I haven’t had a dog since just before my daughter was orn 14 eyars ago…he was a wonderful, mellow creture who didn;t get into fights and mostly barked when the raccoons were trying to get into the house.

I live in a multi-ethnic menighborhood that was historically working- to middle-class African AMerican, and it would be both inconvenient and totally offensive to my neighbors, a good half of whom are African American, Asian American, or Latino, if I had a dog who targeted black or brown people as “enemies.”

but then I have done my best to learn survival skills in oth urban and rural settings for getting along with people and for keeping myself safe without resorting to weappns or paranoia. and in working on the racism that i think all of us have grown up with and, sadly, internalized to some extent.

now in all honesty, there have been problems in this neighborhood; I had some old theives who were walking into my hose or entering through an )unlocked) bathroom window a few years back, and I would have been very grateful fo even a smallish dog to bark and alert me and/or scare them off. (I have cats and turtles and a tortoise, all of whom are good company but none of whom are helpful as door alarms.) after a relatively quiet spate of no robbery, I got up last Tuesday to discover that someone had stolen the battern from my car, during a week when i could ill afford it.

I work as a su teacher in the pubilc schools in a largely impoverished area. I am around viokence, or teh potential for vilence, all the time, or so it seems. I don;t feel being racist and projecting that value onto a dog, who has no ocncept of race or rqacism, jsut of what demands a defensive response and what doesn;t, is the answer.

the thing about dog ownership is that YOU are the alpha dog for the pack into which your dog belongs. YOU have the respnsiility to say how it is ging to be, and to seek professional help if your dog has dangerous or socially disruptive habits.

how would you handle it if you got sued when your dog bit a Black person? how about if you were close friends with someone of another ethnicity, and tour dog attacked that person? or are you sure that none of your friends wuld fall under this rubric? if so, what does that say about you and your values?

saying that “I know my dog is ‘racist’ and I though it was helpful in keeping my famuly safe.” is not an acceptable defense, I’m pretty sure though I’m not a lawyer. and if I were Black and had to deal with your dog barking at me as if he wanted to kill me eveery time I walked by, i’m probably file a complaint if you didn’t get a dog trainer to cool the animal out, FAST.

a potentially vicious dog is a loaded gun, and a weapon that targets people of specific ethnicities. to my thinking, this is just not ethincally acceptable. your dog isn’t, but he is poorly trained and a liability.

I apologize for coming off a bit heavy on this; I came back to this site because I was so pleased to read of a younger woman seeking the Farm Midwifery Services for an out of hospital birth, and I was totally shocked to find this thread about “isn’t being racist acceptable to protect your family?” no, it isn;t. and one thing I can say for the Farm (I have had reltives and friends who were memebrs and know them well) is that though most residents including the midwives were and are Caucasian, they are truly committed to promoting a non-racist, society for all.

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We lock our doors when we’re home. All the time. We have a HUGE (special order) peep-hole in the front door and a No Soliciting sign. If the door bell rings and Mr Hyphen isn’t home to get the door, I know that UPS and the mail carrier just put the stuff on the step and leave, so I don’t answer it. Anybody else must be in my vision of the peep hole and has to put up with my dog barking and going crazy. He’s my hero.

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As for the door answering I don’t answer it home alone unless I am expecting something and I never open it all the way I just kinda peep my head out. Doors always locked all the time, balcony sliding glass door locked, windows have an extra lock on all of them, and door is always locked with both locks… a bit much maybe but makes me feel safe.