MAN'S BEST FRIEND, OR A RACIST ENEMY? – OVERNIGHT:   I knew it.  Finally, university researchers have confirmed what I've always suspected, that racism starts with the person-pet relationship.  It was whispered, but now it can be spoken.  When you're told how to care for a cocker spaniel, that is racism itself.  From College Fix: 

The term “responsible pet ownership” has its roots in “racism, classism, and the White dominant culture.”

That is according to researchers with the University of Denver’s Institute for Human-Animal Connection, who argued that some animal control policies perpetuate racial and income inequities in the United States.

“Punishment to Support: The Need to Align Animal Control Enforcement with the Human Social Justice Movement” was co-authored by scholars at the institute who posited that animal control enforcement and punishment disproportionately hurt people of color and low-income communities.

The authors, led by Kevin Nolan Morris, University of Denver research professor and American Humane endowed chair, stressed the influence of racial biases on the problem.

Not only driven by “racism, classism, and the White dominant culture,” the legal concept of “responsible pet ownership” is also “largely unobtainable for anyone in the U.S. other than white, middle, and upper-class individuals, their paper argued. This includes animal welfare practices such as “providing shelter, behavioral training or veterinary care.”

The authors also said that animal control policies can reinforce structural or racial inequities. They cite rabies vaccination requirements, anti-tethering laws, monitoring of “at-risk” animals, regulations for adequate care of animals, and investigations of cruelty, abuse and neglect, among other practices.
Central to the scholars’ argument is the belief that systemic racism is rooted within the animal welfare and adoption systems.

“Previous studies have refuted the assertion that animal cruelty laws are uniquely exempt from the racism that is pervasive throughout other areas of U.S. criminal law,” the scholars stated.
In total, “inherent” and “implicit biases” are referenced nine times throughout the paper.

COMMENT:  What can one say?  So, caring properly for a pet is a reflection of white supremacy?  What an absolute insult to racial minorities.  But you may be sure that the authors of this "report" will get speaking invitations and TV appearances, just to discuss their profound observations.  And the country will instantly get more dumb.

July 1, 2021