Saturday, August 27, 2011

White Michael Vick

...to me, Vick seems to have a deeply African-American approach to the game. I'm not saying that a black QB who stands in the pocket ain't playing black. I'm saying Vick's style is so badass, so artistic, so fluid, so flamboyant, so relentless -- so representative of black athletic style -- that if there were a stat for swagger points, Vick would be the No. 1 quarterback in the league by far.

A decade after he became the first black QB to be drafted No. 1 overall, about one in five of the league's passers is African-American, compared with two-thirds of all players. But after his arrest for dogfighting, so many people asked: Would a white football player have gotten nearly two years in prison for what Vick did to dogs?

I don't know what it's like to be a black man.  I suspect it's like the proverbial monkey on your back... Always feeling as if you have to prove your character is above all the old stereotypes... laziness, dullness of wit... feeling as if you enter every arena of life painted with doubt and suspicion.

But articles, like this one in ESPN Magazine, that trumpet an unlevel playing field and that instill anger... and worse, discouragement...  They simply offer another excuse for failure and sub par behavior.

....   

2 comments:

SkyePuppy said...

White men can't swagger.

Black = good. White = bad.

Would a white football player have been allowed back in the NFL after serving two years for what Vick did to dogs?

Ugh! I've had it up to here (hand above head) with news & entertainment people harping on race. Enough already!!! Let's just let people be themselves and stand or fall for what they do not what their skin pigmentation is.

My roomie has a black guy working for her in the admin pool (gov't union) who, after a month, is a far, far better worker than all the rest. And he HATES the black woman who tries to get by doing nothing, and then she backstabs and runs to the union whenever she's forced to do real work. People like her make life harder for people like him, because people like this stupid sports guy keep lumping all the black people together.

Malott said...

SP,

Love your comment!