In a recent link shared on social media I found out that I am racist for owning a dog.
The author’s premise is that White Europeans stole the dogs that had been domesticated in Eurasia over 12,500 years ago. Providing this fact of the supposed heinous act is all the author needs to declare:
These filthy white savages took the work and credit from the Eurasian people and branded these magnificent creatures as their own.And
If you are white and own a dog, you are openly participating and advocating for cultural appropriation and colonialism. Reinforcing this culture is NOT acceptable and will come with its repercussions.
Perhaps digging a little deeper into history would have informed the author that there were White people living throughout the Eurasian Steppe even before they domesticated dogs. They were Indo-Iranian, a subgroup of the Indo-Europeans. In a quick search I found a domesticated dog jawbone from Iraq dated 12,000 years ago and evidence of domesticated dogs in northern Switzerland 14,000 years ago.
Maybe the real answer has yet to be found, but clearly, this was a case where the conclusion was in search of a premise. A case where a flawed, ill-conceived premise was all that was needed to heap scorn and hatred upon fellow human beings.
Promoting the idea White people are racist for owning dogs (the title of the article,) is sad. It is sad because this human being has been lead to believe all White people are irredeemable parasites; incapable of their own achievements and having to steal from everyone else. If he believes this to be true, why does he also think anyone would believe what he wrote?
This is self loathing nonsense.
Cultures change and evolve. Cultural appropriation is supposed to be some form of crime, yet people learn new ideas and concepts from others making life better for everyone. I was taught imitation was the highest form of flattery; the copiers must find something useful and provide an acknowledgement that someone had a better idea. There is no victim.
As far as “colonialism,” I can only assume he was copying from the standard list of White People’s crimes and forgot to take out the ones that didn’t fit.
btw, will all the Black people owning dogs also be called out for cultural appropriation? What repercussions will they suffer?(asking for a friend)