here are some major similarities and differences between speciesism versus racism. First of all, this is specifically referring to slavery under some of the circumstances. In slavery as seen in the United States, which is considered racial, but it contained members of many cultures and races. The similarities are that both parties had restricted freedom of movement. There was a loss of social freedoms and choices. They experienced the pain of loosing someone who was close to them, such as a family member or lover. They have been hunted, tormented and injured. They are both objectified. They are treated as property, as if they do not have feelings., as if they are not individuals. They have been physically defeated. They have been mentally defeated. They represent that any oppression encourages other forms of domination. It make s another party “oppressible.”
The slavery dynamic is still seen in animals, but the similarity between early United States slavery treatment and animal treatment has varied. It actually took some time to adapt the human to respect both parties well at all. Both parties had, at one point, and in some cases, been put into sexual slavery (including forced breeding) and a variety of forms of other work, like transportation, ploughing, agriculture and more. They have born chains, both have received abuse from humans, they may be harmed and their views are seldom considered. The treatment of slaves in America and other regions varied just as the treatment with animals. Culture seems to impact the reaction to both situations.
As for differences, there are many and they really make you think of who is being affected, how long, why and to what degree. Animals are experimented on in labs, they go in factory farms, are kept as pets, suffer in the wild or are abused. There are humans that are oppressed, but those are primarily regional or on a smaller scale, simply because there are more animals of all species. Many of them are abused, or are “enslaved.” Many of them go through sexual slavery (breeding) to this day, which is rarely seen among human interaction and serves a different purpose sometimes.”
For the most part human slavery was focused on a racial, sexual or class specific role. This was sometimes people force-imported from Africa, but it included people from many regions, including indigenous Americans. However, the slavery of animals crosses species barriers and pretty much is open to anything but a human. Automatically not being human gives you less rights in this view. And, on top of that, it is considered that animals are lesser, have no rights, are less intelligent, are able to be killed. It was a rare thing to kill a human. Slaves were treated badly, and there were cases where it happened, but for the most part, they were not made into stew like the lamb. Some animals are made and bred to be killed.
Humans have people fighting oppression everywhere, and some people who defend those who are oppressed, but it does not always help. The same holds true when petitioning for human rights, and though now we have grown wise to what humans are and that we are all one big family, we have yet to accept animals into our family. The bias toward mammals or toward land-dwelling beings is present in some humans. Some humans have NO respect for fish, for instance, or for squid, or octopuses. Everyone has a different opinion, but we don’t treat humans like animals are treated, and though there were similarities, most of the time, humans were kept under better conditions. Sometimes though, they were kept caged, chained, in mass confinement, in bad conditions, in the cold, or in filth. Animals are still kept in these conditions, humans are not. Some processes, like the veal production process are cruel. Some people point out foie gras is cruel. We use cruel equipment and treatments that are still used on animals in our domination of them. Currently, animals still are being oppressed.
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