This won’t be the final word, of course, but Whoopie Goldberg did bring this up again last week in her debut on “The View.” She defended Michael Vick, who recently pled guilty to dog-fighting charges, as being a product of his (Southern) environment, not unlike “cock-fighting in Puerto Rico.”
Can we put this sort of clueless, shameless rationale to rest once and for all?
At some point in Anthropology 101, we all learned not to judge cultures, lest we join the ranks of ethnocentric lowbrows.
But if we pay attention, we ultimately learn that there’s black and white amid all the non-judgmental gray. Genital mutilation, for example, should never pass muster even as a cultural norm. Or incorporating rattlesnakes into religious ceremonies that include children. Or signing on to death as an appropriate enough punishment for apostasy.
Or taking pleasure, repeat pleasure — and often financial gain — from the infliction of pain on another creature. We’re talking adrenaline rushes from animal suffering. This is about humanity’s dark side in all its morbid, myriad manifestations: dog-fighting, cock-fighting, bull-fighting. Cultural context – from the inner city to Appalachia to west Tampa – notwithstanding.
And in Vick’s case, of course, one of the reasons he took the plea deal is to avoid a wider public airing of what he literally did – personally helping to execute poorly-performing dogs.
Such acts of base cruelty are not a product of Vick’s “immaturity,” as he disingenuously phrased it at his news conference. Would that they were. They’re a product of demented values and what’s cool in certain, cold-blooded circles.
And just when we thought Vick couldn’t top himself in lying and plea-copping, he did just that.
“I’m upset with myself, and, you know, through this ‘situation’ I found Jesus and asked him for forgiveness and turned my life over to God,” he said at that news conference. “And I think that’s the right thing to do as of right now.”
Nice touch, Michael: Adding insult to injury, torture and killing.