Pollan's Argument Against Racism

human beings. King supports Pollan when he argues that speciesism will one day be viewed as harsh as racism because animals are treated differently and don't get to live a normal life like they deserve. Animals have the urge to live a normal life just like us humans, so why should humans take away that right. Pollan discusses how everyone has equal rights when he writes, "’Equality is a moral idea,’ Singer points out, ‘not an assertion of fact.’ The moral idea is that everyone’s interests ought to receive equal consideration, regardless of ‘what abilities they may possess.'" (Pollan 207). Yes, there is a difference between animals and pigs, but that doesn't mean animals like to feel pain, while humans don't. The one interest both animals and
Pigs for example like to run around in mud, while children have a sense of being educated. These are the differences in which it's okay for each specie to do what they want, but morally when it comes to being treated in a different way for example in a harsh way because they are animals is ethically wrong. Same goes for racism. People are only distinguished as different due to skin color, but everybody is the same on the inside, everybody has similar desires. For example, humans don't want to be treated harshly or feel pain whether they are black or white. Everyone should be treated equally because yes there are differences between animals and black people and white people, but at the end of the day none of them want to be treated in a harsh way. That is one thing everyone has in common. King establishes that it's wrong to reach a good outcome using bad ways when he writes, “I have tried to make clear that it is wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends. But now I must affirm that it is just as wrong, or perhaps even more so, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends" (King 175). King emphasizes that blacks deserve the same rights as white people and there shouldn't be laws that go
Animals are species of this earth too and they shouldn't be treated like they are any less than humans. People don't realize what animals go through because animals are tortured and treated harshly behind doors, which is the reason humans don't understand their pain. If people were exposed to how animals get treated and how they get slaughtered they would know that it's wrong because they have rights just like humans do. Pollan emphasizes that equality between animals and humans is important when he writes, "To exclude the chimp from moral consideration simply because he's not human is no different from excluding the slave simply because he's not white" (Pollan 207). Animals are usually not talked about when it comes to equality because they aren't the same as humans, which is wrong because just cause animals are different than humans doesn't necessarily mean their existence or interest is not relevant. A difference in species like humans and animals is as arbitrary as a difference in skin color, which connects to discrimination as King talks about. Racism and speciesism both continue in our modern society and it needs to change. King expresses that segregation is wrong when he writes, "Hence segregation is not only politically, economically, and