Obama's Public Support of Michael Vick

[Nat]

From Bill Burton:

The President did place a call to Mr. Lurie to discuss plans for the use of alternative energy at Lincoln Financial Field, during which they spoke about that and other issues. He of course condemns the crimes that Michael Vick was convicted of but, as he's said previously, he does think that individuals who have paid for their crimes should have an opportunity to contribute to society again.

Also, did anybody hear Melissa Harris-Perry's comments on msnbc last night? She clarified later through twitter that she thought she had 3 more minutes to talk. I couldn't find a YouTube, but here is her blog post about it:


Last night I had one of those awful television moments that sometimes afflict those of us who spend part of our life in classroom where we have 90 minutes to discuss a topic and the other part of our life on television where we are constrained to four-minute analyses.* On Wednesday evening I joined The Rachel Maddow Show to discuss the current flap surrounding Michael Vick and President Obama.

My goal was to offer some historical context for understanding the vastly different responses to Vick’s crime, to the severity of his punishment, and to the sense that he should be given a second chance to earn a living as a professional football player. I believe that to understand these different public responses we need to know how the Vick case evokes often unspoken, but nonetheless powerful, and deeply emotional interconnections between the rights of black Americans and of animals. Instead, having vastly underestimated the allotted time for the segment I instead seemed to argue that Vick’s acts were justified by the history of American racism.* This touched off quite a flood of hate mail to my email inbox last night. So I’ve decided to make one more effort to discuss this complicated issue.

Last year I was teaching an introductory politics course at Princeton University when a campus animal rights group brought to campus a fascinating and provocative exhibit that linked animal cruelty to human degradation, imprisonment and slavery. The images in the exhibit were part of a larger international PETA effort. They were disturbing, but also very powerful.

Many African American students on campus were deeply offended, hurt and angry about the exhibit's comparison of animal suffering to the realities of the slave trade and lynching. The Organization of Black Students organized a protest and boycott. *The campus animal rights group organized a teach-in. *I had leaders from both student organizations in my class that semester. The tension, emotion, and analytic challenges raised by the exhibit became an important aspect of the class. A group of students even made a film about the issue for the final class project. As I sought to help guide my students through these interactions I opened up a new line of research on the politics of race and animal rights.*

Recall that North American slavery of the 17th and 18th century is distinguished by its "chattel" element. *New World slavery did not consider enslaved Africans to be conquered persons, but to be chattel, beast of burden, fully subhuman and therefore not requiring the basic rights of humans. By defining slaves as animals and then abusing them horribly the American slave system degraded both black people and animals. By equating black people to animals it both asserted the superiority of humans to animals, arrayed some humans (black people) as closer to animals and therefore less human, and implied that all subjugated persons and all animals could be used and abused at the will of those who were *more powerful. The effects were pernicious for both black people and for animals.*

Equating black people to animals was a practice that continued after emancipation.*Consider the image below. *It is a picture of an Alabama store during the Jim Crow era. The sign reads: No Negro or Ape Allowed in the Building.*

When the abuse and oppression of an entire group of people is justified as acceptable because they are defined as animals, then it stands to reason the society is suggesting that abuse and oppression are acceptable ways to treat animals. Michael Vick committed horrendous acts of cruelty. I have had dogs as pets for my entire life. I am sickened by his actions. At the same time I recognize that he is one indivudal in a larger society that is profoundly complicit in the abuse and mistreatment of animals. *Ideologies of white supremacy have particular culpability in that attitude toward animals because it was part of the governing ideologiy of slavery and segregation.*

Givent this history we might think that African Americans would be particulalry strident animal rights activists, seeing their interests as profoundly linked. But the relationship between races, right and and animals is more complicated. Dogs, for example, were used by enslavers to catch, trap and return those who were trying to escape to freedom. Dogs were used to terrorize Civil Rights demonstrators. In short, animals have been weapons used against black bodies and black interests in ways that have deep historical ressonace.

Not only have animals been used as weapons against black people, but many African Americans feel that the suffering of animals evokes more empathy and concern among whites than does the suffering of black people. *For example, in the days immediately following Hurricane Katrina dozens of people sent me a link to an image of pets being evacuated on an air conditioned bus. This image was a sickening juxtaposition to the conditions faced by tens of thousands of black residents trapped by the storm and it provoked great anger and pain for those who sent it to me.

I sensed that same outrage in the responses of many black people who heard Tucker Carlson call for Vick's execution as punishment for his crimes. *It was a contrast made more raw by the recent decision to give relatively light sentences to the men responsible for the death of Oscar Grant. *Despite agreeing that Vick's acts were horrendous, somehow the Carlson's moral outrage seemed misplaced. It also seemed profoundly racialized. For example, Carlson did not call for the execution of BP executives despite their culpability in the devastation of Gulf wildlife. He did not denounce the Supreme Court for their decision in*US v. Stevens (April 2010) which overturned a portion of the 1999 Act Punishing Depictions of Animal Cruelty. After all with this "crush" decision the Court seems to have validated a marketplace for exactly the kinds of crimes Vick was convicted of committing. *For many observers, the decision to demonize Vick seems motivated by something more pernicious than concern for animal welfare. It seems to be about race.*

It is into this murky racial history that President Obama inadvertently waded this week. Whatever the quality (or lack thereof)*of his argument about incarceration and its lifelong effects on those who serve time, I suspect President could not be heard over the din of emotion, anxiety, and history around race and animals in this country. Last night I found myself similarly unable to articulate the difficult and complex relationships that can make it so difficult to hear one another across this divide. My goal was not to defend Vick nor to condemn him, but to try to understand our very different national reactions to him.*

[Sachita]

Originally Posted by Nat

.
Last night I found myself similarly unable to articulate the difficult and complex relationships that can make it so difficult to hear one another across this divide. My goal was not to defend Vick nor to condemn him, but to try to understand our very different national reactions to him.*

Ok yes, I see what you mean, really. Thank you for taking the time to post all that. I can see where some people would take issue. For me it really is just about the animals and the degree of cruelty. But I do see your point.

[Sachita]

Originally Posted by June

But you know, folks are stubborn and it's easier to rely on their knee-jerk reactions rather than try to figure out why.

Ok I'm guilty of this when it comes to certain things. I also had a light go off inside. We all have something we're passionate about and things that are very personal. As much as I try to leave emotion out of reaction I admit I fall short.

These issues are in my face on a regular basis because of my involvement with dogs/animals and rescue groups. I can't watch an ASPCA commercial without breaking down and crying. I am on craigslist several hours a week trying to match dogs with people seeking dogs, with some success but with that i also see a lot of shit that saddens me. After a while you become enraged and a rebel for the fight against animal cruelty. My stance on Vick is the degree of cruelty and the amount of animals. Even one would have been awful but it was so large and so much suffering. I don't care if he's famous, black, green- etc.

thanks again

[dreadgeek]

Originally Posted by Sachita

Ok I'm guilty of this when it comes to certain things. I also had a light go off inside. We all have something we're passionate about and things that are very personal. As much as I try to leave emotion out of reaction I admit I fall short.

These issues are in my face on a regular basis because of my involvement with dogs/animals and rescue groups. I can't watch an ASPCA commercial without breaking down and crying. I am on craigslist several hours a week trying to match dogs with people seeking dogs, with some success but with that i also see a lot of shit that saddens me. After a while you become enraged and a rebel for the fight against animal cruelty. My stance on Vick is the degree of cruelty and the amount of animals. Even one would have been awful but it was so large and so much suffering. I don't care if he's famous, black, green- etc.

thanks again

So what level of pain would be enough? If he were turned over to the mercies of the mukhabarat in Egypt (the Egyptian secret police) and given, as I said before, a full and complete tour through the meaning of 'getting medieval on you' would that be enough? If it were mixed up a bit and he was given the very BEST in medieval torture married with the very BEST of Western medical intervention so that he would stay alive and--more to the point--conscious through every single excruciating moment and if this were allowed to continue for, say, a year. Would THAT be enough?

I keep hearing "I can't forgive him" or "it wasn't enough" well that means that somewhere there must be some line at which you would have to say "okay, enough". I'm curious what that line is.

In a less extreme vein, if he spent the rest of his days in prison would that be enough or would he need to spend the rest of his days in solitary? Or would you just prefer he were taken out and shot without delay?

You must have SOME punishment in mind, what is it?

Cheers
Aj

[Sachita]

Originally Posted by dreadgeek

So what level of pain would be enough? If he were turned over to the mercies of the mukhabarat in Egypt (the Egyptian secret police) and given, as I said before, a full and complete tour through the meaning of 'getting medieval on you' would that be enough? If it were mixed up a bit and he was given the very BEST in medieval torture married with the very BEST of Western medical intervention so that he would stay alive and--more to the point--conscious through every single excruciating moment and if this were allowed to continue for, say, a year. Would THAT be enough?

I keep hearing "I can't forgive him" or "it wasn't enough" well that means that somewhere there must be some line at which you would have to say "okay, enough". I'm curious what that line is.

In a less extreme vein, if he spent the rest of his days in prison would that be enough or would he need to spend the rest of his days in solitary? Or would you just prefer he were taken out and shot without delay?

You must have SOME punishment in mind, what is it?

Cheers
Aj

I would need to think about that otherwise my response may seem insane or it could excite a few here. lol- I'm kidding, sort of. I think it may involve torture which I know is insane and illegal but again it's emotional & stimulates the vigilante sadist in me.

Exploring my feelings about this I recalled an awful child abuse case in Missouri everyone has heard about Debra Luptak. It was considered the worse child abuse case in history. I know *this* isn't about that but if I use it as a comparison, and to me animal abuse is as bad a crime IMO, should her mother been allowed to serve time and then be let out and forgiven? This is the most extreme case and I view Vick's case to be extreme although not the worse.

I might not be making sense right now. I have some crazy ass dogs today. I might need to get back to this.

[Ebon]

Someone asked me why this had to turn into a black and white issue. MOST people that are not a "person of color" (I have to say that term makes me twitch but that's just me) would not understand what Vicks race has to do to people's reaction to this whole thing. I can understand that you see the world in a different way. Your color has never been an issue. Although I think the race card is pretty much maxed out some people do still feel like we are sub-human and they do react in that way. I can tell the difference, some people can't. I always question it due to my walk in life and my "color" being an issue all of my life. I make color jokes all the time just to make people uncomfortable on purpose because I'm evil like that. But when it comes down to it first and foremost I'm human. Second I'm a brown color due to the environment that my ancestors come from. Until we ALL realize that color is just a social construct that keeps us apart and fighting with each other and we tried to understand where another person is coming from there is always going to be that "color" issue. Try not to get offended if someone of "color" see's a black and white issue when you do not. Maybe try to understand why they feel that way.