Before Condemning Michael Vick, Consider Ignorance, Stupidity — and Insanity

By Brian C. Browley
Black College Wire

I love dogs and I think dog fighting is a barbaric and archaic sport that should be banished.

Now that I've given my disclaimer, allow me to say how truly disgusted I've been by the coverage and reactions of people to the revelation that NFL quarterback Michael Vick was involved in dog fighting.

Brian C. Browley

Admittedly, the details of Vick's indictment are sickening, but watch an episode of "Animal Precinct" on the Animal Planet and I'm sure you'll see similar situations, if not worse.

There have been more passionate reactions to Vick's case than to that of Mary Winkler, who admitted to shooting her sleeping husband in the back with a shotgun in Selmer, Tenn.

Winkler, who was convicted of voluntary manslaughter, served only 60 days in a mental health institution plus the time she served during her five months in the county lockup. Vick, on the other hand, is facing up to five years in prison if convicted on the charge of conspiracy to travel in interstate commerce in aid of unlawful activities and to sponsor a dog in an animal-fighting venture.

Our priorities are misplaced in the attention we give to scandal.

As Common asks on his single, "The People," "Why white folks focus on dogs and yoga / While people on the low end tryin' to ball and get over?"

In a culture that glorifies violence in movies, TV shows and music, there are people who are still shocked and appalled that some individuals choose to act on these programmed impulses.

It's always been funny that Americans are so selective in their love for violence.

We love to see the good guy in the movie blow the bad guy's head off, but we cringe and cry foul the instant we see a rapper with a gun.

We scream about the Second Amendment right to bear arms, but are ready to call anyone who has an improperly or unlicensed firearm a thug and a menace to society.

From the days of Jack Johnson, America has loved nothing more than building a black athlete up just to tear him down.

Vick, for his part, ran afoul of the law and has to pay for his crimes, but the calls for banning the man from ever making a living in the NFL again are utterly ridiculous.

NFL player Leonard Little served half of a 90-day sentence after a DUI crash killed a woman in 1998. Little was only suspended for eight games.

Jamal Lewis pleaded guilty to attempting to distribute cocaine and was sentenced to four months in prison, but only suspended for two games in 2004.

Reggie Rogers spent a year in prison after a DUI crash killed three teenagers in 1988, but eventually returned to the NFL in 1991 and 1992.

Unfortunately, in high-profile cases such as that of Vick, Barry Bonds and even Adam "Pacman" Jones, if you're not rallying for their absolute destruction, you're one of the bad guys.

That's where I have a problem. I don't take pleasure in seeing people suffer, even if they might happen to be loudmouths, jerks or yes, even criminals.

Sorry, but the Christian in me has a problem with that. When one transgresses the law, a cost must be paid, but the vitriol and venom sprayed at Vick is excessive and hypocritical.

The real reason people want to act as if they are so shocked about dog fighting is because of the communities where dog fighting takes place. You won't find it on Park Avenue or in the suburbs.

Rather, these events take place on the lowest rungs of society, in the slums and dirt-poor rural communities of America. Places where the living conditions of people mirror that of dogs.

While Vick escaped the trappings of poverty physically, mentally some part of him felt the need to engage in this sort of callous and sickening behavior. Was it stupidity? Yes. Ignorance? Perhaps.

Something else played a part, too: insanity. This insanity is born out of a failing education system, lack of opportunity and poverty. Even when some manage to escape their environments physically, mentally, they can't let it go.

If Winkler's excuse for shooting her husband is that he subjected her to years of physical and emotional abuse, is it so far-fetched to imagine that some who are products of extreme poverty and lack of education might also suffer long-term harm?

That's cold, hard truth, and that's what many find hard to admit. If we really want to address the problem of dog fighting, we have to address the socioeconomic problems of what leads a man to participate in such a sickening affair. If you honestly examine the people who are behind dog fights, they will overwhelmingly be poor and uneducated.

However, such an examination would require a modicum of compassion and concern for one's fellow man, and that's something that's in awfully short supply.

Brian Browley, a student at Tennessee State University, is managing editor of the Meter. Articles in the Voices section represent the views of their authors, and not necessarily those of Black College Wire. To comment, e-mail [email protected]

Posted Aug. 31, 2007

Is This What King Died For?

My parents grew up poor and uneducated. So did most of my large extended family in rural Alabama. None of them engaged in dogfighting. To lay the blame on poverty and ignorance as you have is missing the point. Dogfighting is the sport of thugs. I volunteer in an animal shelter. I reluctantly admit that the majority of people who come in to look at pit bulls are young men of color, although some are white. These young men come in with baggy jeans, turn-around caps and tattoos, and they can't speak proper English. They salivate over the pit bulls. I'd rather kill the dogs than see them leave with these brutes.

Is this what Martin Luther King died for? So young Black men can engage in a bloody, brutal and violent sport? I don't think so. Michael Vick gets what he deserves — a place in jail. I hope that everyone else involved in dogfighting, regardless of color, gets punished, too. All of them make me sick. Absolutely sick.

These people are the scum of the Earth.

Debra J. White
Tempe, Ariz.
Aug. 31, 2007