Is it? I was the only person with a black dog growing up (Utuado) and I named it Shadow.
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Is this pet name racist?
- Thread starter ahoyle
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At the very least it seems tone deaf or unintentionally sketchy. Could be different depending on geography.
When I was growing up we had a black cat named Blackie. I don't know if my parents or my brother named him, though my hunch is that it was my brother, because that's the sort of fairly literal name a very young child would pick.
That said, I would expect a parent to sidestep such a naming suggestion, and not embrace it. Especially for a dog, where you might be calling their name out in public.
That said, I would expect a parent to sidestep such a naming suggestion, and not embrace it. Especially for a dog, where you might be calling their name out in public.
Dammit Poo, I missed your reply before hitting post on mine.
It's fairly common to name pets in India by hair colour, with English words. I've seen brownie and blackie a few times.
...would never use that in UK though.
...would never use that in UK though.
Gotta be honest, this wouldn't even register as racial to me if you didn't present it as such.
Would I name my dog Blackie? No, but naming your pet via the colour of their fur is pretty common. On a 1-10 scale this is like a 1 to me if that.
Would I name my dog Blackie? No, but naming your pet via the colour of their fur is pretty common. On a 1-10 scale this is like a 1 to me if that.
Who will be the first to photoshop Blackie Lawless' washed-up face on a dog though?
It feels weird for me to say it, so I call our cat which the youngest sibling (11 at the time) gave that exact name, 'Black'. I won't argue that it's an okay name, but I also don't think my sister was thinking "let's give a racist name" when she did it.
I forget what the other names were the rest of the family wanted, but she was the one that really loved on him as a kitten so her name won out. Now he's a total "ma and pa cat" and doesn't have anything to do with my sister lol.
I forget what the other names were the rest of the family wanted, but she was the one that really loved on him as a kitten so her name won out. Now he's a total "ma and pa cat" and doesn't have anything to do with my sister lol.
I know at least 4 people with black-fur dogs that they named "Blackie", just off the top of my head. And one with white fur to be ironic. This is in the west, so Aguadilla through Mayagüez.
Bumfuck Alabama, though? Yeah, safe to say it's racism in this case.
OP
OP
Well then...I think you already knew the answer to this question.
Well, I was curious of thought without that context as well. I know that slants it.
I came in expecting an HP Lovecraft-tier pet name, haha. That said, while intent behind it probably isn't racist, it's kind of a bad look in 2020
My daughters wanted to name a cat they had "blackie"
Came up with "midnight" after turning that down.
Kids 🤷♂️ , obviously they didn't have any ill intent in our case.
Came up with "midnight" after turning that down.
Kids 🤷♂️ , obviously they didn't have any ill intent in our case.
I remember it being somewhat common for families to name cats and dogs whitey and blackie when I was a kid, and it not feeling like it had any racial intent to it, just laziness, as you say. Maybe it was innocent, or maybe I was just naive. I can't say I've ever heard a black person referred to as "blackie" in my life, so that probably plays a part. But despite that, I would wonder about it now.
My ex wife and I got a black cat around halloween like 10 years ago that we called spooks because it was a spooky cat and would do the arch thing.
That name didn't last long once we found out.
That name didn't last long once we found out.
I think it is a rather usual pet name in many Spanish speaking countries. Never seen it in Spain but yes in a few Latin American countries.
Not at all, calling pets after their colour is a very common thing. Blacky, Sooty, Snowy, Chalky, Ginge, Torty, Checkers, Dotty, Copper, Ashes, Blue etc etc.
It's not like when black dogs got called the N word.
It's not like when black dogs got called the N word.
Yeah, I know a lot of Spanish speaking countries name their black dogs "Negro" and if you only spoke English you'd think it's super racist, however in Spanish it just means black.
It's not really racist in itself, but given the family I'd say it probably is.
It's a bad name too. Pfft have some imagination and call the dog Pete.
I would so I can continue to quote Remember the Titans :)
lol yea
It's a bad name too. Pfft have some imagination and call the dog Pete.
I would so I can continue to quote Remember the Titans :)
lol yea
Satchmo is a fucking dope name for a cat. Better if you have a dog named Duke, best if you have a gerbil named Miles.
Unless there's some extra context for otherwise, I don't think it is. If the ex's family is anywhere on the racist side, that changes things though and makes it immediately suspect.
EDIT:
EDIT:
Oh. Hm. Yeah, not going to give them the benefit of the doubt on that one lol.
my aunt had a dog named blackie, but this was back in the 80's.
There are literally a million other things you could name your dog
There are literally a million other things you could name your dog
I'm surprised given the context of this family living in the south, people are being so fucking dismissive of this having racist intent.
Then it's racist.
At absolute best its soft racism. But it's still racist as fuck.
We had a dog named Blackie when I was a child. My father was Hispanic and he named it so I think there might be a connection there. He was a beautiful all black German Shepard. I never thought anything about it until I was setting up a phone account and security questions. When asked about my first pets name, I said Blackie and the look I got from the man taking my info was startling. He was black. When I saw this thread title I knew this was what it was about.
On a side note, we got an all white German Shepard before our first one died and named it Sugar so 🤷♂️
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