What My Dog’s Instagram Account Taught Me About Race
I started my dog’s Instagram account, @gingers_naps, because like every other dog parent in the world, I think my dog is the most beautiful dog to ever live. Since it was a “pet page,” I usually only appeared in the captions of the pictures, instead of the images themselves. The few times I did post myself on her page, I found that my engagement shot up and my followers and I had great conversations in the comments. I enjoyed getting to know the people who signed up to watch me fumble around as a dog mom, complain about those puppy vet bills, and use an excessive amount of exclamation points in captions about my dog’s stool.
Kassidi Jones, above with her rescue dog Ginger, is a third-year Ph.D. candidate in African American Studies and English, and a first-time dog mom.
For the first few weeks, the social media community I found was friendly, generous, and overwhelmingly white. The successful pet influencers that I wanted to emulate were dogs in white families. The brand accounts I followed reposted mostly white faces. I remember seeing a post from an account I liked stating that politics have no place on pet pages.
Suddenly, I could no longer scroll through my feed without thinking of how privileged the human beings behind the dog and cat faces I double-tapped must be if they could afford to ignore the real world issues faced by people from marginalized communities every day. And just as suddenly, I felt alone.
How I Learned That a Follow or a Like May be the Only Thing We Have In Common
Somehow, in all of the initial excitement about a new puppy and a growing Instagram following, I failed to fully understand the audience sliding into my DMs. While there were certainly great conversations about training and treats, that didn’t mean we shared opinions on social issues. I’m talking about antiblack and anti-Asian violence, sexism, and poverty - the issues that affect me and the people I love.
Still, how could I expect these Instagram followers to demonstrate their care for people when I shared so little about the person behind Ginger’s Naps? Would they be as engaged if my Blackness were more apparent? Or if I pivoted to talking about racism in the animal welfare industry and beyond? Eventually, I decided that the answer to those questions did not matter. The pet industry, especially on social media, had a void that I felt qualified to fill, or at least to try to address.
Did You Know That Racial Inequality Exists Throughout the Pet Industry?
What does your vet look like? What about the people who run your favorite pet influencer accounts? Who are the staff members and volunteers at your favorite shelter? When you see an advertisement for a pet product, does the human model in it look like you? These questions might seem immaterial, and in a perfect world, they would be. Unfortunately, ignoring race does not remedy racial inequality. Ignoring gender allows gender disparities to persist.
The intersections of our identities merit attention, respect, and representation, even in the animal welfare world, because the best way to support pets is to provide resources to the people who care for them.
Let’s look at the numbers. In 2020, Zippia reported that only 3.2% of dog trainers were Black. In 2019, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics oddly reported that 0% of employed veterinarians were Black. And what about the demographics of pet owners? Just six months ago, Time published a piece addressing this lack of diversity in the veterinary field, despite over a third of Black families having at least one pet. A google search of the most popular pet influencer accounts (the ones that are able to make a living through their pets alone), produces almost exclusively white owners, some non-Black people of color, and no Black people. From dog shows and competitions to paid partnerships with big brand names, Black faces rarely appear — not because of a lack of interest, nor a lack of talent, but because systemic barriers have been put in place to keep Black people out of these spaces. The history of African Americans and their dogs is so fraught due to enslavement, and we have been facing those repercussions to this day.
Let’s Work Together To Learn and Show Up for People of Color
Recent demonstrations of police brutality, anti-Black and anti-Asian violence inspired many to use their platforms and their dollars to support people of color in various fields, but that support only seems to last as long as the major media coverage does. But people of color are people of color all day, everyday. We cannot opt out, and we cannot simply wait for another person to be harmed before we take action. What I’m proposing is a commitment to year-round allyship. Seek out and join in difficult conversations about privilege. Find POC-owned businesses to purchase pet products you were going to buy anyway. Follow, share, and engage with our social media accounts. (I put together this spreadsheet of Black pet Instagram accounts, including small businesses, trainers, vets, groomers, rescues, and pet parents.) Frequently ask yourself what you’re doing to show up for the people of color who love animals as much as you do.
I’ve teamed up with Tails of Connection to reach more people who have not yet noticed the lack of diversity in the animal welfare community, people who don’t know what human diversity has to do with pet care, and people who are interested in diversifying pet spaces but are not quite sure where to begin. I was one of those people less than a year ago, and I’m still learning as I go. I hope that you’ll learn along with me.
