Dog vs. Bird Watcher

Dog vs. Bird Watcher

"We aren't used to using animals to augment our strength and speed. We used them to extend ourselves not reflect ourselves." I wrote this on May 23rd on Facebook in response to an essay about poet Longfellow. Today animals reflect who we are. Today we have machines to augment our speed and strength.

I think the statement, "We used them to extend ourselves not reflect ourselves." is apropos for the Bird Watcher-Dog Incident in New York's Central Park. Amy, the culprit, would have reacted the same way whether the man was Black or White or whether the person was a woman or man. Because in Amy's mind, her dog "reflects who she is", hence the man was attacking her personally, her identity, and in today's identity based hierarchical status value system, identity is extremely important. Amy defended herself as a woman; the Bird Watcher later would defend himself as a Black Man. Both were instrumentalized by a postmodern defense construct. To their credit, they were playing from the same deck but the Bird Watcher was holding the trump card...he was Black.

Amy had an unleashed dog, a park violation; because an unleashed dog represents freedom, that is, untethered liberty even though that untethered liberty might literally bite somebody. I have to wonder whether or not Amy is a Trumpist since she was a high level finance administrator. She probably saw the unleashing of the dog as an unlocking of the economy and breaking the park rule as her way to protest and resist the tyranny of common sense. She probably saw the Black bird watcher as a liberal progressive. The incongruent perception of a Black man as a bird watcher probably caused her to have a mental reboot which threw a monkey wrench into her machinery that prevented her from gauging consequences. She panicked and went into a frenzy like a child denied her own way. "I'm going to tell my daddy." So she calls the police.

Amy's dog reflected the person she is the same way pit bulls reflect the aggression of young Black men. When I see a pit bull, I am afraid. I wonder about the outcome and publicity had the situation had been reversed. Had a young Black man with an unleashed pit bull encountered the Bird Watcher, what would have been the Bird Watcher's reaction? Would he have chastised the young Black man for having an unleashed pit bull? I doubt it unless he was willing to swallow his teeth. Amy reacted without violence. She acted like a woman. She drew on all her prior knowledge, all the ways she learned to get her way with her big brother, to defend her dog, her self-hood, and probably her political beliefs.

I wonder how a young Black man with an unleashed pit bull would have defended himself against the Bird Watcher. I wonder if the Bird Watcher would have made the incident viral had it been with a young Black man and a pit bull. Probably not, because that would have been a self-deprecating wound; one Black demeaning another Black plus since the Bird Watcher would have gotten his ass kicked, the incident would have compromised his manhood and judging from the photo montage from the New York Times essay exhibiting the Bird Watcher's big arms and Rainbow Flag, I would imagine that compromising his manhood would have been the last thing he wanted.

The real issue in this case is the personification of animals not racism. A culture that treats animals like people is a declining culture. I refer to the decline of Rome; Caligula made his horse a senator. Hey! That's not a bad idea.

I wonder who will be hurt the most by this event; Amy a woman who behaved like a little girl; or the bird watcher, a man who behaved like a woman.