PETA’s Latest
California Patriot reports how hilarity ensued after the latest PETA shenanigans (hat tip: Shy Guy).
Students from PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, drew an angry crowd on Sproul after displaying images that compared animal treatment to the lynching and enslavement of black Americans. About a dozen Berkeley students furiously engaged the PETA members, accusing the animal rights group of racism. The situation intensified when one member of the crowd threw ketchup and mustard on the PETA display and another tore down part of the exhibit.One image presented by PETA featured a chained elephant foot juxtaposed with the chained foot of a slave. Another showed black individuals hanging from a tree by their necks contrasted with the image of a cow being hung by its hind legs. Several black students shouted down the PETA students and called for the display to be taken down. One student who was upset by PETA’s comparison of slavery to animal mistreatment shouted amid tears, “I’m not trying to say that people should eat meat. I understand you, but the way you’re depicting our history, the way you are depicting the things that happened to us, the thing that happened to our ancestors, it‚Äôs not ok, it’s not ok!”
Another student, identified as Autumn by her peers, tore down one of the images in a fit of rage. Dominique Nisperos, a third year Cal student, was also upset by PETA’s display and argued with one of the group‚Äôs members. When asked if tearing down the display was appropriate on a campus that touts its free speech history, Nisperos responded, “I can see why they did it.” She added that bringing up the free speech issue “isn’t getting to the root of the problem. The means at expressing [PETA's] message was racist.” Veronica Nisperos, a Berkeley student also incensed by the exhibit, stated that the group did have a point, but the way in which they made it, “created opposition among people who should be allies.”
You would think that PETA would have learned their lesson about the offence caused by such comparisons, especially after the disturbing Holocaust on a Plate campaign. But evidently, learning from their mistakes is not on PETA’s agenda.
Sengeeta Kumar, who led the PETA group, was surprised to have encountered such a reaction at UC Berkeley. “I was really hoping that people would think critically‚Ķit became very emotional and almost dangerous in the sense that people were threatening and pulling things down and it just became unsafe,” she said. Kumar noted that her group has taken the exhibit to 13 different schools and never faced a hostile reaction.PETA eventually gave into the pressure and dismantled their display. Kumar expressed disappointment in her organization‚Äôs inability to get their message across. “When emotions are risen, people can be closed to dialogue.” She added, “We are all part of oppression, of beings who can’t speak for themselves. Animals are enslaved in our hands. This exhibit isn’t about demeaning any people, it about uplifting humanity.”
PETA members spent the rest of the afternoon wiping off the ketchup and mustard that was sprayed on their display.
Jay-Z was not available for comment.
About the Author
An Australian immigrant to Israel, Aussie Dave has been blogging since early 2003.Filed Under: General
Blacks are easily offended and angered over trivial offenses, yet not about things that they should actually be angry about, like genocide in Darfur of blacks by arabs. Instead many blacks think arab muslims are their “brothers”.
Well, this is right in line with their previous idiocy:
“On Jan. 26, Palestinian terrorists booby-trapped a donkey and sent it towards a group of Israelis at a bus stop south of Jerusalem, hoping to kill and maim as many as possible. The two bombs attached to the donkey were detonated simultaneously by two cellphones. Fortunately for the Israeli bus passengers, the donkey exploded before it reached them and no one was physically injured, although ambulance crews treated a number of people for shock.
Earlier this month, Ingrid Newkirk, president of the American animal rights group PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) wrote to Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat: “Your Excellency, We have received many calls and letters from people shocked at the bombing. If you have the opportunity, will you please add to your burdens my request that you appeal to all those who listen to you to leave the animals out of the conflict?”
She was then asked by the Washington Post whether she would also criticize the attempt by the Palestinian perpetrators to kill Israeli civilians but she said it was not her business to do so. In January 2003 — the month in which the donkey died — 21 Israelis and eight foreign nationals were killed by terrorists in Israel, and 127 others were injured.”
http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/mideastdispatches/archives/000239.html
Here is their “protest letter” to Arafish:
http://www.peta.org/feat/arafat/
you guys are way off point. Its PETA’s job to draw attention to the suffering of animals–that doesn’t imply they don’t care about humans too (thats a non-sequitur in fact). you can’t rally for all causes at the same time, that’s why different groups have different agendas. If black Americans talked about Darfur all day, it would dilute their concerns about treatment of blacks in America. Likewise, PETA doesn’t have to condemn the terrorist component of the above mentioned act for it to be implied that they do in addition to their core concerns about cruelty to animals.
This should serve as a reminder to people to not speak out of ignorance. As one of the students involved in the debate, we were not easily upset, this annoyance mounted after over two hours of intelligent debate revealed how little the PETA members knew of the Black historical events they were exploiting to gain publicity. Our issue was that they cared more about trying to preserve animals then care about the people they were hurting and exploiting in the process. There are two sides to every story, however, we have chosen not to speak to certain sources for obvious reasons. We have actually made many financial efforts and educational attempts around the issues of genocide in Darfur, to bad those attempts of ours haven’t got the same press. Again educate yourself before you make generalized statements.