Michael Vick is Not a Monster!
In this episode, I talk about Michael Vick. I did a few media interviews about Vick recently and I have made some of these points very clearly:
1) I find it amazing how people have no problem throwing away the life of a black man over some damn dogs. Would we do the same thing to a hunter who shoots animals in the head and stuffs them on the mantle? No we would not.
2) Michael Vick is a young man who deserves a second chance. He has time to make up for his mistakees and they should allow him to do so. This notion that committing a crime means that everyone has the right to take everything from you, including your ability to vote or make a living is nothing more than a modern day lynching (recall, when black men were lynched, it was not because they were black. It was because someone had convinced others that he was a bad person).
3) The ease with which we imprison this man is reflective of the fact that America has a sick epidemic when it comes to the incarceration of black men: there are more black men in prison in the US than all over the entire world. Ronald Reagan, in his efforts to destroy this country, led to massively expanded incarceration rates for black men that are destroying our nation. This is a SICKNESS.
4) If you think that Vick is any worse than Paris Hilton, the consistent drunk driver who could kill an entire family after one night of partying, then something is wrong with you. What is most ironic is that when she went to jail and cried, they let her out. The same would probably not work for Michael Vick or any black man in America. This is reflective of the fact that white females have, by far, the lowest incarceration rates in America. They are protected and black men are exterminated.
Racism is written all over this case. I don't blame you if you don't see it, because like HIV, racism is a disease that most carriers do not know they possess, and they easily infect others. The difference is that this is also an intergenerational infection.
1) I find it amazing how people have no problem throwing away the life of a black man over some damn dogs. Would we do the same thing to a hunter who shoots animals in the head and stuffs them on the mantle? No we would not.
2) Michael Vick is a young man who deserves a second chance. He has time to make up for his mistakees and they should allow him to do so. This notion that committing a crime means that everyone has the right to take everything from you, including your ability to vote or make a living is nothing more than a modern day lynching (recall, when black men were lynched, it was not because they were black. It was because someone had convinced others that he was a bad person).
3) The ease with which we imprison this man is reflective of the fact that America has a sick epidemic when it comes to the incarceration of black men: there are more black men in prison in the US than all over the entire world. Ronald Reagan, in his efforts to destroy this country, led to massively expanded incarceration rates for black men that are destroying our nation. This is a SICKNESS.
4) If you think that Vick is any worse than Paris Hilton, the consistent drunk driver who could kill an entire family after one night of partying, then something is wrong with you. What is most ironic is that when she went to jail and cried, they let her out. The same would probably not work for Michael Vick or any black man in America. This is reflective of the fact that white females have, by far, the lowest incarceration rates in America. They are protected and black men are exterminated.
Racism is written all over this case. I don't blame you if you don't see it, because like HIV, racism is a disease that most carriers do not know they possess, and they easily infect others. The difference is that this is also an intergenerational infection.
posted by Boyce Watkins at
4:08 PM
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