Species as a Social Construction: Is Species Morally Relevant?
Washoe was cross-fostered by humans. She was raised as if she were a deaf human child and so acquired the signs of American Sign Language. When Washoe was five she left most of her human companions behind and moved to a primate institute in Oklahoma. The facility housed about twenty-five chimpanzees, and this was where Washoe was to meet her first chimpanzee: imagine never meeting a member of your own species until you were five. After a plane flight Washoe arrived in a sedated state at her new home. When Washoe awoke she was in a cage. When she began to move, the chimpanzees in the adjoining cages began to bang and scream at her. After she regained her senses her human friend asked in sign language what the chimpanzees were. She called them ‘BLACK CATS’ and ‘BLACK BUGS.’ They were not like her and if she felt about them the way she felt about cats and bugs they were not well liked. Washoe had learned our arrogance too well. -Fouts and Fouts in The Great Ape Project, 28-29
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Not that I know of.
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Animals such as dogs or cats are certainly not racist unless they are taught to dislike color or taught to dislike a race by smell. Dogs and cats can understand commands in the language of the country the owner lives in.
Another misconception is the fact dogs are color blind. Doctors are split in half on this and only because the dog's eye is different than the human, but trainers have proved it over and over again that dogs indeed can see colors. One man had 3 people sit down in the audience and each had different colored shoe laces on. The dog was a German Shepherd and sure enough when the man called out "find the blue shoe laces" the dog went right to the blue. I thought the dog was trained in this manner, but then someone from up in the audience came down with plain white shoelaces and the man then gave the command to the dog to find the white shoe laces and he did! My 3 year old Bichon Frise can tell the difference between her yellow ball and her red one. I just have to ask her to go get the yellow ball and she'll pass the red one and hunt for the yellow one. It was quite amazing.
Think of this one ... who are humans anyway? We actually know little about the human race and the brain was the least studied organ of the body. Many scientists can come up with some theories and that's all they really are, but every day of our lives animals and people alike continue to prove them wrong and amaze us.
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Yes, animals can be "racist". Many species of apes and monkeys have bands or tribes that are not easily entered by outsiders. Evolution has given them protection in this manner. Humans fear of others is probably instinctual to some degree as well but humans have the capacity to over-ride instinct with intellect.
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In terms of animal to animal relationships I am not sure. But I know that between man and animal that the animal cannot be racist.
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'Racist' wouldn't be the most accurate term, but many animals show different degrees of discrimination. To discriminate, in itself, is one of the traits of most life forms. It's what lets birds know what berries to eat and which ones to avoid, for example. There are also many stories about someones dog (in a mostly White neighborhood)chasing or barking at the garbage man or the mail man because he was Black or Hispanic. While they are, no doubt, true, the underlying reason the dog behaved that way wasn't because it didn't 'like' the man because he was a certain race, but because, in the dog's experience the man may have been 'different' from the other humans the dog encountered and, therefor, didn't 'belong' there. It was just reacting to something different in its world. Had the dog been raised exclusively by Blacks or Hispanics, it would probably react the same way to the first White man it saw.
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The most ignorant and most unintelligent on the face of the earth is humans themselves. Animals do not know anything about racism. They also understand commands in the language of their masters and color of the skin has no significance to them at all. Is there something we can all learn from this!
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My cavalier king Charles spaniel hates dark people, he barks and rises up at them - he also hates men and people on bicycles - confused little doggy!
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In a way they can be. If it is a matter of colour many species of animals will shun or even attack and kill one of their own kind that suffers from albinoism (a genetic mutation which inhibits the production of pigments in skin, hair, eyes, etc). Animal mothers will abandon albino offspring sometimes as well.
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As mentioned, "racist" may not be the appropriate description for this. If you let a brightly coloured Parrot or Budgerigar loose here in the UK, just observe the relatively dull Sparrows and Starlings, they will collectively attack it. Call this what you will, but there's a definite form of discrimination at work there. Also, as someone as already mentioned, dogs often tend to be hostile towards black people, I think that these actions are likely to be a defensive reaction towards beings that are "different" to what the creature normally sees, possibly a result of fear.
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For a while my son raised pigeons. Once he attempted to introduce a pigeon into the flock that was different than the others. All of the other pigeons started pecking the newcomer on the head until it eventually died. Racism is a fear of anything different. Many of the lower animals will attack anything that falls into that category and unfortunately, many humans of lower intellectual capacity do as well. Among humans we call it racism. Among animals we recognize it as fear and distrust.
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For some reason dogs especially can dislike the mailman or anyone in uniform. Dogs are also protecting their owners and the property. Dogs do see color so if say an Asian or black person came around the dog isn't use to it, but, if the owner calms the dog down and shows affection towards that person in the home the dog will soon get use to that person being around and settle down.
I think dogs take on the personalities of their owners. If the person is peaceful and quiet so is the dog, but still very protective of that person. If the owner has a loud voice, aggressive in manner usually the dog is.
I have had 14 different dogs in my life and many from the SPCA and I've never once had a problem with any of my dogs attacking a person of a different color, but they will bark like crazy at the mailman or anyone in a uniform. Keeps the cops from my door. LOL I have all sorts of friends of different races and of course my dogs barked at first, but all I have to do is touch my dog (well trained) and say, "It's OK" and the dog will go back into the front room. Although eye-balling that person, my dogs make friends with them before the evening is over and the next time they come there is not a negative reaction from any of my dogs at all.
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Yes animals can be very racist! I know for a fact that my cat does not like anyone form the Mexican decent. all she does is sit there and screech at them its not good!
I had a dog like this only she was sexist! She hated men and lawnmowers. She especially hated men driving lawnmowers and would do everything in her power to get close enough to bite them! When our neighbours mowed their lawns we would wait until they were done to walk her. The vet said the engine noise hurt her ears and she probably associated that with men since everyone that lived in the house was female and for some reason only the men in our neighbourhood mowed the lawns. The rest of the time she was so nice. She never growled at someone for being male, but she would sit on the other side of the room until they left.
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This is kind of complex question.
While growing up, my family lived in a neighborhood of several different races. I don't recall my family ever showing any racism, nor do I remember being bothered by having neighbors who were not of the same race that I am. We had a German shepherd who did not like any one of any other race than my own. He nearly went through the metal bottom of a screen door to get to a cop of a different race! Lucky for him, he didn't make it through the door. I don't know if that counts as racism as it is in humans, but the dog definitely saw people who looked different as a threat.
From a different point of view, would my German shepherd have been upset by an Irish setter and not bothered by another German shepherd? Probably not.
However, we are not that different from animals. Behaviors that were thought to be only human are often proven to be shared by other animals. i.e. alcoholism (monkeys on tourist islands come to mind), drug abuse (all kinds of animals), random acts of violence (apes), OCD (parrots), etc.
Humans are animals too
Like humans, dogs "learn" racism by their own ignorance and fears. A dog that is normally fearful or aggressive around strange things could be anxious around something less familiar than the ordinary, r that may remind them of a past trauma. It doesn't have to be skin color. it could be gender, age, dress or mannerism.
My Dad has a dachshund that is fearful of children and aggressive towards black people. simply because he was never familiarized with them in formative years. However Zorro loves men in beards no matter what race because my dad has a beard. I have a dachshund that adores children but is anxious around adults and fearful of blond men or any white man in a hat. Rosie was raised in a family with lots of nice kids and in later years was abused by a man with yellow hair wearing a hat. She is ambivalent towards Hispanics and in fact greeted my current (Mexican) boyfriend the first time by licking his nose even though he was wearing a hat!
Humans teach their children to be racist towards something they don't understand or that which is unfamiliar to them.
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No animals can't be racist in the way we would understand the term. They are however, strictly hierarchical and driven by self-preservation - even in domesticated cats and dogs. I have four boxer dogs - all related. Three are coloured and one is all white (not deaf). The coloured dogs all keep the white one firmly in place at the bottom of the pack. This is I believe not specifically due to her being white but simply because she is different to them and in the wild would pose a risk to the pack by being white. She would show out when the pack hunted or when a predator was near. It's for this reason that Albino off spring are often abandoned shortly after birth.
Family groups or packs are controlled by the dominant animal, usually but not always male, with other subordinate groupings below. Contact with other groups is avoided due to the risk of upsetting the hierarchy within the group. A lone animal will have more chance of joining an established group than of two groups merging but the loner will have to earn its place at the bottom of the pack and it will be rough.
One of the previous answers mentioned a Cavalier King Charles dog that was unhappy near dark people? This is again a natural reaction when an animal is presented with something new/different from what it�s used to and can be easily remedied by better socialisation with the new situation. Alternatively, it could be a reaction to some event in the past that upset the dog.
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The above two posters made some fine points. I too believe that racism is a fear of the unknown and if one doesn't choose to learn more about a race or culture then your pets won't either. All my dogs and even my cat are brought up in a peaceful household and well-trained. If they fear something my husband and I take the time to get them use to it and no more problems, and that includes people of different races. If our dogs continue to growl at a person we don't know well we sit up and take notice as I do believe dogs are much keener at seeing something not quite right in certain people and that can include any race.
First answer by sam humphreys. Last edit by Sdresh. Contributor trust: 63 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 176 [recommend question]
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