Lakitha Tolbert
1 min readNov 29, 2024

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I don't think this is a parody account! I think what you're saying is truthful and necessary. Perhaps if we changed our behavior and thinking about animals we might start thinking differently of human beings, after all dehumanization, and reducing other human beings to the level of animals, is what makes it possible to enslave, exploit, and slaughter other human beings without guilt.

Traditionally, in the US, human treatment has mirrored the treatment of other animals. Black women were treated not all that differently from cattle, forced to give milk to babies that weren't theirs, forced to breed more slaves, and forced labor. Black men have been slaughtered throughout the entire history of the US, simply for existing, thanks to dehumanizing rhetoric designed to describe them as "animals" who are a threat to white women!

Another of the ways humans get treated like cows, pigs, and chickens is by first reducing them to the level of these animals (usually through violent rhetoric) before slaughtering them. We can see this happening in real time with Black and Brown immigrants, with politicians referring to them as diseases and vermin, which is a time honored power trope seemingly as old as politics. British people did this on every country they colonized from Asia to Africa, which made it easier to kill those people, when it was convenient to their agenda.

You are on the right track here and make some salient points. Out treatment of human being mirrors our treatment of animals. Let no one tell you otherwise just because they're ignorant of that past.

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Lakitha Tolbert
Lakitha Tolbert

Written by Lakitha Tolbert

(She/Her) Busybody librarian from Ohio.

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