Ignorance is Bliss

In the Book of Negroes seminars, we discussed the slave trade and how this now seemingly horrendous industry was so common. Was everyone who owned a slave immoral nearing the point of inhuman? How could these people not see the suffering they were inflicting on other humans? How could they have not put themselves in these peoples’ shoes at least once?

They didn’t, because it was convenient not to.

Following society was much easier than going against it. It is more convenient to not think of these peoples’ personalities, families or pasts- to not think of them as any more than animals or machines. Reading this novel in a generally egalitarian society, we are angered to think that people were ever treated this way.

In America, owning a slave was inexpensive; farms and plantations used them because it was the cheapest way to run their industries. Looking back many of us think that the money saved isn’t worth the cruelty put on slaves, yet we are still ignorantly living in that same mindset the farmers or plantation owners did hundreds of years ago.

Almost every female in North America has at one point purchased something from Victoria’s Secret. In 2008, it was reported that Victoria’s Secret uses child labour in Burkina Faso, Africa to produce their cotton. Hundreds to thousands of children labour long hours in blistering conditions. They are even beaten with sticks if they do not labour fast enough. This sounds pretty familiar, doesn’t it?

This information is only a google search away. There really isn’t any excuse to purchase these items, yet we still do. It is more convenient to be ignorant to the cruelty involved in purchasing an item- or the cruelty involved in harvesting a crop- than to spend the extra money that ensures that the item or the crop is manufactured without cruelty.

Same goes for KFC. Many can agree that KFC is delicious and cheap, yet little people consider the cruelty involved in that process as well. The chickens are treated worse than animals. They fester in their own filth in stacked cages the size of a sheet of paper; this isn’t even enough room to spread their wings. Could you imagine living your whole life lying in feces with your arms clipped to your sides? Not only do they not have the room to stand up, they also physically can’t because they are stuffed so full of growth-inducing drugs that the bones in their legs cannot withstand the weight of their bodies. In the slaughterhouse, still conscious chickens are thrown into scalding water- they are literally boiled to death.

KFC is also careless with whom they choose to employ as factory workers. Videos have been released of factory workers sadistically throwing chickens against walls and stepping on them. Among these are other offenses that I can’t even bring myself to type because they are so wretched. Supervisors have also made appearances in these videos- doing nothing.

So why are we still buying from these companies that have been publicized for cruelty? Because we would rather spend $19.99 on a bucket of tortured chicken, than $39.99 on a bucket of free-range chicken. We would rather own a cheap bra than fork out the extra cash to ensure that the cotton in our lingerie is harvested ethically. 

We live in a time when information is available when we choose to open our eyes. We can no longer plead ignorance to the cruelty that is inflicted on others, yet we look back on slavery and wonder how these slave owners could have been so cruel. We, the consumer, have inflicted intolerable cruelty on countless animals and humans, and are every bit as guilty as the slave owners hundreds of years ago.

Note: More information and a petition against KFC cruelty can be found here on a PETA sponsoured site.