Get a clue people. All the trouble in Michael Vicks’ life right now is just a racial conspiracy to do him and all black people in. I’m sure you thought it was the result of him being a street thug with money but without the ability to lose the ways of the ghetto. Oh yeah, and animal cruelty? Not so much. I repeat, this is all about racism.Why, you ask? Well, Juanita Abernathy says so. Why wouldn’t you believe this sweet looking lady?
So every time Juanita Abernathy walks into a room — which she’s doing right now, wearing a light purple jacket — she does so with credibility. Her opinions have weight behind them. She has been shot at with rubber bullets in Belfast, Northern Ireland, threatened by police in Jackson, Miss. With the other photos, she keeps a framed picture of her home that was bombed.
Apparently, according to the AP and author Wright Thompson, walking into a room wearing a light purple jacket, having been shot at with rubber bullets, threatened by police in Jackson, MS, and having your home bombed gives you credibility. Therefore, with none of this ever happening to me, aside from possibly wearing a light purple jacket, I must have no credibility.
She sits down and tries to explain why so many black people in Atlanta see racism behind the treatment of Vick. It has very little to do with Vick and everything to do with antennae sensitive — maybe even understandably oversensitive — to injustice. It’s based on years of bad experiences with the legal system and with federal agencies such as the FBI.
I can’t help but wonder why the FBI has chosen to pick on Vick? Poor guy.
“They have created all sorts of lies and fabricated all sorts of imaginary stories on the leadership of the civil rights movement,” she says. “And they even bugged my bedroom. In this house. “
It’s not all about Vick. It’s about Juanita. Is Vick involved with the civil rights movement? This has to be why they went after him!
She leans back in the chair and watches the television. Predictably, it’s all Vick, all the time. Montages of him playing. B-Roll of him walking into a courthouse. An e-mail from a viewer is posted on the screen. It’s Lisa in Kansas.
“It is not a black or white issue but an issue of animal cruelty,” she writes. “Black, white, Hispanic, it doesn’t matter. Breaking the law is breaking the law, and Vick shouldn’t get any special treatment because he is a football player. People need to stop using race as an excuse.”
Well, that emailer is from Kansas … what does she know? Does she wear a light purple jacket? Has she been shot at with rubber bullets? Threatened by police in Jackson, MS? Has she ever had her home bombed? I doubt it. That shoots her credibility in the butt.
Juanita Abernathy sits in her living room as those words cross her screen. Here’s what she wants the e-mailer to know. In Atlanta, where the Old South lingers just beneath a placid, integrated facade, everything is about race. Just walk a few feet away and look at her family photos. People’s opinions about every new situation are formed by the totality of their experiences. Animal rights activists think it’s about cruelty. Soured Falcons fans think it’s about tragedy in multiple ways. African-Americans in Atlanta, according to prominent black leaders, think it’s about Vick not getting due process because of the color of his skin.
I guess I missed how Vick was denied his due process? The prominent black leaders accuse, but offer no example of Vick’s due process being denied. Allrighty then.
Although it might not be about race to Lisa in Kansas, it is to Juanita in Georgia. Who’s right? Can they both be? Can an opinion formed by experience be wrong? Is it possible to separate your future from your past?
I’ve already ruled Lisa from Kansas out on being right. Remember, she has no credibility. Only Juanita does. Can an opinion formed by experience be wrong? Is Juanita involved in dog fights? Does she have experience with animal cruelty?
These have long been the questions that define Atlanta.
Sept. 22, 1906: Atlanta was thriving. A black middle class had formed, and the city trumpeted itself as a New South success story. In a single night, that changed. Local newspapers reported four alleged assaults on white women by African-Americans. The assaults might never have happened. That didn’t matter. A white vigilante mob roamed the city, attacking and killing black men and women, some by gunshots, others literally beaten to death. Some of the bodies were mutilated and publicly displayed. By official count, 25 African-Americans died, though others put the total higher. Hundreds more were wounded. The grandparents of the civil rights movement were scared children that night, wondering why strangers wanted them dead. Those memories would stick with them forever. They would tell their children and their children’s children, urging them to never forget.
It seems to me like this article is getting further and further away from the point. What does all this have to do with Vick and the charges against him? This was 1906 people! You’ve got to move on. Was it an atrocious night in Atlanta? Of course! Is it related to Michael Vick today? Not so much. The entire article is rich, but entirely too long to blog. I’m just going to paste some quotes from it and I’m sure you’ll continue to get the point:
But there are still two Atlantas. The past isn’t that distant here; on one street, there is an empty lot where a home was bombed to keep a neighborhood segregated in the ’60s. The I-20 corridor originally was built as a de facto moat that kept African-Americans out of traditionally white neighborhoods. A long and painful history lurks beneath the surface, needing only a polarizing event to resurface.
As quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons, Vick once was the symbol for black Atlanta. Now he faces “an electronic lynching,” Kwame Abernathy says.
“Therefore, with none of this ever happening to me, aside from possibly wearing a light purple jacket, I must have no credibility.”
Ha! It is all about the jacket.
This lady probably has some good points to make in the right context, but when she looks for racism under every rock she becomes another AlSharptonJesseJackson.
Hi Neil,
Really I think I might need to start shopping for a purple jacket. I’ll pass on the rubber bullets though.
Racism, ridiculous. He had everything handed him on a silver platter because he could throw a ball. As if in football anyone cares anymore whether you are white or black.
Even his brother got booted from the college team he quarterbacked for…
“due to a cumulative effect of legal infractions and unsportsmanlike play.”
And his legal problems continued off the field…
“Marcus Vick has been involved in multiple traffic and minor criminal violations in Virginia resulting in convictions, and as of June 4, 2007, was the defendant in a civil lawsuit on behalf of a 17-year old girl alleging they had a nearly two-year long sexual relationship and that Marcus Vick offered to provide her alcohol and marijuana and asked her to have sex with other men.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Vick
Sounds like they were both raised well.
Hi John,
I agree with you, though I must question your credibility. Have you ever been shot with rubber bullets? Just say yes and it will give you a big credibility boost!
Speaking of Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, where are they? I haven’t heard a peep from either of them on the Vick case. Maybe I haven’t looked close enough, but if they *are* on the scene, they not getting any coverage (and they ALWAYS get coverage).
They’re silence in this case speaks volumes about the case against Vick.
Racism is alive and well in the South. Many do not see it, others chose to pretend it does not exist. My dear hubby and I are a bi-racial couple and have been refused service a few times. We are accostemed to the glares and we grin at the open looks of shock.
Yet, the Michael Vick case has absolutely nothing to do with race and it angers us that the ‘race card’ has been thrown in.
Some individuals do more to drive a wedge between ethnic groups, than any good they may be trying to obtain. (Al Sharpton comes to mind)
I am truly sick of “black this” and “black that.” The only way to erase barriers is to quit asking for favors based on the color of your skin. Some people scream that they want equality and then push for superior treatment.
My neighbor was recently diagnosed with breast cancer and was approached by a group called Celebrating Life. It is a support group for African American women who are diagnosed with breast cancer.
I am not sure why, but they struck a nerve with her. Why an African American support group? Why not an AMERICAN support group? Or better yet, an all inclusive WOMEN with Breast Cancer support group?
Sorry, this is a very sore subject for us. I will step off my soap box now.
btw ~ I have never been shot with rubber bullets. However, my son shot me with an air soft pistols. (left a nice brise on my thigh) My home has never been bombed, but I once had severe blood blisters from holding a lit cherry bomb. AND, purple is not my color but I have a nice red jacket.
Hi CavMom,
Certainly racism is alive and well in many places. It is just sad when people can only view others by the color of their skin and when one race of people think they are better than another based on the color of skin. I just don’t believe legislation is the key to racism. I think education is, and some people will just never get over themselves, and we’ll never be able to control their hearts and minds no matter how much we try.
I agree, I think the people who play the racism card with the Michael Vick case, only harm race relations. Of course, the MSM loves to keep the hatred between races fueled too.
I understand your neighbor’s struck nerve. Imagine the outrage if there was a breast cancer support group for white women? The key is seeing the real person, the one living inside the body that God has blessed us with.
Wow, an air soft pistol shot to the thigh — that makes me elevate your credibility to an extraordinary level.
My husband has taken an air soft shot to the bridge of his nose. I’m sure Tieki and I have a picture of it somewhere! Oh yeah, and he’s also been in air soft pistol hand to hand combat and received a fat lip. Do I have to elevate his credibility? He doesn’t read my blog much, so I say let’s not tell him. Just for the record, the hand to hand combat was with some kids from our church — I was not involved with the fat lip scenario. It was our pastor’s son that nailed him. 
Hey Tammi, swing by my blog later. I hope you enjoy the latest post.
hahaha I am glad that you clarified the fat lip!
We feel that people use the race card because they are too lazy to rise up above the racial stigma and prove themselves to the world. It is so much easier to sit back and say “I don’t have a chance because I’m black, yellow, brown, red, green or even purple”
Hi Tammi
How different was that reenactment? Can’t say that I’ve ever witnessed anything like that, but it does explain why the races will never be allowed to get along. A constant reminder of that nature would put many a descendant from ever becoming friends. What ever would Jessie and Al do if that ever happened.
With all the legal stuff in his future it looks likes Vick’s season is over, if not his career. The lesson here is you can shaft people all you want, but when you mess with the puppies you’re done.
LC
You gotta be kidding. This has nothing to do with race. Vick is a low life sub human who runs fast and throws the football adequately. So what? What he did to animals for his own pleasure is creepy. That’s not a black and white issue.
The only fitting response is to do to him what he did to the poor innocent animals.
Throw this guy in the clink and throw away the key.
Set an example so NOBODY ever again goes down this road.
I simply detest the apologists who gloss over what he did. Oh, one more thing, let’s not wait. We need a trial to put him away in jail, but we have enough to get him off the field, away from admiring kids and everyone else.
And it must run in the family as his brother is hardly a peach.
I am sick of glorifying athletes. Just cus you run fast does not make you worthy of admiration.
The head of the Atlanta chapter of the NAACP, President R.L. White, asked the NFL, the Falcons and the sponsors not to permanently ban Mr. Vick from his ability to bring hours of enjoyment to fans all over this country.
Maybe the NAACP should ask the fans if they would get more enjoyment seeing Vick mauled by wild angry dogs.
Maybe the NAACP forgot about how he knowingly gave a woman herpes.
Maybe the NAACP forgot about his giving fans the middle finger.
Maybe the NAACP forgot that VICK is a liar when he in April to the NFL commissioner.
Maybe the NAACP wants to be a friend to VICK who killed mans best friend.
Maybe the NAACP should give him a job as a representative of the NAACP.
Maybe the NAACP should not try to make this a race issue.
Sickening.
Hi Ali,
Thanks for dropping by. Excellent points.