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Dog Karens, you don’t own every neighborhood pet

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Dog Karens, you don’t own every neighborhood pet

IDSC October Exclusive: When subconscious racial profiling seeps its way into dog lovers

Shamontiel L. Vaughn
Oct 10, 2022
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Dog Karens, you don’t own every neighborhood pet

idoseecolor.substack.com
Photo credit: Marliese Streefland/Unsplash

This past year, there have been entirely too many strange (wo)men breathing down my neck and my dog’s. I shrugged it off at first, thinking people were just happy social isolation was over. The problem is with the increase in mingling comes the increase in Karen-ish activity.

Recommended Read: “Hey dog lovers, keep your fingers to yourself ~ Every dog with teeth has the potential to bite you”

All of my favorite dog walking clients are white, so this isn’t a let-me-pick-on-all-white-people post. But there is a very specific personality trait that turns a select few dog lovers into Karen Unleashed. I’ll give you a few examples.

  • One couple held up traffic at a green light to gush and yell out the window, “Thazz a good dog!” Meanwhile cars were swarming to get around them.

  • I’ve held my arm out to swat away three white guys (on separate occasions) who reached out to pet my dog without permission.

  • One lady leaned over my shoulder — even though I was in the middle of the grass and nowhere near the sidewalk where she originally was — to singsong “Goooood boy” to my dog after I poured water into her foldable dish. And she would not leave. She just peered over my shoulder like we were friends. Is this not creepy?

  • I was dumbfounded when another lady (yes, also white) blocked my path while I was discussing a legal case via phone. She interrupted to yell out, “Can my dog say ‘hi’?” I’m not a loud cell phone talker, but it was very clear that this was a serious conversation. I was stunned at the audacity—as if there were no other dogs on Earth for hers to say hello to—and my phone was somehow invisible. I asked her if she could see me on the phone. She just stared and waited for the “say hi” answer. I stared back, still listening to lawsuit news. My dog let out a low growl. She looked down at her, huffed and stormed away with her dog as though we were the problem.

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This has grown exhausting. I just want to walk my dog in peace. And I wish these examples above were the most irritating I could share this year, but the worst one happened over the summer and was loaded with screams, cursing, a family member jumping out of his car, bickering over ice cream and two apologies.

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