Michigan Journal of Race and Law Volume 25 2020 Man’s Best Friend? How Dogs Have Been Used to Oppress African Americans Shontel Stewart University of Alabama School of Law Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mjrl Part of the Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, Law and Race Commons, Law Enforcement and Corrections Commons, and the Legal History Commons Recommended Citation Shontel Stewart, Man’s Best Friend? How Dogs Have Been Used to Oppress African Americans, 25 MICH. J. RACE & L. 183 (2020). Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mjrl/vol25/iss2/4 https://doi.org/10.36643/mjrl.25.2.man This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Michigan Journal of Race and Law by an authorized editor of University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. MAN’S BEST FRIEND? HOW DOGS HAVE BEEN USED TO OPPRESS AFRICAN AMERICANS By: Shontel Stewart* The use of dogs as tools of oppression against African Americans has its roots in slavery and persists today in everyday life and police interactions. Due to such harmful practices, African Americans are not only disproportionately terrorized by officers with dogs, but they are also subject to instances of misplaced sympathy, ill- suited laws, and social exclusion in their communities. Whether extreme and vio- lent or subtle and pervasive, the use of dogs in oppressive acts is a critical layer of racial bias in the United States that has consistently built injustices that impede social and legal progress.