You underestimate how far racists are able to go. I always interpreted that story as the discussion between two public officials that are withholding a sensati

You underestimate how far racists are able to go. I always interpreted that story as the discussion between two public officials that are withholding a sensational curiosity or even the scientific discovery of this galactic cycle from the galactic public. Just because of their own prejudices even though they are supposed to welcome any kind of sentience into the galactic community. "Meat" in this story seems to be some kind of slur to me. Why aren't they using a more generic and neutral term like "organic" instead? I wonder if those two have evolved from organic lifeforms which are for whatever reasons remembered badly in the civilization those two protagonists are from.