Sam Fuller Redux

Can a dog be a racist? (And if so, would sensitivity training help?)

Comments

[Steve]

Geez. I wasted 5 minutes reading THAT!?!?!?!?

[Other Steve]

Well, they say you can't teach an old dog new tricks...

[David F]

and would sensitivity training be barking up the wrong tree?

[fyodor]

No wonder Hitler was fond of dogs!!

[Warren]

People with dogs should pay reparations.

[Omnibus Bill]

Some libertarians you guys are!

I believe dogs should be allowed to hate whomever they want to hate. It's a free country.

So get your hands off Rover's body!

Well, except to rub the little bugger behind the ears or on the belly or something.

[Sir Real]

(Yawn)- So the big message is dogs are subject to conditioned response? I'm sure Pavlov is shocked-

Seriously, the only compelling part of that article was the discussion of South African and Jamaican attempts to train dogs to prejudicially attack black people- if only because it has unnerving echoes of Diane Whipple in San Fran (who was not black, but the dogs who killed her were part of the "Dog O War" company run by White Supremacists..

[The Mountain Goat]

Wait a minute... I thought it's okay to discriminate once we are into different species. Aren't we allowed to state that one breed of dog is better than another breed for certain things? One type of fish tastes better than another? I thought we could discriminate all we want, so long as it is another species. (I'll await Peter Singer's rebuttal.)

I bet this dog will sniff any other dog's butt, so I doubt it is a racist. But outside his species, the dog simply shows preference. That's racist? If so, defend your choice of breed of pet!

[Jesse Walker]

Sir Real: Actually, the big message is that I had a bad joke to make about "sensitivity training." Which is, to be fair, nowhere near as bad as some of the jokes on this comments thread. (Not that I blame you guys. I set the tone, so I gotta live with the consequences...)

[JD Weiner]

It's official: the nation is crazy. In the Middle Ages in Europe, animals were often tried, convicted, and executed for crimes. Looks like we're heading right back that way, with this lunatic argument that dogs can be "racist". The whole article is basically garbage, anyway: consider the claim that "[s]ome Jamaican resorts feature dogs that chase blacks off the beach". No names of such resorts, or mention of any articles that detail this phenomenon, or so much as "so my Jamaican friend Bob tells me", just plain unadulterated assertion. And the claim "people of color account for less than 15 percent of all dog owners in this country"? Given that "people of color" (What am I? A colorless person?) account for less than 15 percent of ALL people in this country, why exactly should we be surprised? Like I said, garbage.

I wouldn't deny that dogs can dislike/react agressively towards certain people; I know a woman who owns a dog which doesn't like Black people, which embarrasses her greatly. But I think that the proponents of the "racist" theory think that "dislikes people of color X" == "racist", whereas the intelligent people - excuse me, I mean the opponents of the theory - think that racism is a set of internal beliefs regarding racial superiority/inferiority, which I don't think anyone would argue dogs have.

BTW, I'm also gaping at this comment by the noted professor of veterinary medicine: "[It] might be as subtle as men who smoke cigarettes - which can be hard to pick up on..." Smokers are hard to pick up on?! Hell, I'm a human being and half the time *I* can smell a smoker, and this goofball thinks dogs will have trouble with it?

[Steve]

Hey Goat...you clearly haven't had your sesitivity training lately. "Speciesism" ring a bell? (No, but "Quasimodo" does-sorry...threw the joke in for Jesse.)