How A Racist Trump Supporter Forced My Black Neighbor to Give Up His Dog
Cowards have no comprehension of the terrible pain they inflict on the world
I knew there was going to be trouble from the moment David arrived.
I live across the alley from an old farmhouse that was converted into a duplex. Throughout the years, there have been a variety of renters in the bottom unit. The top has remained the same.
Jim’s one of those buffoons who still has his ‘Trump 2020’ sign proudly displayed in his yard. Throughout the summer, he has drunken parties including bonfires that threaten to burn down the whole neighborhood. The tree in the neighbor’s yard has had the bark scorched from the heat. A nice family used to live there, they moved because of Jim.
Even other white people can’t stand Jim for all that long. I knew Jim was going to make life miserable for David just because he was black, but I didn’t know how bad it was going to get. Decent people can never predict the depths to which an evil, racist, coward is willing to descend.
Kingston the terrier
I saw David out walking his dog so I brought my dog over to say hello. David had a short haired Terrier with black patches. My dog is a Labrador mix.
“Hi, I’m your neighbor, I thought our dogs could meet so they don’t bark at or fight each other.”
“Good idea,” David said. “This is Kingston.”
“Kuzo,” I replied. We introduced our dogs before we knew each other.
My dog is still a puppy, and instantly he got down in a playful crouch. He and Kingston immediately hit it off. Soon they were rolling and snapping at each other, exhausting themselves as dogs do.
It’s always nice when your dog makes a friend. They need that. They need to socialize as much as people do.
Settling in
I found out that David moved up from Milwaukee for a job opportunity. He lived with his girlfriend. A few weeks after they moved in, he got a fire pit and invited us over.
“Can you bring your dog over to wear out my dog?”
“Sure!”
They’re good people.
We sat together sipping our beers in front of that ominous ‘Trump 2020’ sign in the yard.
I didn’t ask David about Jim. I just made small talk really. Sometimes people don’t want to discuss all the injustices in the world. Sometimes they just want to sit and have a beer in front of a fire and watch their dog playfully wrestle with another dog.
I review products, and whenever I got something that didn’t fit Kuzo, I’d walk it over for Kingston. One of the items was this handsome black and plaid winter coat with a collar.
David’s girlfriend thought the coat made Kingston look quite handsome. I’d see them walking out my window, Kingston wearing his coat, and it always made me smile.
Jim takes action
The thing about Trump supporters is that they’re always cowards. They feel slighted by everything. They’re dumb.
The result of those traits is that it takes them a while to figure out how to respond to non existent affronts.
We all just kind of knew something was going to happen. The seething racism of the Trump supporter was ever present. It hung over the house like a dark cloud.
He wasn’t likely to confront David directly, because Jim is a coward. But he was going to do something. It was just a matter of finding out what.
The other thing about Trump supporters is that they’re cruel. They love to make mean little jokes and then berate you for “not having a sense of humor” if you say their words are offensive. They love thinking they’ve won.
The fact that David was downstairs breathing Jim’s air probably drove him crazy. Finally, he figured out a way to inflict the greatest amount of pain.
The letter
David asked to borrow a shovel to clean up after Kingston.
“No problem,” I said, dropping it off. “Bring it back whenever.”
When David brought the shovel back, I could tell something was wrong.
“Look at this,” he said.
He handed me a piece of paper. It was an eviction notice. It said he had until that evening to get rid of Kingston.
“Jim’s been complaining,” David said.
“That guy’s a jerk,” I replied.
I realized I’d never heard David complain about Jim before. He just endured him. What good does it do to complain in most cases anyway?
David continued, “When I first moved in, he warned me that your dog was going to be a problem, and that turned out not to be the case.”
I took Jim’s statement to mean that he simply hadn’t wanted David to live there from day one.
“I know he’s been filing all sorts of complaints with the landlord,” David said. “He’s been saying that Kingston makes noise during the day when I’m at work.” David shook his head, staring at the eviction notice.
“I could take him for a night for you to get this figured out,” I said.
“My girlfriend’s son said she can take him.”
Bye Kingston
I picked up my daughter from school and I told her the story. She felt so bad for Kingston that she started to cry.
I talked it over with my wife, and my wife had a good suggestion.
“He should just stop paying rent. They can’t evict him in the winter.”
My wife works in the school district so she’s pretty familiar with situations like this. She works with a lot of at-risk families who are constantly being harassed by Trump supporters. Trump supporters are mean people who are always doing whatever they can to hurt anyone they can.
I saw David the next day and proposed the idea.
David thought about it for a moment, then he said, “Yeah, but you never know when the landlord has connections to the police, or whatever. It doesn’t matter if they can’t legally evict us, they’ll find some other way to make our lives miserable.”
He was right. “Did you find a place for Kingston?” I asked.
“He’s got a new family now.” David’s eyes glanced up at the second story window. “Jim’s been stomping around in the middle of the night. I think he sets an alarm so he can get up and wake us up. I told him to stop it. He already took my dog. I told him he better stop looking for trouble.”
Ever present malice
Jim has no other obligations other than to sit upstairs, wait for his disability checks, and write complaints to anyone and everything. Naturally he’s the one who insists he’s being mistreated.
He probably laughed when David had to give up his dog.
David didn’t have the resources to move.
Attacking somebody’s dog is an act of immense cruelty and cowardice. It’s a gutter response from a trash person who is willing to abandon all decency for the fleeting impression that he’s gotten the better of somebody.
My dog lays on the couch and whimpers. He misses playing with Kingston.
Kingston was a good boy, my daughters miss seeing him every now and then.
I miss seeing David walk Kingston out my window with Kingston looking smart in the jacket I gave him.
I’m sure David misses Kingston too.
Meanwhile, the Trump supporter sits alone in his second story apartment indifferent to the pain he has caused to so many people. He’s alone, he’s delusional, he insists that he’s won.
I wish I could trade every Trump supporter for a dog, but who would ever give up something as grand as a dog and accept something so worthless in return?