[MUSIC] People often symbolically connect animals to certain groups of people, especially those on the margins. The term racialization refers to the process by which something comes to have racial meaning within a society. And that meaning isn't neutral, it then justifies mistreatment or exclusion from mainstream society. Almost anything can be racialized, including individual people, groups of people, and places. Aspects of culture can be racialized, including shared history, values, language, and traditions. Individual and collective practices can be racialized, including those involving animals. Animal practices include anything people commonly do with or to animals. Taking dogs for walks on leashes is an animal practice, so is eating meat, eggs, and dairy products. Dog fighting, sport hunting, and sport fishing are animal practices. When certain animal practices are linked with certain racial or ethnic groups, those practices serve to racialize those groups. A practice that is considered legitimate for some groups to engage in might be considered inappropriate when other groups engage in it. This is pretty abstract, so let's consider some examples. But before we get to those examples, let's first examine how animals themselves have been used to racialize. People of color have long been compared to animals or said to behave like animals. The comparison serves to construct them as savage and uncivilized. President Barack Obama was depicted as a chimpanzee in political cartoons, it was intended to dehumanize him. Now you could rightly argue that Obama's predecessor, George W Bush, was also depicted as a chimp, but there's a big difference. Bush was part of the white majority and he was privileged, historically, those in power are not depicted as animals. We do have a history of portraying the less powerful as animals, and in this case as apes or monkeys. These images are used to dehumanize, to construct the person of color as a member of another species, and of one inferior to humans. This then justifies mistreatment and discrimination. To look at an example of an animal practice and racialization we'll use the Mexican equestrian event known as charreada, it's also known as the Mexican rodeo. One of the events in the charreada is horse tripping. A horse gallops around a corral, chased by a cowboy on horseback, known as a charro. The charro's goal is to lasso the horse's front legs as she runs. This trips the horse, sends her tumbling to the ground, landing on her head or neck and often flipping over. The horses are often badly injured and sent to slaughter after the event. The charro's train intensively for this event, which is considered an important part of Mexican history, originating in the Hacienda ranching tradition. Parts of the United States with large Mexican immigrant populations have passed bills outlawing horse tripping. The debates during the crafting and introduction of these bills provide good illustrations of racialization. For instance, in Arizona legislation was introduced that made the deliberate roping of a horse's legs for sport a misdemeanor, punishable by up to 6 months in jail and a $2,000 fine. Exemptions were included for quote, unquote traditional Western or Anglo American rodeo events. The legislator who introduced this bill described horse tripping events as illegitimate in contrast to what she called legitimate Anglo American rodeo. She based this distinction on the assumption that the charros intend to hurt the horses, while Anglo American cowboys who engage in virtually identical practices, more often with calves, purportedly have no such intention. The bill separated the practices of roping, wrestling, and tailing found in Anglo American rodeo. The same practices when engaged in by a minority group were singled out as illegitimate and made illegal, while comparable activities involving the dominant group were considered legitimate. The Mexican charros were demonized as animal abusers who engaged in illegal activity, horse tripping became yet another social problem introduced by Mexican immigrants. Research on the role of animal practices in racialization has examined the live animal markets in San Francisco's Chinatown, the animal sacrificed engaged in by Caribbean immigrants, who practice Santeria, and the Filipino practice of using dogs as food. In each case a double standard targets immigrant practices when the practices engaged in by the majority are comparably cruel. In each case we can see how animal practices racialized those in the minority, not just constructing them as different, but as illegal or immoral.
