Some of you have expressed an interest in writing a paper about the comparisons that run through a lot of our readings. We've seen comparisons involving racism and slavery in a lot of authors:
Speciesism compared to racism
- Peter Singer (he also compares speciesism to sexism)
Subjugation of animals compared to human slavery
- Aristotle
- Jeremy Bentham
- Steven Wise (reading)
- Unlocking the Cage (movie about Wise's work)
- Gary Francione (calls his animal advocacy "abolitionism"--same word used by those fighting American slavery)
If you want to write about whether these comparisons make sense, it would be wise to do two things:
- Make sure you're clear about the nature of the comparison.
- In what sense is Peter Singer saying speciesism can be compared to racism? Is he saying they have something important in common or that they're just alike? Is he saying the targets of speciesism and racism are just alike?
- In what sense does Wise or Francione say slavery and animal subjugation have something in common? What's the point of the comparison?
- In other words, make sure your objections are aimed at what people really say. Don't commit the "strawman" fallacy.
- Read an article critical of the comparisons. Yancy, in his interview with Singer, raised his eyebrows about these comparisons, but he didn't offer any sort of sustained argument. Here's more to read on this topic (the first article is particularly valuable):
- Claire Jean Kim, "Abolition" This focuses mainly on the slavery analogy. She's a political scientist who works in the areas of both race theory and animal studies.
- You might also like to look at this article, which includes images that Kim talks about in "Abolition."
- Aph Ko (along with her sister) started the Black Vegans Rock website and writes about animal-race-slavery comparisons here. She's not an academic philosopher but writes philosophically and engages with the philosophical literature. (It's interesting that she affirms speciesism-sexism comparisons in this article.)