Revealed: former colleagues claim Kevin Roberts told them he killed a neighbor’s pit bull around 2004

Revealed: former colleagues claim Kevin Roberts told them he killed a neighbor’s pit bull around 2004

The man behind Project 2025, the rightwing policy manifesto that includes calls for a sharp increase in immigrant deportations if Donald Trump is elected, told university colleagues about two decades ago that he had killed a neighborhood dog with a shovel because it was barking and disturbing his family, according toformer colleagues who spoke to the Guardian.

Kevin Roberts, now the president of the Heritage Foundation, is alleged to have told colleagues and dinner guests that he killed a neighbor’s pit bull around 2004 while he was working as a still relatively unknown history professor at New Mexico State University.

…

Two other people – a professor and her spouse - recall hearing a similar account directly from Roberts at a dinner at his home. Three other professors also said they heard the account at that time from the colleagues who said they had heard it directly from Roberts.

None recall Roberts – who worked at the university as an assistant professor from 2003 to 2005 – ever saying that the dog he allegedly said he killed was actively threatening him or his family.

  • apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world
    415·
    1 month ago

    It is and was common to outlaw pit bulls in cities across the US on the misinformed grounds that they are aggressive. This was absolutely the case around the time this shit stain allegedly did whatever he claimed to do. What this law did in practice was to make it difficult for black and brown people to get occupancy permits in those municipalities, those who most commonly had them. Neighbors could use the ordinance to harass and complain about other “unsavory” neighbors. This guy is a piece of shit for killing a dog and for being a racist scumbag. Bragging about it and you don’t think they’re intrinsically related?

    • Zahille7@lemmy.world
      12·
      1 month ago

      I get what you’re saying, but I honestly feel like you’re being disingenuous here. Only in exaggerated media (shows, movies, music videos) do predominantly POC own pit bulls, which is where the stereotype came from.

      Where I live, it’s mostly white people that own pit bulls and such. And it’s also those same white people that are mostly impacted by such legislation. Personally, I think it’s utter bullshit to ban an entire breed of dog and I’ve seen so, SO, SO many people literally saying all put bulls should be put down.

      I call those people “dog racists,” and they always fail to see how their line of thinking could extremely easily be switched to a group of people rather than dogs.

      • apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world
        35·
        1 month ago

        Just because people have done great work to undo that horrible unjust stereotypes does not make the lived experience of people like me and so many others any less real.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
          81·
          1 month ago

          Whether or not he’s a racist, a pit bull is a pit bull. My dog is half pit bull. Does that make me a racist when I say it?

          • apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world
            19·
            1 month ago

            No. It does not. Like a lot of language, context is important. That’s part of the definition of a dog whistle. Pit bull is still a trigger word, hell most if not all animal shelters avoid using the term for dogs like yours and mine. They call them terrier mixes instead.

            • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
              101·
              1 month ago

              What are you even talking about?

              If that was the breed of dog, what was he supposed to call it? Scotties are terriers. Jack Russels are terriers.

              • apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world
                26·
                1 month ago

                Fucks sake, I’m not trying to gas light you. Maybe you don’t live in such a hyper racist and segregated city. I’m tired, my back is killing me and just because you gave me one site doesn’t prove your point.

                • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
                  72·
                  1 month ago

                  What the fuck are you talking about? I never said you were trying to gaslight me. I also never called you stupid, I called my dogs stupid. I also don’t live in a hyper racist and segregated city. I literally live in a neighborhood with a mix of white people and POC- mostly black and south Asian. We are all friendly to each other.