Yesterday, while at the park, I sat and talked with a young man who was there with his beautiful dog. During our conversation, I realized I had seen him before. On X Factor. He sang with a group. I also realized he is a close friend of another young fella I know, but have lost contact with.
Anyway, during our conversation, two black women approached, and one of them timidly asked if it was all right to walk past the dog. You see, the dog is a Pit Bull. And that, alone, scares the crap outta many people.
I told the women the dog is a pussy cat, and that his only interest was the squirrel hiding up in a tree. So, they passed by without incident.
Shortly thereafter, another black woman approached, however, the dog walked right up to her and scared her...to...death! She FROZE! She looked over at us and said, "Please, come get your dog." Before I could respond, the dog's owner jumped up and screamed, "Why do people come to a dog park when they're afraid of dogs?" Oh, boy, that set...her...OFF!
I immediately got the dog and walked off with him, leaving the two "adults" to "talk."
Talk? I wish! The two of them SCREAMED at each other, using what they deemed to be every DESPICABLE SLUR they could conjure up!
From HIM: C*NT, B*TCH!
From HER: GAY, GAY!
Honestly, if I wasn't there, I wouldn't have believed two, seemingly reasonable people would treat each other so disgracefully.
The woman mentioned that she was Nigerian, which caught the attention of another guy in the park. He ran over to them, aligned himself with the woman, and joined her in verbally attacking the dog owner. The whole while, I'm a distance away with the dog. The only specimen besides myself with any semblance of decorum.
I have to add that before I walked away with the dog, I did make a concerted attempt to get the folks to calm down and speak respectfully to one another. When I realized my words were falling upon deaf ears, that's when the dog and I were off to another section of the park.
As fate would have it, the dog owner and the woman eventually calmed down (the other guy continued his workout, then left), the dog owner gave a sincere apology, and the two wound up talking for an hour or so. They even exchanged contact information. She then went her way, he went his (after I returned with his dog), and that was that.
Before "Mr. Sensitive Dog Owner" left, though, I asked him what that was all about. In essence, he's simply sensitive about people taking a look at his dog and judging it harshly because of its breed. And the woman was upset because she thinks black men don't respect black women. I understood her point, based upon the foul way he responded to her fear of his dog.
I simply believe dog owners have got to accept that not everybody appreciates their dog the way they do. I love dogs. I truly do. But as I approach dogs and their owners on the street, I always ask if it's safe to pass them. Ten times out of ten I'm told I'm fine, but I always ask.
I cannot imagine being agitated enough to scream obscenities at anyone. For any reason. My hope is that the next time either of those folks find their short fuses lit, they think back to their exchange in the park and immediately call upon love and forgiveness to sort out their disagreement.
In the end, exercising love and forgiveness just makes us feel better.
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