In Diverse Workplaces, Whites Struggle With... | Gather

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. For Beth Nelson, the watershed point came last month when new hires at Economatrix, her employer, pushed the Caucasian share of the consulting firm's workforce below 50% for the first time.

"If you can bring your dog in, I'm bringin' mine."

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"People came in on Monday and said the office smelled like a wet dog," she says, recalling her mortification. "It was then that I realized that I'd become a minority."

"I know we're all on the same team, but who's using the Golden Retriever deodorant?"

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Nelson is an early warning sign that the borderline in America that demarcates whether an individual's personal, unenhanced fragrance is considered "normal" has moved from a white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant standard to something more complex. "It's a well-settled fact among olfactory ethnographers that white people smell like wet dogs," says Allen Reynolds, a professor at Case Western Reserve. "The old standard was a mixture of mashed potatoes and Christmas tree highlights on a solid foundation of wet dog smell, usually a golden lab or cocker spaniel."

Jack Russell terrier: The WASP pit bull.

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"Like many prejudices, this particular belief contains a grain of truth, however invidious and noxious," says Arnold Pehayek, a fragrance specialist for the U.S. Census Bureau who recently finished reading "Thirty Days to a More Powerful Vocabulary." "Upper-class white people smell like dogs favored by the affluent, such as black labrador retrievers and Jack Russell terriers. The odor is caused by the natural fibers they wear--the people, not the dogs--and by their participation in privileged outdoor activities such as field hockey and lacrosse." He noted that the phenomenon was especially pronounced among graduates of small liberal arts colleges.

"Hmm--springer spaniel?"

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Nelson's co-workers, who eventually were forced to complain to human resources about her, said they were merely being objective, not racist. "Wet dog smell is a good thing," said DeShawn Johnson, a research assistant. "I told her the old joke, how do you spot the bride at a WASP wedding? She's the one kissing the golden retriever," he says to scattered laughter and a few groans. "That showed we were laughing with Beth, not at her."

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