Gem
Rookie
- Aug 11, 2004
- 2,080
- 783
- 0
- Banned
- #21
While dog fighting might be a "cultural norm" where Vick was raised (which seems to be a bit questionable...not to mention overlooking the obvious racism inherent in saying that illegal torturing of innocent dogs is "a black thing")...he was living and has lived for quite sometime in a culture in which people love their dogs often more than they love some of their human family members. We have entire stores devoted to dogs, we have dogs who play prominent roles on television shows - often getting more fan mail than their human counter-parts, in short, this nation loves dogs and the only way you may have missed that is if you lived in a cave.
Michael Vick was not living in a cave. He was living the life of a prominent professional football player - he knew that the society not only did not approve of dog fighting, but that it was illegal. I would risk making a generalization in saying that almost ALL people who engage in dogfighting know its illegal...hence why it is so deeply underground.
Goldberg was, in my opinion, walking a very dangerous line by stating that because he grew up in a culture where something was acceptable it "explains" why he did it. Many people grew up with parents and/or grandparents who were one way...and they chose to do something different. People raised by devoutly religious people often choose to be non-church-goers. People raised in Republican households often become ardent Democrats (see Hillary Clinton). People raised by parents with prejudices against different races and/or sexual orientations often grow up to be far more tolerant than their parents.
Vick may have grown up in a culture where dog-fighting took place. It does not explain why he chose as an adult to take such a prominent and proud part of the needless torture and killing of innocent animals for sport and amusement. To try to offer any rationalization of this is, in my opinion, disturbing at worst and unnecessary blather at best.
Additionally, just to throw fuel on the fire...I would be interested to see if Whoopi would have offered the same support/explanation of a Southern white male named "Bubba" who tortured and electrocuted to death animals just for fun. We call people like that future serial killers...not misunderstood victims of an unfortunate cultural disconnect.
Michael Vick was not living in a cave. He was living the life of a prominent professional football player - he knew that the society not only did not approve of dog fighting, but that it was illegal. I would risk making a generalization in saying that almost ALL people who engage in dogfighting know its illegal...hence why it is so deeply underground.
Goldberg was, in my opinion, walking a very dangerous line by stating that because he grew up in a culture where something was acceptable it "explains" why he did it. Many people grew up with parents and/or grandparents who were one way...and they chose to do something different. People raised by devoutly religious people often choose to be non-church-goers. People raised in Republican households often become ardent Democrats (see Hillary Clinton). People raised by parents with prejudices against different races and/or sexual orientations often grow up to be far more tolerant than their parents.
Vick may have grown up in a culture where dog-fighting took place. It does not explain why he chose as an adult to take such a prominent and proud part of the needless torture and killing of innocent animals for sport and amusement. To try to offer any rationalization of this is, in my opinion, disturbing at worst and unnecessary blather at best.
Additionally, just to throw fuel on the fire...I would be interested to see if Whoopi would have offered the same support/explanation of a Southern white male named "Bubba" who tortured and electrocuted to death animals just for fun. We call people like that future serial killers...not misunderstood victims of an unfortunate cultural disconnect.
