Lesson Plan

1st: Quiz

2nd: Meditation HERE

3rd: Lesson plan (below)

I. What is Racism?

II. Racism and Speciesism

         -Dolphin asked: What is the difference?

-Whitney: Can it be a choice? Being devoted to helping oppressed people, Does that automatically make her prioritize people over animals? Does it need to be both? Or is it acceptable to devote time to one group over the other?

-Nate: “Speciesism is far more harmful because it can be applied across a range of organisms,”

-Meg: “But why are these comparisons important and what could be the problem with the comparisons?” Racism and Speciesism permanently intertwined.

-L. Panther: Racism and Speciesism are indistinguishable from one another

-Miles: “I think there are objective differences in the mental abilities of humans and other animals which can justify different standards of treatment (unlike the rationale behind racism).” Are the readings relevant to current society?

III. Were the slaves treated like cattle or are the cattle treated like slaves?

-Laurel: “Why should it be immediately insulting to be compared to an animal?

-Mariah: Agrees with above (anecdote), how we can change the stereotype and view it as special and not odd…

-Chris: 2 kinds of suffering (emotional and physical), how do the masters get power? How do they keep it?

IV. Ways to change this/ fix it and why people don’t want to?

-Nate proposed: If everyone would spend one day with an animal that sympathy would be contagious. Is sympathy contagious?

-Also, What do we owe our totem animals in return for what they have done for us?

-Meg: Insight into oppression and how to combat it

-Dana: Will we ever win the battle for animal rights? What are the necessary steps to abolish the murder, consumption and abuse of animals? How is the struggle for animal rights similar to the struggle to end human slavery? Will animals ever be given the chance to be respected as individuals? (How do we know when we have accomplished this task?) What will change people’s minds?

         -Brianne: The current situation cannot continue, but how can it be fixed?

-Sarah W: “Why didn’t more people raise questions about slavery? Didn’t they know it was inherently wrong? She pinpoints the problem as a lack of education, and increased education will reduce the lack of empathy.

-Mariah: Idea of self-empowerment, sticks and stones… Solution to the problemà positive and effective communication, breaking the silence.

V. Racism and correlation to plant and/or meat eaters

VI. Pets

-Eric: focus on dogs, disagreed with Speigel because “not all owners are bad owners just like not all parents are bad parents. She leaves out the possibility of positive reinforcement. We created them so it is our job to take care of them, it would be cruel to release them in the wild to defend themselves.

In Class:

Problems in current society:

Ways to fix it:

Why some don’t want to: