The news was recently filled with stories about Trump’s praise for Conan, the Belgian Malinois used to hunt Islamic State Group founder and leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, alongside his vivid accounts of al-Baghdadi’s “death like a dog.”
Calling someone a dog is more than a throwaway insult. My scholarship focuses on representations of race and animals in literature and popular culture.
In my view, Trump’s comments echo a troubled history of using dogs as weapons against people of color, as well as pejorative depictions of people of color as animals.