Can Dogs be Racist?

Abstract: Can dogs be racist? Posing this question may seem odd and at worst, unhelpfully provocative at a time when the discourse of ‘colour-blindness’ is so pervasive. Yet the idea of ‘racist dogs’ remains salient within the post-settler societies of eastern and southern Africa, where dogs have been an integral if overlooked tool of colonial practices of racialization. This article traces the colonial demarcation of ‘native dogs’ – juxtaposed to white settlers’ ‘pet’ dogs – to understand how racial categories were imposed on domesticated animals, and how these racialized animals were then colonized through rabies legislation. 

Although the formal racialization of dogs ended with the dawn of political decolonization in the early 1960s, dogs continued to be co-opted for postcolonial racial discourse. Dogs were in a prominent position in postcolonial society due to their prevalence in the security arrangements of white homes as well as in the security forces of white supremacist Rhodesia and apartheid South Africa. The intensity of the relationship between white minorities, their canine pets and the surrounding African population points toward the uncomfortable conclusion that in the heightened racial environments of decolonizing settler Africa, dogs could be made to be racist. (Doble, 2020)

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- Doble, J. (2020). Can Dogs be Racist? The Colonial Legacies of Racialized Dogs in Keny and Zambia. History Workshop Journal, 89, 68-89.
- photograph by Elliott Erwitt (Magnum) via

Men vs Women Adopting Dogs

According to an analysis of dog adoption in the Czech Republic (2010-2016), there are significant gender differences concerning adopters: Generally speaking, more women than men adopt dogs. Women adopt more small dogs, men more large dogs, women adopt more older dogs (and dogs requring special care) and more brown dogs while men adopt more black dogs

- Vodičková, B., Večerek, V. & Voslářová, E. (2019). The effect of adopter's gender on shelter dog selection preferences, link
- photograph by Elliott Erwitt via

Listening to Music while Driving

Listening to music while driving has an impact on men and women. In a study, female drivers reported "higher levels of perceived driver caution" and to be more aware of the experimental music background. Brodsky (2015), the author, notes that: "However, the most important difference between the genders relates to driving deficiencies. Namely, male drivers were involved in significantly more events at significantly greater severities in every driving condition". Here some details...



... condition no music:
event frequency: female - 8 (M), male - 12 (M)
event severity: female- 113 (M), male - 190 (M)
... condition preferred music:
event frequency: female - 10 (M), male - 13 (M)
event severity: female 150 (M), male - 216 (M)

This paper draws on a visceral approach to explore the role of sound/music for people who drive cars. We examine the ways in which gendered subjectivities emerge from the pleasures associated with listening to sound/music during short car trips. The first part of the paper reviews the recent literature on ‘feelings for cars’. We highlight why gender is often absent from the literature before offering a conceptual lens drawing on geographical feminist thinking to consider sound/music, feelings, gender and mobility. We draw on driving ethnographies to explore the role of sound/music in how gender is assembled with the flow of connections between bodies, spaces and affects/emotions. Considering the contextual pleasures of listening to sound/music on these trips and emergent gender subjectivities we provide a more nuanced interpretation of why people choose to drive cars. To conclude, we point to the implications for applied research for new context-specific transport and climate change policy.
Waitt, Harada & Duffy (2015)

- Selection of my Cinquecento Music List:

::: Mando Diao: Dance with Somebody: LISTEN/WATCH
::: Starbuck: Moonlight Feels Right: LISTEN/WATCH
::: Gnarls Barkley: Crazy: LISTEN/WATCH
::: Daft Punk: Lose Yourself to Dance: LISTEN/WATCH
::: Elvis: A Little Less Conversation: LISTEN/WATCH
::: The Buggles: Video Killed the Radio Star: LISTEN/WATCH
::: ABBA: Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!: LISTEN/WATCH
::: Boney M: Ma Baker: LISTEN/WATCH
::: Donna Summer: I Feel Love: LISTEN/WATCH
::: KISS: I Was Made For Lovin' You: LISTEN/WATCH
::: Daft Punk: Around the World: LISTEN/WATCH

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- Brodsky, W. (2015). Driving With Music: Cognitive-Behavioural Implications. Farnham & Burlington: Ashgate.
- photograph by Elliott Erwitt (1955) via

"If you have too much education, your mind's stimulated too much."

"Toni, why don't you think that education's a good thing for married women?"
"Well, I think too much higher education makes them very unhappy and very frustrated."
"Oh, why unhappy?"
"Well, there they are at home, cooking meals, running a house."
"Oh, but still you get a certain amount of satisfaction out of that.(...)"
"You should be contented to stay home. If you have too much education, your mind's stimulated too much, you're not happy to stay home all time."



"I really enjoyed it (education)."
"But what about the average woman who has been to university? She marries, and has children, and she stays home, or she should stay home. She'd be happier if she stayed home probably."
"Well, supposing you start having babies when you're 20 and you're free by the time you're 45?"
"Well, then you can do a university course then."
"Oh, you wouldn't be bothered when you were that age!"
"Well, then doesn't that just show how useless it is?"



- photograph via, description (via BackintheUSA on g+) "New Rochelle, NY, 1955 A nice domestic scene with his wife and kids. Erwitt's son Misha interviewed him about this photo: Misha: You took a photograph in 1955 of our mother cooking dinner, her back to the camera. She has Ellen, who’s crying, in one arm and she’s reaching into the oven with the other. I 'm sitting behind them in a high chair and there’s another kid standing, watching."
- text from the clip "Is education a waste of time for married women?", ABC News, 1961

Look under your feet

"We know the force of gravity, but not its origins; and to explain why we become attached to our birthplaces we pretend that we are trees and speak of roots. Look under your feet. You will not find gnarled growths sprouting through the soles. Roots, I sometimes think, are a conservative myth, designed to keep us in our places."
Salman Rushdie



photograph by Elliott Erwitt via

Once upon a time...

"Historically, older people were valued and respected members of society across cultures for their vast knowledge of the culture (...). Scholars have noted a contemporary shift toward a general devaluing of older persons in modern societies, especially in Western cultures."
Levy & Macdonald (2016:18)



- Levy, S. R. & Macdonald, J. L. (2016). Progress on Understanding Ageism. Journal of Social Issues, 72(1), 5-25.
- photograph by Elliott Erwitt (Ireland, 1962) via

Food as a Cultural Marker

Eating is not just a biological practice (Claxton). It is a cultural practice and as such reflects our personal and social identity (Cornejo Happel, 2012). Food plays a central role in the construction of both identities and stereotypes. In fact, stereotypes based on food are effective ways of disparaging others (Leizaola, 2006) as for instance ethnic slurs based on food illustrate: kraut, spaghettis, macaroni eaters, eskimo, frogs, roast-beefs, hamburgers, baguette-heads, the watermelon stereotype...

 

Positive food stereotypes are sometimes actively reinforced in order to meet e.g. tourists' expectations (Leizaola, 2006). Negative views are often expressed through food taboos: Those who respect the taboos are better than the others - better than the "Barbarians".
In other words, food demonstrates ethnicity and ethnocentrism through emotions ranging from contempt to disgust (De Garine, 2001). Food can be a highly emotive issue, indeed. Dog eating, for instance, is mainly criticised by Western societies, some calling for a total ban. This criticism provokes reactions as food is seen as part of culture and the criticism is regarded as one referring to a cultural practice. In South Korea, one of the few countries where dog eating is practiced, many people seem to be against banning dog meat (the study/survey referred to the dog species that was bred for this purpose only and not to any other practices). At the same time, many South Koreans do not seem to approve dog eating either and only eat dog meat twice or three times a year. Defending food seems to be defending identity (Podberscek, 2009).

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- Claxton, M. (n.y.) Culture, Food, and Identity.via
- Cornejo Happel, C. A. (2012) You are what you eat: Food as expression of social identity and intergroup relations in the colonial Andes, Cincinnati Romance Review, 33, 175-193
- De Graine, I. (2001) Views about food prejudice and stereotypes. Anthropology of food. Social Science Information, 40(3), 487-507
- Leizaola, A. (2006) Matching national stereotypes? Eating and drinking in the Basque borderland. Anthropological Notebooks 12(1), 79-94
- Podbersczek, A. L. (2009) Good to Pet and Eat: The Keeping and Consuming of Dogs and Cats in South Korea. Journal of Social Issues, 65(3), 615-632
- photograp by Elliott Erwitt via