"My Dog is Racist"

I've begun taking my dog Samson for walks and it's been a fantastic way to meet other dogs and dog owners. I met a gay couple and their Yorkie who spoke of their dog and them selves in the first, second and third person. Their dog was precious in a way that made me want sqeeze it to see if it pooped cotton candy. It didn't. I met a straight girl who warned me to keep away from her Lilo & Stich looking pooch because, "He's a biter," she said as she made a clawed grab at my face. Woof.
"One night he bit my nose and I gushed blood all over my pillow. I needed stiches. It was very bad of him, wasn't? Wasn't it?"
She said this to the dog and he stared intently at her, as if he imagined her head a pork chop enticing him to take a nibble. He was a rescue dog but it seemed she'd benefit from a rescue as well. I've also met several pugs -- there's one name Louie whose owner didn't get my sarcasm when I responded that I gave my dog Quaaludes when she commented how calm he was.
Generally my dog walking excursions have been lovely. It's a pretty simple formula: Walk cute dog, meet many people. Recently, though, these excursions have taken a much darker tone. I met the town drunk, a "professional dog walker" who's rumored to tie each dog to various doors in his apartment while he goes and gets hammered at PJ O'Shitteries. He gave me some dog training advice that sounded vaguely like, "Dfawgs, dfawgs...slippers and rotten kotex assumption." Which I took as a warning. I met an older Filipino gent who, after mooning over my dog, grabbed my shoulder and said, "You work out, you need massage, I do massage in my apartment, free." He love me long time. I also met a dog owner who told me in a hushed tone that her dog was a racist. Really? A racist dog?
"My dog doesn't like black dogs." I knew where this was going.
"Oh." That's me, increduosly.
"Or...." looks around and whispers,"...black people."
This was an older German woman, with a thick German accent --just the right age to remember first hand a certain kind of intolerance popular circa WWII.
"I couldn't get him groomed because the groomer was black."
"Really?" Me again. I don't believe this. But I don't challenge it either. I'm too concerned with being polite than challenging her. I could have just said, "Well my dog doesn't like racists," and walked away.
Instead I imagined this woman five years earlier in a KKK hood placing a smaller hood over her puppy. I imagined her dog in his little matching hood dancing around a cross and practicing his new trick --woofing "white power." I go to the surreal when I should be angry. It's not working anymore.
We parted ways and I realized how profoundly stupid her statement was. Did she actually believe her dog was racist from his own free will? Dogs absorb so much -- I see it with my 4 month old puppy every day. When I'm sad, he's sad. When I'm elated, he is too. When I create a profile called DONKYHUNGXLG to stalk my ex on a website he's not even on, my dog is ashamed for and with me. And so I imagined my older German friend transmitting her own fear of black people straight to her young puppy, a telegraph of specific stranger anxiety that lasted until this day.
So far my puppy isn't afraid of any specific type of person. But I'm not sure I am either. Although I did almost cry a little the first time I saw a middle eastern woman in a full birka. She was driving down the road coming toward me in a black SUV. All I saw were her eyes. She looked liked a slightly crazed female Darth Vader and I almost crashed my car into a busload of children. Okay, women in birkas on an imaginary jihad scare me.
As for my dog, I am certain he fears two things -- the trash compactor and a cardboard cat in my hallway that he either thinks is real or recalls the bang it made when I accidentally kicked it over when I first brought him into the house when he was 12 weeks old. He'd never seen a cat before and so I've theorized that it's tied to his fear response of loud unfamiliar noises.
The next time this issue of racist dogs comes up, and I'm sure it will -- it's happened twice already -- I'll turn it around a bit. I'll ask flat out about how the owner feels about; black people, Mexicans, gays, meter maids or who ever is being maligned. Because I can't contain the stupidity anymore. And can't collude with it either. My silence gives permission and surely there's some crime in that as well. Remember, it's not the dog who's afraid, it's the owner, unless of course, the offending person raped or mugged the dog. If the said person is a dog rapist, then the dogs fear is understandable. Although, if your dog is getting raped by anybody other than you, there's a bigger problem at hand here.