They Still Think We Belong in Barns: A Parable on Racism

The relationship between white people and anti-Black racism is kind of like this:

Imagine one day we discovered that cows could actually speak—and not just speak, but communicate on a level equal to humans. They had dreams, families, culture, history. And they finally said, “Please stop slaughtering us. We don’t want to die anymore.”

At first, no one listened. So the cows revolted. They burned down farms and disrupted the meat industry until the cost of keeping them enslaved was greater than the profit. Eventually, the farmers gave in—not out of morality, but because it was no longer worth the losses.

So the cows were “freed.” They were no longer behind fences, no longer forced into slaughterhouses. They tried to move on—traumatized, but hopeful. But every now and then, a few farmers couldn’t stand the sight of free, happy cows. So they’d snatch one. Kill it. Remind the herd that freedom could still come with a price.

The cows mourned. But they kept going.

Then it started happening more often. The cows realized that “freedom” without safety wasn’t real freedom. So they organized. They protested. They demanded protection, rights, respect. But the farmers resisted. They still saw the cows as property—even fifty years after their so-called freedom.

Eventually, the cows won more rights. They got to own land. Build farms. Create wealth. They began to thrive and even take on leadership roles—locally, nationally, globally.

And for a while, it looked like cows and farmers might finally live as equals.

But even two generations later, there are still descendants of farmers who feel something was taken from them. They don’t see cows as neighbors or equals. They still feel entitled to ownership. In their minds, cows don’t belong in boardrooms or ballots. They belong in barns.

This is our reality. And we are not cows.

We are humans in every sense of the word—just like white people. And yet, they continue to see everyone else as inferior. As property. As things to be conquered, commandeered, and commanded.

If that’s not a mental illness, I don’t know what is.