Over the course of the last two centuries, the American slaughterhouse has been carefully designed to function as a site of legal exception, where violence against both animals and workers—many of whom are immigrants and people of color—is hidden from the public’s gaze, while being rendered licit.
In today's episode of Interactions, we hear from Ph.D. candidate Joanna Smith of UNC Chapel Hill as she examines how slaughterhouses function much like a sacred spaces. They are hidden from sight. They maintain exceptional status to the law. And they are a place where violence against both animals and workers proliferates--a violence that now includes the spread of COVID-19.
The changes made by the U.S. government that allowed slaughterhouses to both stay open during outbreaks and to opt out of health guidelines are just one example of slaughterhouses being an exception to the rule. But it's an exception that has had deadly consequences. To date, thousands of slaughterhouse workers have contracted COVID-19. Over two hundred have died.
Read the original article here.
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