Dana is the author of “What I’ve Learned By Applying an Antiracist Framework to My Animal Advocacy,” which was published by Sentient Media and included in the new book “Antiracism in Animal Advocacy: Igniting Cultural Transformation.”

Dana joins us here to share more about her work on humane education through a lens of antiracism and interrelated justice, as well as her critically important essay.

You’ve studied and taught humane education, examining “the interconnected systems of oppression at play in human rights, animal protection, and environmental ethics.” Can you explain this for folks who may not be familiar with this topic?

“People often think that humane education is all about teaching young people how to care for companion animals or helping children understand why they should be kind to nonhumans. I think there are many programs that rightly focus on these types of goals. When I entered the field of humane education over ten years ago, though, I was drawn to it based on the idea of comprehensive humane education, which draws connections between issues of animal protection, environmental preservation, and human rights using skills such as critical thinking and systems thinking.

Comprehensive humane education recognizes that the harm and exploitation inflicted on humans, nonhuman animals, and our environment are often caused by underlying and interlocking social structures, cultural norms, and individual biases, which create and sustain benefits for certain groups and actively cause harm and deprivation for other groups—both human and nonhuman.

So, for example, in talking about the food system in the United States, we can consider a range of harmful patterns of use and harm—the abuse of farmed animals, pollution of low-income communities and communities of color, injury and exploitation of food industry workers, and discriminatory practices around who has access to wholesome food. Comprehensive humane education seeks to foster ways of thinking and forms of action that can lead to more just, humane, and sustainable systems that are beneficial to all.”

You have also focused on integrating antiracism into your humane education work. What thoughts can you share with humane educators interested in applying an antiracist lens in their work?

“First, before I answer that question, I’d like to give a little background about why I have focused on antiracism.

As a humane educator, I have been interested in how to educate for greater liberation for everyone, including nonhuman animals. Yet my identity and experiences as a Black woman have profoundly shaped what I do as a humane educator. As I discuss in my essay, my thinking about education is partly rooted in the idea that the liberation of nonhuman animals is tied up with my own.

My thinking has been primarily influenced by the writings of vegans of color such as Aph and Syl Ko. Based on their teachings, I have learned that not only are racism and speciesism interconnected as mentioned earlier, but that the construct of race and white supremacy—the ideology that white people and their ideas, beliefs, and actions are superior to Black, Indigenous, and people of color and their ideas, beliefs, and actions—condemn both minoritized groups of people and nonhuman animals. White supremacy creates a hierarchy based on race and skin color, and equates the idealized human with whiteness. So, both ‘human’ and ‘animal’ are racialized terms, which leads to the creation of what the Ko sisters in their book Aphro-ism call ‘the violence producing category of the animal/subhuman/nonhuman…’

In order to bring an antiracist lens to humane education, I think that humane educators should deepen their own understanding of race and white supremacy and incorporate the broader view of the nature of white supremacy discussed here into their teaching. This might look like helping students and the general public better understand the ideological roots of both human and nonhuman oppression and the concept of the ‘violence producing category’ for beings who are seen and treated as less than.

Humane educators could open up space for people to consider how the racialized hierarchy that exists in the United States has resulted in both the centuries-long violence inflicted upon Black people, for example, and the daily profound suffering forced upon nonhuman animals. Whenever I facilitate conversations with students and others in my humane education work, I routinely encourage them, and myself, to think deeply about how racialized systems of power and privilege have operated to create injustice and to reimagine a world outside of oppressive systems. In my view, this is part of the work of humane education.”

What’s the most important insight you hope readers will take away from your essay?

“I think I would like readers to take away this: In thinking about humane education, consider centering the perspectives, experiences, and ideas of those who locate themselves in ‘the violence producing category’ of the ‘animal/subhuman/nonhuman’ referenced above. From there, as educators—and even as activists—we can explore ways to educate about animal exploitation and abuse as part of an antiracist strategy in solidarity with movements for racial and social justice. For me, humane education is about building a more liberated world for everyone.”

Read Dana McPhall’s essay, “What I’ve Learned By Applying an Antiracist Framework to My Animal Advocacy.”