I wouldn’t shoot the dog. *****Not because I value the dog’s life***** more than a person’s, but because I’d be afraid I’d hit the person instead of the dog. When they are up close as in that civil rights demo, I could take perfect aim & before I squeezed the trigger they would have moved just enough for me to hit the man rather than the dog.

I might get one of those firehoses & aim it at the dog. I know firehoses are also problematic where racial issues are concerned, but I’d try very hard to make sure the dog got the worst of it. Better a less than optimal aim with the water than with a bullet.

I see proof of that valuing dogs over black people in the media. When a dog is viciously attacked & abused by a person, readers go wild with anger. So do cops! However, a black person viciously attacked & abused by a cop…there will be a lot of outrage, but nowhere near the outrage expressed in the abused dog scenario, and it would be disproportionally distributed between black & white.

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Georgia NeSmith

Retired professor, feminist, writer, photographer, activist, grandmother of 5, overall Wise Woman. Phd UIA School of Journalism & Mass Communication, 1994.