channeled

their anger into revolutionary movements. Closer to the ground and

quicker on their feet, they can perform social services more

efficiently than huge government bureaucracies. They tend to the sores

of social injustice like overworked allopathic doctors: treating the

symptoms while, some observe, the patient dies.

 

" Racism = Racial Prejudice + Power " — The People's Institute

Given the sheer might of " The Machine, " you'd think everyone would be

talking about how to get power. After all, it is power that keeps

animals oppressed. But is power just a numbers game? When a million

people demonstrated for peace in New York in February 2003 I was

struck by two things: how white the crowd was, and how the next day

everyone was gone and the war in Iraq proceeded. David Billings, a

white anti-racist trainer with The People's Institute and historian of

the grassroots movement says, " Nowadays we know how to mobilize, but

not how to organize. "

 

Racism is a powerful tool of disorganization that has been used

against potential allies for centuries. It justified the European

invasion, enslavement and genocide of Native Americans and Africans.

Many immigrant European workers and landless peasants traded their

class consciousness for the fabricated notion of " whiteness " and were

rewarded with land grants and a chance to share in the profits of

slavery. Even now textbooks hide the long history of African,

Indigenous, and multiracial rebellion.

 

The mid-19th century saw the rise of the Abolitionist movement as

whites joined in; a few privileged whites also formed the humane

movement, which advocated for animals but ignored the plight of

slaves. Historically humane education was upheld as a means of

cultivating moral values amongst white children, especially boys who

would become tomorrow's leaders.

 

Is today's liberal commitment to help those less fortunate rooted in

this same racist, missionary tradition? Well-meaning whites, sometimes

armed with the comment " I do not see color " —which often causes people

of color to smile inwardly—continue to build essentially segregated

organizations because to them overcoming racism is still about

cultivating moral values and not sharing power. Whereas to oppressed

peoples of color, race has always been about power. They do not fight

for social justice to make white people feel better about themselves.

 

" The Machine " also understands that race is about power, and its

generals also read Sun Tzu. Much the way the suffering of animals is

invisibilized, so too is the suffering of peoples of color and

Indigenous peoples. Beneath the radar of mainstream media, these

groups more often get the stick instead of the carrot. David Hilliard,

one of the founders of the Black Panther Party, recounted in his April

'04 interview with Satya, " some 40 are still in prison, 28 of us were

murdered. " They were killed because they were black and wanted " Power

to the People, " not because they were vegetarian. In Colombia, almost

4,000 labor organizers have been murdered in the last 15 years. In one

state in India, 4,000 farmers committed suicide between 1999-2004 in

desperation over free trade and privatization policies.

 

This is a far cry from most large AR organizations, which model

themselves after corporations and in fact are characterized by the

same " institutional racism " : no matter how colorful their brochures,

the vast majority of positions of power are held by white people,

albeit nice ones who like animals. According to one activist, outreach

to communities of color is approached like a marketing challenge, not

as a desire to share power. A corporation is a legal person, but

without a mind. As such, no one is accountable for de facto

segregation unless someone is stupid enough to use the " n " word.

 

The People's Institute, in its Undoing Racism workshops, asks social

workers and other participants " Do you make money off the poor? " One

by one, people nod their heads. Is it possible that AR workers—from

the CEOs of large nonprofits who may make a third of a million

dollars, to grassroots grunts who make minimum wage—are making money

off of animals? The People's Institute states: Any organization that

is not intentionally anti-racist inevitably benefits white people.

 

Where Will We Find Power?

Language to the contrary, white people are the " minority " on the

planet. As the minority it only makes sense to want to hook up with

the majority with great urgency, as if billions of lives, and the

future of the earth itself, were at stake. Global agribusiness, which

feeds " The Machine " will only be undone by a powerful global movement.

 

The truth hidden by Eurocentric media is that some of the most

dynamic, holistic political organizing on the planet is happening in

the " developing " world. You should know these names: Vandana Shiva,

Wangari Maathai, Alfredo Palacio, Evo Morales, Lula da Silva. Twelve

thousand landless peasants recently marched in Brazil. The 2004 World

Social Forum (WSF) in Mumbai, India drew 200,000 people. Across the

street was another forum for groups excluded from the WSF for

political reasons. Some were militant revolutionary groups, some

weren't. The 2005 WSF in Porto Alegre, Brazil heard Hugo Chavez, the

President of Venezuela. Chavez, a former military officer, is an

advocate for the poor and landless. If the AR movement wants power, it

should study how President Chavez got it. It should join in on the

ground floor of the global people's movement, which is inherently

anti-agribusiness, to become part of the agenda.

 

Maybe, just maybe, power lies with the powerless. Asked how he would

build a united front with Indigenous cultures that might eat animals

but who live in balance with nature, Jim Mason replied: " I would start

with campaigning to insure their survival—the survival of their native

lands, their natural habitat, their traditional ways of living. The

dominant cultures that are destroying the living world will—if they

ever wake up—need to draw from the older cultures to make the changes

in thinking needed to stop the destruction and develop a culture of

balance with nature. "

 

The dominant white culture also writes humane history. It starts with

European philosophers and reform movements. Native concepts of human

equality with, or even inferiority to, animals are omitted. Indigenous

cultures which do not divide humans and animals into classes, into

exploiter and exploited, do not have the need for the concept of

" animal rights. " Tiokasin Ghosthorse, producer of " First Voices "

(WBAI, 99.5FM Thursdays at 10 a.m.) calls for " nature rights. "

Onondaga elder Oren Lyon says the term " human rights " is a misnomer.

 

In 1999, AR activists tried to physically stop the Makah people in the

Pacific Northwest from resuming their whale hunting after an

endangered species ban was lifted. Kent Lebsock, Executive Director of

the American Indian Law Alliance, said non-Indian activists focused

not on commercial whalers but on people who were reclaiming their

traditional way of life. It was taken as a racist act of cultural

suppression. " They showed a lack of understanding of what we have

experienced in the last 500 years. " Lebsock said, " During the

incident, every Indian person I spoke to thought the Makah were

right. "

 

This bitter, complex dispute has many lessons. One is that there is a

potential for alliances with progressive, traditionalist groups which

already exist within these communities, and which could use the access

to media, etc. that privileged whites often have. Because racism in

the movement goes unaddressed, we all lose and the animals lose.

 

By contrast, the Buffalo Field Campaign (BFC) serves as a role model

for how to build alliances between cultures. It was co-founded by

Rosalie Little Thunder, a Lakota woman elder, and Mike Mease, a white

filmmaker, in 1997 when the Montana Department of Livestock killed

nearly a third of the 3,000 buffalo who live in Yellowstone National

Park. Activists maintain a year-round vigil to protect the buffalo,

and Native people come to the vigils to perform ceremonies and support

them with prayer.

 

Moving Forward

Roman Sanchez, a Latino/Afro-Caribbean diversity trainer, has been

with BFC for five years. " I do workshops on whiteness and racism. In

those workshops I tell people this is not an attack on you, this is

talking about the system… The system that exists today is hurting

everybody. "

 

It's because the system is hurting everybody that the AR movement must

embrace these kinds of campaigns, local or global—where the interests

of labor, the landless, small farmers, Indigenous peoples and the

environment intersect. But the key, the pivotal point is how to

embrace other people, how to share power. Sanchez says, " It's about

respect for all people. We are all connected to each other. Unless we

can respect each other this brutality is not going to stop. "

 

The leaders of the AR nonprofits must be held accountable. They are

the gatekeepers who will determine how many people of color will get

in and whether they will hit a glass ceiling. The challenge is to

avoid tokenism, to hire for talent, not experience. After all, if you

require a long AR resume, chances are the person will be white.

 

For white activists, this might mean listening to people and not

rushing in to set the agenda or the tactics. For example, in a racist

society getting arrested is a different experience for people of

color.

 

Sanchez says, " It's dangerous when you take an extreme

this-is-the-only-way-things-can-change point of view. You turn people

off. A lot of people of color are struggling to survive. It's those

people who hold the power who need to work for change in themselves.

They need to ask people of color, " How can I help you? How can I be

your ally? What is it that you need from me?' "

 

" I'm definitely a very Caucasian male, " says Mease, who reflects the

respect Sanchez talks about. " I know how important the buffalo are to

the culture of Native Americans. Rosalie instilled in me that we all

have spirituality, we all have worth, we all have meaning and it

doesn't matter what color or walk of life or background we come from,

anyone can make change and anyone can represent the buffalo if they do

the true work. She's empowered me to know that it didn't matter where

I came from or what color I was, that if my heart were true, and my

work showed the truth, then I had the right to be here. "

 

Sheila Hamanaka is a children's book author and illustrator. She has

studied anti-racism with The People's Institute and is a member of the

Justice and Unity Campaign of WBAI. Her books include Grandparent's

Song, All the Colors of the Earth, and The Journey: Japanese

Americans, Racism and Renewal. She is currently working on an animal

liberation novel for children. Tracy Basile is a freelance journalist

who also teaches animal and nature courses at Purchase College, SUNY,

and Pace University.

 

 

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