PeTA Puts Offensive Signage On Border Fence
Yours truly was quoted in Feministing.com's community posting about PeTA's new marketing campaign targeting Mexican immigrants at the border. The proposed signage would read, in English & Spanish, "If the Border Patrol Doesn't Get You, the Chicken and Burgers Will. Go Vegan!"
I support animal rights and protection, and I totally agree that the factory farm system is a vile, cruel machine that poisons our bodies with impure products attained by unethical means, and is driven by the bottom line with no regard for the fact that its products are meant to be consumed for nutrition and sustenance by FELLOW HUMAN BEINGS. I have never disagreed with PeTA on this front, and applaud their undercover work and other efforts to expose the abuses and disregard for safety standards in the factory farm setting.
However....
This signage is ethnically insensitive and highly offensive, plain and simple.
"If the Border Patrol doesn't get you, the food will?" Really, PeTA? What brilliant firecracker team of middle class white marketing people came up with this one over soy lattes? Because they need to take this one back to the drawing board.
When a reasonable person takes a step back to examine the wording of the ads and takes into account the location and the socioeconomic standing of the target audience, the true essence of the message PeTA is sending these people who are risking life and limb to cross into this country to seek work to better their situations is one that is inherently racist, classist, and reads like a cheap unfunny joke at the expense of the audience. It smacks of the smug flippancy afforded to those with privilege who assume they know what's best for others.
Individuals attempting to make the crossing are already terrified undertaking the long and often dangerous journey. It is doubtful that they've forgotten for one second that the Migra is on the lookout for them, nor are they unaware that they will likely be doing agricultural work under grueling conditions because as undocumented workers, they will have to take what they can get to feed themselves and their families. The wording of these signs is flip and almost taunting when you consider the hardship and the perspective of the people to whom these ads are targeted. If it's meant to be tongue in cheek or funny, I don't think anyone trying to cross the border would agree.
As a vegetarian Latina with some EMPATHY and some COMMON SENSE, PeTA will be winning no hearts and no minds on the border with this one. But some people who aren't in this situation, who enjoy all the freedom and privileges of being American, think this is a great idea. Way to have your head stuck up your ass, guys! Why don't you get off your spoiled asses and take a trip to México OUTSIDE of the resort towns in Cancún and see how most of the rest of the world truly lives before you go trying to assume you know what's best for all the poor downtrodden brownpeople of the world?
Does PeTA or its members have no sense or shame? Who do they think picks of all the fresh veggies in this country??? MIGRANT WORKERS.
How about advocating some rights for the Mexican migrants and their families, who move constantly and can’t educate their children, who have limited access to healthcare, who are exploited and abused by employers without any recourse working in the factory farms? Their lack of training, rights, and fair wages contributes to the overall cruelty of these institutions. If PeTA and its supporters really care about promoting ethical treatment of animals and providing a cruelty free and safe food source, the same concern should extend to the humans suffering within the factory farm system.
A so-called "ethical" organization should not engage in careless, insensitive marketing for the sake of shock value to gain attention, because it detracts from the mission of the organization and cheapens the message.
The lack of accountability and common sense consistently displayed by PeTA's marketing campaigns (including the ones that display & objectify naked women whose bodies fit the "ideal" like they're selling designer jeans and not an animal product free diet) is disgusting.
Their tactics are as deplorably cheap and common as any other business organization's, and does vegetarians and vegans everywhere a disservice by giving us the appearance of being as crazy and self absorbed as these fools in PeTA's Marketing division.
FOOD IS A SOCIAL/ECONOMIC JUSTICE ISSUE. All justice issues are interconnected, which means labor rights, feminism, animal rights, immigration reform, poverty, environmental protection, healthcare reform, and food safety/health/availability are all part of the same overall mission to make the world a more reasonable place to exist. PeTA's willingness to happily exploit the female form and minorities to promote their individual mission is sickening, hypocritical, and just fucking lame.
No wonder the general public thinks you're all wackjobs!
