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Racism and Nonhuman Justice in Samuel Fuller’s White Dog / Pittel, Harald (CC BY)

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Periodical

Title:
Open cultural studies
Publication:
Warsaw, Poland: De Gruyter Open
Note:
Open Access
Namensnennung 4.0 International
Scope:
Online-Ressource
ISSN:
2451-3474
ZDB-ID:
2900389-1 ZDB
VÖBB-Katalog:
35283932
Keywords:
Zeitschrift
Classification:
Sozialwissenschaften
Collection:
Sozialwissenschaften
Copyright:
Rights reserved
Accessibility:
Free Access
Title:
Open cultural studies
Publication:
Warsaw, Poland: De Gruyter Open
Note:
Open Access
Namensnennung 4.0 International
Scope:
Online-Ressource
ISSN:
2451-3474
ZDB-ID:
2900389-1 ZDB
VÖBB-Katalog:
35283932
Keywords:
Zeitschrift
Classification:
Sozialwissenschaften
Collection:
Sozialwissenschaften
Copyright:
Rights reserved
Accessibility:
Free Access

Article

Author:
Pittel, Harald
Title:
Racism and Nonhuman Justice in Samuel Fuller’s White Dog
Publication:
Warsaw, Poland: De Gruyter Open, 2026
Language:
English
Information:
Abstract: There is an ongoing debate about racism to be understood either as a problem on the level of culture or, in the wake of the Anthropocene, as only one effect of a more generally abusive behaviour that instrumentalises, exploits and colonises human and non-human nature alike. Samuel Fuller’s White Dog (1982) addresses this complex question. Specifically, the film extends the critical discussion of racism as it shows ideology being ‘implanted’ into a white shepherd dog that is trained to kill black people. This turns the shepherd into a symbol and instrument of racism. Yet the dog also has its real existence and real history of abuse. Fleshing out a critique of racism with a nonhuman animal’s relational experience of suffering, the film arrives at a complex understanding of justice, not to relativise racism, but to dramatise the extent of its impact. This essay reconstructs Fuller’s critical approach by reading the film from two perspectives: a human-centred one (foregrounding racism in an ordinary sense) and one primarily concerned with the nonhuman as informed by Donna Haraway’s writings on dog training and interspecies companionship. It will be made clear that, in Fuller’s view, racism also implies a crime against nature.
Scope:
Online-Ressource
Note:
Open Access
Archivierung/Langzeitarchivierung gewährleistet
Keywords:
anthropocentrism ; interspecies companionship ; witnessing ; storytelling ; anti-discrimination trainings
Classification:
Sozialwissenschaften
Religion
URN:
urn:nbn:de:101:1-2608140335186.618238742780
Collection:
Sozialwissenschaften
Religion
Copyright:
CC BY
Accessibility:
Free Access
Author:
Pittel, Harald
Title:
Racism and Nonhuman Justice in Samuel Fuller’s White Dog
Publication:
Warsaw, Poland: De Gruyter Open, 2026
Language:
English
Information:
Abstract: There is an ongoing debate about racism to be understood either as a problem on the level of culture or, in the wake of the Anthropocene, as only one effect of a more generally abusive behaviour that instrumentalises, exploits and colonises human and non-human nature alike. Samuel Fuller’s White Dog (1982) addresses this complex question. Specifically, the film extends the critical discussion of racism as it shows ideology being ‘implanted’ into a white shepherd dog that is trained to kill black people. This turns the shepherd into a symbol and instrument of racism. Yet the dog also has its real existence and real history of abuse. Fleshing out a critique of racism with a nonhuman animal’s relational experience of suffering, the film arrives at a complex understanding of justice, not to relativise racism, but to dramatise the extent of its impact. This essay reconstructs Fuller’s critical approach by reading the film from two perspectives: a human-centred one (foregrounding racism in an ordinary sense) and one primarily concerned with the nonhuman as informed by Donna Haraway’s writings on dog training and interspecies companionship. It will be made clear that, in Fuller’s view, racism also implies a crime against nature.
Scope:
Online-Ressource
Note:
Open Access
Archivierung/Langzeitarchivierung gewährleistet
Keywords:
anthropocentrism ; interspecies companionship ; witnessing ; storytelling ; anti-discrimination trainings
Classification:
Sozialwissenschaften
Religion
URN:
urn:nbn:de:101:1-2608140335186.618238742780
Collection:
Sozialwissenschaften
Religion
Copyright:
CC BY
Accessibility:
Free Access

Contents

Table of contents

  • Open cultural studies (Rights reserved)
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  • Reframing Code-Switching in Anglo-French Humour: A Genre-Based Comparative Study / Abbasova, Milana (CC BY)
  • Atmospheric Conditioning: Confronting Societal Disruptions Through Solidarity Building / Reilly, Ian (CC BY)
  • Capitalism and Gender-Based Violence: A Study of Northern Central American Undocumented Women Migrants / Pineda, Sibyl Italia (CC BY)
  • Negotiating Identity in Sankofa’s In-Between (1992): The Opacity of Postcolonial Subjectivity / Piqueras-Pérez, Maria (CC BY)
  • Spooky Action of Barbie and Oppenheimer: The Quantum Entanglement of Barbenheimer in Popular Culture / Singh, Amar (CC BY)
  • ˜Theœ Representation of Women in Egyptian Proverbs: A Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis / El-Dakhs, Dina Abdel Salam (CC BY)
  • Exploring the Role of African Indigenous Cultural Performances in Language Revitalisation and Preservation: A Case study of Xhosa, Maasai & Yorùbá / Ohenhen, Stanley Timeyin (CC BY)
  • Analyzing Ramadan Congratulation Facebook Comments in Jordanian Arabic: A Pragmatic Study / Alwidyan, Dania Hashem (CC BY)
  • Reuniting Text and Puppet: Toward Integrated Documentation of Late Ottoman Damascene Shadow Theatre / Qasqas, Hala (CC BY)
  • Governing gender equality in early childhood teacher education: A case study in Taiwan / Liu, Yi-Yi (CC BY)
  • Pull or Pull -er: Differentiating Stronger and Weaker Pull Factors for International Students Choosing Turkey as a Study Destination / Ergin-Kocatürk, Hatice (CC BY)
  • Conceptual Metaphors and Cultural Values in Korean Proverbs: A Main Meaning Focus Approach / Zibin, Aseel (CC BY)
  • Coping with Trauma through Christian Holiday Observances in the Testimonies of Latvian Deportees / Kačāne, Ilze (CC BY)
  • Heterotopic Green Spaces and the Politics of Publicness in Philip Larkin’s Urban Poetry / Fu, Yu (CC BY)
  • Back-Translation of Swearwords by Professional Translators: Evidence From the Arabic Subtitled Version of The Wolf of Wall Street / Najjar, Raghad (CC BY)
  • Navigating Transborder Flows: Distribution Patterns and Accessibility of Malaysian Chinese-Language Films on Netflix / Ong, Sue Yang (CC BY)
  • Counter Aesthetics of Arabfuturism: Cultural Sustainability in Fadi Zaghmout’s “A Jaha in the Metaverse” / Atieh, Majda (CC BY)
  • Failed Masculinity: Performative Legitimacy and Gendered Exclusion in Hamlet and The Great Gatsby / Chen, Dongqiao (CC BY)
  • Invisible Authors, Visible Gender: How Readers Infer Author Gender from Fiction / Mereke, Zeinollakizi (CC BY)
  • Corrigendum to: From Flowers to Plants: Plant-Thinking in Nineteenth-Century Danish Flower Painting / Hedin, Gry (CC BY)
  • A Friend in Need is A Friend Indeed? A Critical Discourse Analysis of China Daily ’s Media Representations of the Russia-Ukraine Conflict / Zhang, Junchen (CC BY)
  • Society Creates the Monster: Institutional Violence and the Social Production of Deviance in Stephen King’s Carrie / Ochilov, Ulugbek (CC BY)
  • Racism and Nonhuman Justice in Samuel Fuller’s White Dog / Pittel, Harald (CC BY)
  • Nonhuman Aesthetics: Register, Mode, and Criterion / Vaíllo, Gonzalo (CC BY)
  • “My Mother Brought a Groom”: A Feminist Reading of Marriage and Motherhood in Badriah Albeshr’s Hend and the Soldiers and Atheer Al-Nashmi’s The Woman Who Lost / Albalawi, Mohammed H. (CC BY)
  • Narrative Innovation and Intersectional Identity in Fatima Qandil’s Empty Cages and Natasha Brown’s Assembly / Sameer, Ali Kareem (CC BY)
  • Longing for the Past and Resisting Oblivion: Palestinian Women as Guardians of Memory in Bye Bye Tiberias (2023) / Masalha, Mohammed RH (CC BY)
  • Staging the Self: Life-Writings of Fatima Rushdi and Sarah Bernhardt as Emblems of Fin-de-Siècle New Womanhood / Louati, Lilia (CC BY)
  • Narrating the Ruins: Eco-Orientalism, Environmental Violence, and Postcolonial Ecologies in Arab Anglophone Fiction / Alghamdi, Alaa Hassan H. (CC BY)
  • Bodies and Things: Technology and Violence as a Vehicle for Posthumanist Ontologies in Julia Ducournau’s Titane / Miller, Audrey (CC BY)
  • Towards a Reparatory Theory of Creolization / Narayan, Yasmeen (CC BY)
  • Persuading in Arabic and English: A Study of EFL Argumentative Writing in Contrast with Native English Norms / El-Dakhs, Dina Abdel Salam (CC BY)
  • Tracing the Flâneur: The Intertextual Origins of an Emblematic Figure of Modernity / Castigliano, Federico (CC BY)
  • Interaction of Linguistic and Literary Aspects in the Context of the Cultural Diversity of the Turkic Peoples of Central Asia / Omorov, Aitmamat (CC BY)
  • Traditional Metaphors of Indonesian Women’s Beauty / Saidi, Acep Iwan (CC BY)
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  • Colonial Mimicry, Modernist Experimentation, and the Hegelian Dialectics of Empire: A Postcolonial Deconstructive Reading of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness / Amireh, Haneen (CC BY)
  • Transformations of the Contemporary Art Practices in the Context of Metamodern Sensibility / Severynova, Maryna (CC BY)
  • Flower Representations in the Lyrics of A.A. Fet / Shashkina, Gulzhan (CC BY)
  • Analyzing the Pragmatic Functions of the Religious Expression/ʔallaːh yaʕtiːk ʔilʕaːfje/(May God grant you health) in Spoken Jordanian Arabic / Musmar, Ola (CC BY)
  • Urban Indonesian Women and Fandom Identity in K-drama Fans on Social Media / Maulina, Novaria (CC BY)
  • Aesthetic Hybridization in the Creation of Contemporary Batik Motif Design / Syakir, Syakir (CC BY)
  • Linguistic and Translational Errors on Bilingual Public Signs in the Saudi Southern Region: A Linguistic Landscape Study / Ahmed Al-Sofi, Bakr Bagash Mansour (CC BY)
  • New Model of Contemporary Kazakh Cinema – Artstream: Trends and Paradigms / Amirbekova, Dana (CC BY)
  • Echoes of Past and Voices of Present: Intergenerational Trauma and Collective Memory in “The Fortune Men” / Godara, Abhishek (CC BY)
  • Congratulation Strategies of Crown Prince Hussein’s Wedding: A Socio-pragmatic Study of Facebook Comments / Abu Manie’, Hisham Isam (CC BY)
  • “Violent Possible”: The Stochasticity of Institutional Violence / Zambrano, Carlos Vladimir (CC BY)
  • Digital Games as Safe Places: The Case of Animal Crossing / Ferreira, Cátia (CC BY)
  • Feminist Urban Paideias: The Need for New Imaginaries of the Aesthetic Walk / Argüelles Rozada, Isabel (CC BY)
  • Kembar Mayang and Ronce as Motif Ideas in Natural Dye Batik of Keci Beling Leaves and Honey Mango Leaves / Sunarya, I. Ketut (CC BY)
  • “Geographical Imaginaries”: A Three-Decade Literature Review of Usage and Applications Across Academic Contexts / Luczaj, Kamil (CC BY)
  • “He Who Obeys Does Not Err”: Examining Residual Violence in the Practice of Obedience Within the Catholic Church Through a Case Study of the Capuchin Order / Piccone-Camere, Carlos (CC BY)
  • Stepping Out of Line: Moving Through Vulnerability With Children in Transition / Markowitz, Ariana (CC BY)
  • Ecological Grief, Hope, and Creative Forms of Resilience: A Creative Practice Approach / Borovica, Tamara (CC BY)
  • ˜Theœ Transformation of Kazakhstan’s National Classics in World Performing Arts / Akimbek, Askar (CC BY)
  • Evaluation of Translatability of Pun in Audio-Visual Content: The Case of Shark Tale / Yassin, Rozan (CC BY)
  • Situated Knowledge in Motion: Reconsidering Urban Feminist Methodologies / Nicolazzi, Marta Maria (CC BY)
  • Designing the Feminist City: Projects, Practices, Processes for Urban Public Spaces / Ottaviani, Dorotea (CC BY)
  • Critical Hope in South African Higher Education: Using a Theory of Change Approach for Mid-Project Reflection on a Student-Staff Partnership Programme / Mosienyane, Tefo (CC BY)
  • Cameras Off: Cultural and Social Influences on Students’ Webcam Use in Online Learning / Za’rour, Rania (CC BY)
  • Idiomaticity in the English Subtitling of Jordanian Movies on Netflix: A Cultural Analysis / AlKhateeb, Guhzall (CC BY)
  • Metamodern Oscillation and the Artisan Ethic: The Poetics and Practice of the Band Adamlar / Keflioğlu, Engin (CC BY)
  • Feminist Worldmaking Through Collective Curating: Kaleidoskop’s Relational Urban Aesthetics / Posch, Doris (CC BY)
  • Rewriting Women in the Qur’an: Gender, Ideology and Translation / Burohaima, Lobna (CC BY)
  • Tactical Spatial Interventions: Design for Gendered Spatial Justice in Peri-Urban Victoria, Australia / Webb, Isabella (CC BY)
  • “A Good Bandit is a Dead Bandit”: Memetic Violence and AI on the Latin American Right-Wing Populism / Bayarri Toscano, Gabriel (CC BY)
  • Violence (s): An Introduction / Borda, Carolina (CC BY)
  • Intervening “City Horses”: Soft Performative Gestures of Protest in Public Space / Kuhfuss, Lynn (CC BY)
  • Eco-Thrax: Anthrax Narratives and Unstable Ground / Mitchell, Chantelle (CC BY)
  • Ecopoetic Noticing: The Intermedial Semiotic Entanglements of Fungi and Lichen / Azcárate, Asunción López-Varela (CC BY)
  • Relational Transilience in the Garden: Plant–Human Encounters in More-than-Human Life Narratives / Alexander, Vera (CC BY)
  • On Safe Places / Gonçalves, Diana (CC BY)
  • Vaccine/Vaccination Hesitancy: Challenging Science and Society / Schaufler, Savannah (CC BY)
  • Foreign Translators Group in the PRC From 1949 to 1966: A STP Perspective / Chen, Longzhan (CC BY)
  • Critical Green Theories and Botanical Imaginaries: Exploring Human and More-than-Human World Entanglements / Karpouzou, Peggy (CC BY)
  • Becoming-with in Anicka Yi’s Artistic Practice / Capurro, Edoardo (CC BY)
  • Plants as Trans Ecologies: Artifice and Deformation in Bertrand Mandico’s The Wild Boys (2017) / Miller, Audrey (CC BY)
  • Mnemotope as a Safe Place: The Wind Phone in Japan / Galasso, Clorinda Sissi (CC BY)
  • Montana as Place of (Un) Belonging: Landscape, Identity, and the American West in Bella Vista (2014) / Moradiyan-Rizi, Najmeh (CC BY)
  • From Flowers to Plants: Plant-Thinking in Nineteenth-Century Danish Flower Painting / Hedin, Gry (CC BY)
  • ˜Theœ Role of Context in Understanding Colloquial Arabic Idiomatic Expressions by Jordanian Children / Alshbeekat, Aseel (CC BY)
  • On Vegetal Geography: Perspectives on Critical Plant Studies, Placism, and Resilience / Rivas, Virgilio Aquino (CC BY)
  • Cultural Perspectives on Financial Accountability in a Balinese Traditional Village / Dewi, Anak Agung Istri Pradnyarani (CC BY)
  • Data that Should Not Have Been Given: Noise and Immunity in James Newitt’s HAVEN / Willemars, Ilios (CC BY)
  • Entering Into a Sonic Intra-Active Quantum Relation with Plant Life / España Keller, Juliana (CC BY)
  • A Syphilis-Giving God? On the Interpretation of the Philistine’s Scourge / Bächtold, Matteo (CC BY)
  • Gardens in the Gallery: Displaying and Experiencing Contemporary Plant-art / Botoman, Eleonor (CC BY)
  • Navigating Cultural Landscapes: Textual Insights into English–Arabic–English Translation / Asiri, Eisa (CC BY)
  • Dwelling in Active Serenity: Nature in Werner Herzog’s Cinema / Wu, Haotian (CC BY)
  • “Can I become a tree?”: Plant Imagination in Contemporary Indian Poetry in English / Ghosh, Joyjit (CC BY)
  • Considerations of Post-Pandemic Life / Ulmer, Jasmine B. (CC BY)
  • Smoking in Ulysses / Elwer, Joshua (CC BY)
  • All the Way from Saudi Arabia to the United States: The Inspiration of Architectural Heritage in Art / Alsuwaida, Nouf (CC BY)
  • Historical Perceptions about Children and Film: Case Studies of the British Board of Film Censors, the British Film Institute, and the Children’s Film Foundation from the 1910s to the 1950s / Terui, Takao (CC BY)
  • Decolonising Plant-Based Cultural Legacies in the Cultural Policies of the Global South / Ohenhen, Stanley Timeyin (CC BY)
  • Strong and Weak Theories of Capacity: Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Disability, and Contemporary Capacity Theorizing / Vaahtera, Touko (CC BY)
  • Unraveling Conversational Implicatures: A Study on Arabic EFL Learners / Rabab’ah, Ghaleb (CC BY)
  • Ableism in the Air: Disability Panic in Stephen King’s The Stand / Young, Alexis (CC BY)
  • Simultaneity of the Senses in the “Sirens” Chapter: Intermediality and Synaesthesia in James Joyce’s Ulysses / Frank, Elisabeth (CC BY)
  • Cartography of Cultural Practices and Promoting Creative Policies for an Educating City / Mesías-Lema, José María (CC BY)
  • Botanical imaginary of indigeneity and rhizomatic sustainability in Toni Morrison’s A Mercy / Atieh, Majda (CC BY)
  • Blood Run Beech Read: Human–Plant Grafting in Kim de l’Horizon’s Blutbuch / Pahl, Katrin (CC BY)
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  • Call of the Earth: Ecocriticism Through the Non-Human Agency in M. Jenkin’s “Enys Men” / Kruvko, Tatiana (CC BY)
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