My Dog is Not A racist, But the Dog on the 4th Floor?
August 6, 2009 10 Comments
I’d like to think I’ve heard and seen it all. Hermaphrodites. Ganguro girls. Washing your hands after you use a public bathroom, y’know- unusual occurrences.
But no, I had the most unusual and underlying racist conversation with a white lady in my building’s laundry room:
Lady: your dog is just great Tee, so well behaved and friendly
Tee: Why thank you
Lady: There is also the big dog on the 4th floor; he’s very friendly too. I was up there visiting and he was just a pleasure.
Tee: Wonderful [picks up laundry basket ready to split]
Lady: But y’know, they also have the smaller dog and he’s well…he’s friendly to me but the maintenance guy [whispers] who happens to be black, was up there fixing something and the dog wouldn’t stop barking. But when I come in, he was fine. I wonder if it was his color.
Tee: A racist dog? Interesting.
Lady: [chuckles] well he’s not like that around me
I wanted to punch her in the mouth for saying something so stupid. But then I started to think and my curiosity let me to ultimately google whether or not a dog can be considered racist. I came across an interesting article that not only backed up the fact that a dog can be racist, but implied that a dog can be socially programmed as young as 3-12 weeks old to dislike certain groups of people. Sound familiar? Humans are pretty much the same way racism is a learned behaviour. You don’t come out of the womb wanting to call someone a porch monkey-it simply does not work that way.
At first I thought the concept of a racist dog was impossible because it is a known fact that dogs see in black and white and I found it hard to grasp the concept that an animal with limited vision could be trained to see and attack based on appearance. What about that other sense? The sense of smell. A dog’s sense of smell is much more powerful, than sight. Different types of cuisine and/or cultural hygiene practices can help a dog differentiate between cultural groups.
All in all, I commend the author of this article. Here are some snippets:
Dr. Nicholas Dodman, a professor at Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine and author of several books on animal behavior, most recently If Only They Could Speak. “Any behavioralist knows that dogs don’t like subsets of people,” he says, and though the most common subsets are broad—strange men or little children—”sometimes it can be quite specific. It could be tall men, or men with beards. It might be men who are wearing big shoes, might be as subtle as men who smoke cigarettes—which can be hard to pick up on—but it can also be black guys.”
Dogs can be trained to discriminate. Some Jamaican resorts feature dogs that chase blacks off the beach while leaving white frat boys to fry like bacon. South Africa’s apartheid government bred “Boerbuls” by crossing Rottweilers, Dobermans, bloodhounds, German shepherds, and even wolves to create very aggressive dogs for its security services. In the 1980s, the Herstigte Nasionale Party advertised such animals as “racist watchdogs” created “especially for South African circumstances.” In his 1982 film White Dog, director Sam Fuller explores the socialization of racism by having a black man attempt to retrain a dog taught to kill blacks—a so-called white dog—only to have the dog attack whites instead. Paramount found the film disturbing enough to block its release for more than a decade.
According to a national Purina poll, people of color account for less than 15 percent of all dog owners in this country. Historically, dogs have been used to suppress blacks, and those who now live in inner-city neighborhoods must contend with the Rotts and pits gangbangers use to instill “respect.” Unfamiliarity fortified by bad experiences could generate a disproportionate number of fearful responses.
Read the rest of the article here.
I find the 2nd passage from the article to be interesting because when I’m out walking the dog I find that I am constantly getting dirty looks from other black people. I’m also asked stupid questions like “ what is a small girl like you doing with a big dog?” To which I would like to respond: “Respect my gangster. Thanks.”
Now it all makes sense, even I was at one point terrified of dogs. In fact my dog was an unpleasant surprise, I found him sitting at the foot of my bed one morning. My ex decided to go against my wishes and buy him- best decision ever.
Racist dogs, piles of dog poop or does this concept have legitimacy?
Have you encountered any racist dogs?
I’m not racist I hate everyone equally,
Tee’d Off
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I keep tryna tell folks that there is no such thing as a “Dumb Animal”. Just like us, they know what they are TRAINED to know. If they’re trained to be assholes, they WILL be.
I think dogs can be unfriendly or aggressive towards a group of people that they’re either just unfamiliar with for lack of never interacting with them or because they’ve been specifically trained to be that way. I’ve had Black male friends of mine tell me about experiences where dogs were just flat out unfriendly with them for no reason.
I’m a Black female, & I’ve never personally experienced it, but I have no problem believing it’s a possibility.
Matter of fact, on The Family Guy, Brian, the talking family dog, has an ongoing problem with Black men, whenever he’s around them, he barks uncontrollably. Then he apologizes & berates himself for being prejudiced,etc., it’s funny. But there has to be some truth in there somewhere, you know, for a major network show to put that in there.
Hey Flygyrl72!
“Matter of fact, on The Family Guy, Brian, the talking family dog, has an ongoing problem with Black men, whenever he’s around them, he barks uncontrollably. Then he apologizes & berates himself for being prejudiced,etc., it’s funny. But there has to be some truth in there somewhere, you know, for a major network show to put that in there.”
Never picked that up before and I’m a family guy fan.
There def has to be some truth in it.
Interesting post.
And it’s for this very reason that *I* discriminate against ALL dogs equally. lol
Wow. I never thought about this. When I read the title, I thought ok, some ignorant white person said something out the side of their neck. lol But I guess it makes sense. But I can’t imagine (and maybe i’m a bit naive) that your average dog owner who, maybe lives in an apartment complex, or even a friendly neighborhood, for that matter, would train its dog to dislike certain types of people. How do you begin to program him/her for that? Maybe it’s all about the trainer (i.e, what nationality he is, and if he uses dummies with particular scents, or photos of different people)… I guess I’ll have to read up on this some more, but definitely interesting…
yea I cant imagine how that training session would take place myself lol
maybe they train the dog to attack anyone who be smelling like coca butter..who knows.
I’m not sure if the article mentions this but dogs sense your energy so if a person is anxious towards a certain group of people ..so will your dog be anxious..and then they learn to distinguish btw race..they can also act up if they sense you dont like them…it depends on the dog..my dog just barks at racoons..everyone else he’s cool with
I was in Jr. High the first time I heard of a ‘racist dog’. Two White guys in my class had a part and invited a bunch of people. I heard them and their Black friend who was at the party talking about how funny it was that their dog only barked at *Marcus (Black guy). All night this dog barked and growled only at Marcus, the only Black person present. I dunno if the dog is ‘racist’ but something doesn’t sit right. Lol.
WTF…can you say tension??!!
It’s hard enough the only black anywhere but then you gotta top it off by ducking from fido all night?? lol
Now you know I’ve told people about those racist German Shepherds on more than one occasion.
LOL
interesting thing about german sheppards they dont get along w pit bulls (which is what i have) they are straight bullies and its like they dont have passion that your avg. rotweiler or other big dog breed would have..I’ll come out and say it ..they are bred to be racist…I’ll stick w my “black dog” my pittie (notice how mainstream always tryna target and disregard as a dangerous breed) a big suck but a fighter lol..WHERE MY DOGS AT!!???