ronburgundy
Contributor
So, there is a story making the rounds about a pastor who told a black woman from a maid service that she couldn't clean his home because his dog was racist.
This thread is not about that story in particular, but about the more general idea of dogs displaying aggression towards strangers based upon race. Let's leave whether that counts as true "racism" for the philosophy forum.
There certainly is wide-spread discussion on the internet about this phenomena, most of not political, just dog owners concerned about their dog's behavior with dog trainers seeming to confirm the idea that dogs can display this sort of racial bias in aggression. I've also heard this from a couple different friends who about their dog, one friend was white and the other Hispanic, but both dogs supposedly had issues with black people.
I haven't found any good scientific articles on it yet, so if you find some please link them.
But what are the plausible sources for this racial bias? I can think of 3 obvious ones.
1. Learned it from racist owners. Dogs are highly sensitive to their owners moods and subtle reactions to people. Even an owner that is not ideologically racist but shows tiny reactions of nervousness around people of another race might trigger this response in their dog.
2. Just an instance of dogs being nervous of the unfamiliar. If a dog grew up on around people of the owner's race, maybe they would be more nervous around strangers with less familiar features.
3. Black people being more nervous around dogs and thus triggering the reaction. Non-dog owners tend to be more nervous around dogs. In the US, only 20% of blacks own dogs compared to 45% of whites. That alone could make blacks twice as likely to display typical non-owner nervousness or fear around dogs that would trigger aggression by the dog. Plus, blacks may be more likely to encounter a higher % of dogs that are generally aggressive due to existing in a generally more aggressive environment. There is more street violence and domestic violence in poorer neighborhoods where blacks are more likely to live and work. And there is likely more animal abuse in these areas as well. If many of the dogs your encounter are generally more aggressive due to being in high stress, violent, or abusive environments, then you are likely to be more nervous around dogs, especially one's you don't know.
This thread is not about that story in particular, but about the more general idea of dogs displaying aggression towards strangers based upon race. Let's leave whether that counts as true "racism" for the philosophy forum.
There certainly is wide-spread discussion on the internet about this phenomena, most of not political, just dog owners concerned about their dog's behavior with dog trainers seeming to confirm the idea that dogs can display this sort of racial bias in aggression. I've also heard this from a couple different friends who about their dog, one friend was white and the other Hispanic, but both dogs supposedly had issues with black people.
I haven't found any good scientific articles on it yet, so if you find some please link them.
But what are the plausible sources for this racial bias? I can think of 3 obvious ones.
1. Learned it from racist owners. Dogs are highly sensitive to their owners moods and subtle reactions to people. Even an owner that is not ideologically racist but shows tiny reactions of nervousness around people of another race might trigger this response in their dog.
2. Just an instance of dogs being nervous of the unfamiliar. If a dog grew up on around people of the owner's race, maybe they would be more nervous around strangers with less familiar features.
3. Black people being more nervous around dogs and thus triggering the reaction. Non-dog owners tend to be more nervous around dogs. In the US, only 20% of blacks own dogs compared to 45% of whites. That alone could make blacks twice as likely to display typical non-owner nervousness or fear around dogs that would trigger aggression by the dog. Plus, blacks may be more likely to encounter a higher % of dogs that are generally aggressive due to existing in a generally more aggressive environment. There is more street violence and domestic violence in poorer neighborhoods where blacks are more likely to live and work. And there is likely more animal abuse in these areas as well. If many of the dogs your encounter are generally more aggressive due to being in high stress, violent, or abusive environments, then you are likely to be more nervous around dogs, especially one's you don't know.
