Slate has an interesting article on a racist pit-bull. It's not surprising at all to me. My old little mutt didn't like little kids, but this girl down the street of dark Colombian heritage seemed to get it worst of all. Here's the hit quote:

Most dog owners and people of color will admit (bashfully or forcefully, depending) that dog racism exists. Many non-pet-owners (and Cartesians) will sniff disdainfully. Racism requires malice aforethought, they'll say. Dogs can't think, therefore they can't be racist.

Nonsense, says Dr. Nicholas Dodman, a professor at Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine and author of several books on animal behavior, most recently If Only They Could Speak. "Any behavioralist knows that dogs don't like subsets of people," he says, and though the most common subsets are broad?strange men or little children?"sometimes it can be quite specific. It could be tall men, or men with beards. It might be men who are wearing big shoes, might be as subtle as men who smoke cigarettes?which can be hard to pick up on?but it can also be black guys."

I know a dog that becomes very upset when it's around a man in a ball cap. One would imagine that's related to a bad experience that she had with someone so attired, though not always. With minorities, it's often just lack of exposure. During those crucial months (mentioned in the article), what they are exposed to is likely what they will be comfortable with for the rest of their lives. If they spend that time in a pound, they are likely to be much tougher to train and acclamate to people of any sort, much less those that look "different."

So the lesson for minorities would mainly be to make sure they get puppies or dogs that are familiar with people that look like they do, or it could make it that much tougher.

Also, I should stress the importance of training your dog. Preferably with an interactive training system in which the instructor teaches you how to train your dog (instead of shipping them off somewhere and hoping that they come back a brand new pup). Even anti-social dogs behavior improves if you have trained them.