To some Americans, NFL quarterback Michael Vick is the most hated man in the United States. The hatred intensified when Vick announced plans to release an autobiographical book about his life and news writers and internet posters went to work telling the world how terrible Vick was and is.
Michael Vick was a dog fighter. Vick, like others in the dog fighting, cock fighting or animal fighting business routinely kill animals that lose fights and lose their owner’s money.
Dog fighting is a crime. Vick was caught, served time in jail, paid his debt to society, lost a job that paid him millions of dollars and forever tainted his reputation.
But after being incarcerated for two years, Vick rehabilitated himself, became a productive citizen, resumed his career in the National Football League and even joined the Humane Society and other groups in speaking out against dog fighting and other forms of animal abuse.
But some people, particularly America’s closet klansmen and secret skinheads, say they will never forget that Vick killed dogs and they will never like or accept him because of that.
The people that remember the Civil War, remember the Holocaust, remember 911 and remember what Michael Vick once did consider their memories honorable.
However, if a Black man like Michael Vick or a Black woman remembers how racists have used dogs to attack, hurt and kill Black people of African descent in America and in other countries around the world, the Black people are told to get over it!
White folk have ordered dogs to attack and kill Black people during slavery days, during colonialism, during man hunts and dogs were even ordered to attack, bite and kill Black women, children and babies that participated in non-violent civil rights marches and protests.
Dogs are killed every day by a variety of people. Some are killed in accidents, some dogs are shot, some dogs are drowned, some dogs are starved, some dogs are neglected and killed in many other ways.
Most dogs are killed by animal shelters and veterinarians. If a dog is euthanized or put to sleep, the dog is still dead and the dog was still killed.
Since dogs are killed in a variety of ways and in a variety of situations why is there so much hatred for the rehabilitated Michael Vick?
The same people that hate Michael Vick now have hated him since the day he was born! They don’t just hate Michael Vick because he was a dog fighter that killed dogs that lost fights, they hate Michael Vick because he is Black!
If you don’t know, modern day dog fighting was originated by Europeans. It has always been a big pastime in England and in other countries.
In America, most dog fighters are white. The most successful and the best dog fighters are white but the poster child for dog fighting is a reformed, apologetic Black man! Go figure!
