MWPRINCight:
Amen and amen! This sums up this whole situation and where we still are in society pertaining to race and economic relations. It is still a broken system, regardless of who is in the White House. And, until we call it out and deal with it boldly and completely, it will remain broke.
Link to Opinion Piece: ToTheCenter - News: Michael Vick the scapegoat of an unequal system
Earlier this week on Tuesday, the fallen superstar Michael Vick appeared in court for a hearing, to determine the manner of his 23-month sentence that he has been serving in Leavenworth, Kansas, since August 2007. A U.S. federal district court had found him guilty of controlling a dog fighting ring at the home he owned in Surry County, Virginia. This most recent court appearance was to deal with the severity of his crimes, by measuring the remorsefulness of the individual. The subsequent charges were dropped after the judge showed sympathy to Vick’s desperate plea.
He is now scheduled for release on July 20, 2009, as that is when the 23 month sentence would have been completed. Pardoned of all remaining charges, he may be able to serve the remaining amount of his charges in a half-way house, since the jail-term has been suspended.Vick the former quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons, who draw massive crowds for the NFL franchise, is no doubt sorry. He has lost, what was, the most lucrative contract in the history of the NFL, valued at 130 million dollars. He was in the top 10 biggest earners among American athletes. Now he has been made insolvent, with his contract cancelled, since the NFL commissioner suspended him indefinitely from the Association. Now earning less than a dollar a day in prison, paying for the considerable expenses for relatives, he has also lost his hefty endorsements, while his current investments have flopped. The No. 1 draft pick in 2001, Vick was a player with bags of talent, and sometimes known as a one-man team, giving the city of Atlanta hope that their team could one day win a Superbowl. The quarterback who ran as much as he passed, was a rarity, he scored more touchdowns than any other quarterback in the league, making him the most entertaining player to watch.
However that was then, and this is now, everything has effectively dissolved for this once-upon-a time success. His material positions are being gobbled up, as his assets were estimated at twelve million dollars but he has now wracked up twenty million worth of liabilities, due to legal expenses and mismanagement of his finances. He is bankrupt, when he finally gets his freedom, he will be in heavy debt – with three kids and some family like his brother and mother who have never made much. The NFL will be the only possible vocation for him to rid himself and his family of their current troublesome situation. It was the NFL that gave him hope and a shot at being something, it was that institution that took it way. Yes, of course, the dog-fighting was the essential reason for his fall from grace, but that grace was only made possible by the NFL, and how easily it could be taken away from him. Going from one extreme to the next, two stories that are all to familiar in American culture, obtaining infinite fortune and then losing the fortune that was proven to be not so infinite. Vick was the role model for many young African-American athletes, and if he can successfully comeback will attain more admirers. Since his upbringing is all to indicative of the African-American populace: growing up in the projects where drug-dealing and violence is common in everyday life; born to a teenage unmarried couple, of whom the father left leaving the mother to bring up the kids while working two jobs. This is unfortunately all too common in America. For Vick like so many of his famed African-American contemporaries, the only way out was being an entertainer, whether it being a sportsman or an artist – not many lawyers and doctors are made from the upbringing these people receive. And when the small minority who do make it, it comes thick and fast, and near impossible to control the speed of progression from having nothing to everything. Yet is it everything, or just regressive? We’ve seen the results with two famous African American icons, Michael Jackson and O.J. Simpson, they are discouraging examples, but real examples.
Jay Z is a more positive example, he’s kept a cool head on his shoulders, and has become a brilliant entrepreneur in hospitality, fashion and of course music. Except he was a drug-dealer on the streets of New York and this gave him opportunities for him to make contacts in the ‘Rap-game’. He well could have never been here due to his battling lifestyle, however he had no other choice this was the nature of the rough streets he was born into. An even more radical instance is the true story of a real hustler 50 Cent, who was shot multiple times before his first record signing opportunity, but somehow got a second chance and subsequently has made it to the top. That second chance is what Vick will be praying on, at 28 he doesn’t have long left, as a professional footballer he is approaching the latter years of his prime. Especially due to his game, he isn’t a solid distributor like Brett Favre was who had a marathon of a career due to his style. Vick’s style is all about athleticism, and one’s speed decreases as one ages, something that hardly affected Favre, as athleticism was never his strong suit.In saying all that, this is just a microcosm, one magnified example of another African American’s descent. It is not the behaviour of these people that is to blame, but the environment they are constructed in. Environment is heavily assisted in how people are made up, and my point is African Americans aren’t privileged to the greatest situations. Nevertheless it is more complex than simply the economic status they are afforded and then addicted with ridding, but the socio-political bias they are subjected to. It is commonly known that the white man controls the Western world, all the corporations, governments, and influential media, are at the will of the white man. And their hold on the world means societies are structured by their viewpoint on how things are to run. So even-though Jay Z has made it to the tune of his own drum, creating an empire for himself, this is minute in comparison to the fact he is still controlled to an extent. Since the music label he founded ‘Roc-A-Fella’ is owned by Universal Music Group, this company makes up about a quarter of music in the popular market. Hopefully now with an African American leading the country we can see more equal footing, but the president of the United States is actually quite small in retrospect, since corporations hold so much sway over governments. My point is the bias does not go both ways, there are double standards. There are countless cases of how white bankers have been made rich off other people’s credit crises’, of how white lawyers have manipulated laws to allow corporations continue doing unlawful dealing, and of how white politicians have used tax funds for their own purposes. And among these countless cases they have got off scotch free and even applauded in some realms of society.
In any case sure what Michael Vick did was wrong, and the animal right groups have every reason to be angry and berate this individual. His behaviour was shocking and nothing to be proud of, but by condoning him they are missing the big picture. That Vick’s case is everything that is flawed about this concept that anyone can make it in America, whereby the idealized ‘American dream’ is not entirely true, where we aren’t all free with equal
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