Black Women & Dogs [Our Love Story]

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Storytelling binds us together as humans.  We share our stories, our lives, our experiences with those whom we love and trust.

It’s our way of saying you belong to my tribe.

As this series has touched upon in Part 1, it can be intimidating and alienating for black women within the pet industry when we look around and do not see ourselves, or our stories, reflected within the pet parent community.

This is why so many BIPOC content creators, influencers and small businesses work so hard for representation.

But this February I wanted to expand our perspective around Diversity and Inclusion within the pet parent community.  To remind all of us that the love affair between black women and their pets is older than perhaps we realize.

And so I offer the striking images of societal black women who loved and owned dogs captured within Picturing Dogs, Seeing Ourselves: Vintage American Photographs by  Ann-Janine Morey.

Vintage Photographs Of Societal Black Women And Their Dogs

It is an emotional experience to see, for the first time, a different aspect of yourself documented in history. It changes you when you see the deep roots of another facet of your existence.

This time, that missing puzzle piece is seeing the multigenerational bond black women have shared with dogs reflected back through these historical images.

There is no fear. Only love. Companionship.

Through the pages of Ann-Janine Morey’s book, black women can see ourselves and our love of our dogs carried through the centuries.

Images that shout we are not outsiders to the pet parent community.

Images which remind us of a beautiful truth in our past. The truth of Black Women And Dogs — is a love story.

Picturing Dogs, Seeing Ourselves: Vintage American Photographs by Ann-Janine Morey is the coffee table book every pet parent and dog lover needs to add to their collection.  Its pages span the love so many women, men and children of differing backgrounds have had for our canine companions throughout America’s history.