Black Slavery and a Bucket of Chicken

For you meat-eaters our there, when was the last time you ate some fried chicken and the first thing that came to mind was the horrors of slavery in this country?

Well, apparently there are some very sick people out there that do see the relation between the two:

The organization says it is targeting African Americans because it believes members of that community are particularly empathetic to oppression. Along with Pryor (yes, Richard Pryor), other high-profile notables who have signed on include hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, scholar Cornel West and NAACP President Kweisi Mfume.

“By and large, black people are going to best resonate with a message against oppression,” says Bruce Friedrich, PETA director of vegan campaigns, who points out that this is PETA’s first foray into the black community. “There is universal outrage among black people — even wealthy blacks and blacks in business — that is not shared by the white community, unfortunately.” (full article)

Some months ago, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) began a campaign targeting the African-American community calling for a boycott of KFC. Their reason for the boycott was because of their claim that the chickens were being treated unfairly in the slaughter process. What I find amazing about the excerpt above is their comparison between Black oppression (slavery), and chickens. Below is an excerpt from an interview with the president of PETA, Ingrid Newkirk:

That was not always the case — look back at the Holocaust or the treatment of African-Americans in this country. We can watch specials on television and read about it and we can have discussion groups in our schools about it because it is in our past. So we can feel superior by condemning it…So people who speak for animals, like us, have to find ways to make comparisons when there is uproar over a violent act. (full article)

What is even more ridiculous are the prominent African-Americans that have aligned themselves with this organization. The following are statements made from two more prominent African-Americans who have joined forces with PETA:

“Animals in circuses are robbed of their freedom, beaten, and denied everything that’s precious to them,” says civil-rights leader Dick Gregory. “Just as the actions of enlightened people broke the chains of human slavery, families today can help stop the enslavement of animals by staying away from circuses that feature animal acts.” (full article)

Dick Gregory is no stranger to the fight against injustice. He has been an influential figure in the civil rights movement for more than 40 years and was an outspoken advocate for peace during the Vietnam War. He is also an enthusiastic PETA supporter who recorded a public service announcement, urging people to boycott circuses that use animals in what he calls “modern-day slavery.” (full article)

…and this excerpt is from a book where Alice Walker wrote the forward. (this is a book that was advertised and featured on the PETA website):

Spiegel, Marjorie. THE DREADED COMPARISON: Human and Animal Slavery. Mirror Books, 1996. The title says it all. Here is a one hundred page, one night read, that argues its case beautifully using original source material, some great quotes, and chillingly similar photographs of animal and human slaves. The foreword by Alice Walker is a nice touch.

Now if someone wants to become a vegetarian, that is on them. But when you take the plight of animals and relate it to that of Black slaves (or the Holocaust), now the line of reasoning has been clearly crossed. Yet, with all of this being said, why is it that people like Russell Simmons, Cornel West and others see nothing wrong with these kind of assertions?

Kweisi Mfume has since requested to have his comments removed from the PETA website. There is no clear reason as to why he has distanced himself from PETA. This article sheds little light on Mfume distancing himself from PETA.