 They see me trolling... well, not me personally
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Feb. 17th, 2012 @ 10:45 am 
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So many posts I keep thinking about and not making! I should make some of them.
Wednesday's Daily Show included a piece on PETA's attempt to litigate Sea World orcas into "slave" status. If you're not in Australia (sigh), the video is here.
I find the segment curiously fascinating, for a couple of points.
One, when Wyatt Cenac sets up, and springs, a logical trap on the PETA rep he's interviewing, her expression goes from smug to uncomfortable to shattered speechless. And two, the sense I have that the black professor lady Wyatt interviews - in the Daily Show way of deadpanning through versions of the arguments being made by the people they are showing up as jerks - is a genuine rare instance of someone who could not have had that interview with a white correspondent.
Because the argument is really kind of offensive to black people, and she was a Black Panther.
It's possible my somewhat vague sense of modern US history is in error, here, but I just had the impression that the Black Panthers tapped into some serious rage, back in the day.
I shall summarise/transcript some bits.
PETA filed a lawsuit alleging that the orcas were slaves and should be freed under the Thirteenth Amendment.
Elaine Brown: To compare their condition to this incredible horror of slavery in America is beyond insulting. It's a cruel and racist joke.
Image cuts to photographs and a short bit of video of Elaine Browne in the 60s.
VO (Wyatt Cenac): Elaine Browne spent the 60s fighting for civil rights as a leader of the Black Panther Party. Yet she of all people refuses to get on board the Whale Freedom Train.
Elaine Browne: If there is animal cruelty we want to talk about checking animal cruelty. But animal cruelty does not rise to slavery.
*cut*
Elaine Browne: Part of the slave condition was that blacks were not really human beings -
Wyatt, interrupting: Yeah. Just like whales.
Elaine Browne: Let's not get it twisted.
Wyatt Cenac: But imagine having to do what slaves did, but doing it underwater.
Elaine Browne: I'm gonna let you slide on that one, that's pretty, that's pretty insulting.
Wyatt Cenac: ... Right.
I don't think a non-black person would - or should - be let slide on a line like that.
However, the bit where it gets awesome, because PETA are horrible people, is this bit:
VO, over picture of leaping orca at Sea World: But there was something that even Elaine couldn't deny.
PETA rep.
Wyatt: We need to be more compassionate towards animals.
PETA rep: Exactly.
Wyatt: I mean, it's not like you're just exploiting the history of the enslavement of black people in this country for publicity, right?
PETA rep: wide eyes, speechless
*cut*
PETA rep: You know, we have to be wise with our decisions and what lawsuits to file, and this is a smart one, and, um, we're very hopeful. We need to use every means available to us to represent them.
Wyatt: So you're the Freedom Riders of the whale liberation movement.
PETA: I think that we can consider PETA the Freedom Riders of the whale liberation movement.
Returns to interview with Elaine Browne, who gets a line of deadpanned, "Yeah. I feel her pain." that is *totally awesome*.
There's a bit more, where the PETA rep talks about how this could be the start of more for all animals.
Then Wyatt finds a picture of the PETA rep with her pet dog.
Return to talking to her. Wyatt holds up a copy of the photo.
Wyatt: Can you tell me who this is?
PETA: That's... uh. Well, that's me, and that's my dog.
Wyatt: Your... dog.
PETA: Sophie.
Wyatt: Sophie. Is that her real name, or her slave name?
PETA: That is the name that I gave her. *tight smile*
Wyatt: You're her master.
PETA: I'm her companion.
Wyatt: Why should you be allowed to have a pet?
PETA: Sophie is a domestic animal and needs to be in a home.
Wyatt: She stays in the house, that's not where dogs... go.
PETA rep, looking hunted: Domestic animals... do, if...
Wyatt: So you put her on a leash?
PETA: For her safety I put her on - I put my dog on a leash so that - I can...
Wyatt: So the leash is for her safety.
PETA: For domestic dogs and cats... depending on the individual... their needs are very different.
Wyatt: So orcas are like the field niggers, and dogs and cats are the house niggers.
At this point, the PETA rep's eyes go wider, she shifts in her seat, and she looks somewhere between awkward, deeply ashamed, and deeply terrified.
Thereafter, as Wyatt brings a lawyer to serve a complaint alleging that PETA uses the images of animals without having first obtained their consent or paying them royalties, she just looks sort of beaten.
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| From: | ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png) willow |
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February 17th, 2012 04:08 am (UTC) |
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I saw that earlier and thought it'd just infuriate me, so didn't look. Your transcript had me go take a peek and seriously it's kind of clear that woman hadn't THOUGHT about anything. Though I hadn't expected her to, since 2 yrs ago, PETA dressed up like the KKK to hand out fliers in NYC.
So I am NOT surprised they've gone and taken the bullshit one step further.
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| From: | sami |
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February 17th, 2012 02:02 pm (UTC) |
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inorite
But then, it's PETA, who kill unbelievable numbers of animals they "rescue" because they basically don't adopt any of them out. As has been said, PETA don't really love animals, they just hate humans.
I love that segment, rather, largely because of the total "uh..." expressions she has going as someone actually calls her on their bullshit and also follows the logic through.
And also because Elaine Browne seems seriously kind of awesome, although also kind of terrifying. Like, if she were a professor and I was in her class, I would do all of the primary and secondary readings because I would be petrified of her asking me a question and me not knowing the answer. Because she would, like, frown slightly and raise an eyebrow for a fraction of a second and THEN I WOULD CRY.
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