I was watching The View on ABC and heard Whoopi Goldberg’s comments regarding Michael Vick and his dog fighting addiction. She made the remark that “Vick is from the Deep, Deep South and it is a cultural thing” or something to that affect. She definitely said “Deep, Deep South” and “cultural” — I caught that. I had to laugh because Vick is from Virginia near Norfolk to be exact which is not exactly Mississippi Burning and if Virginia is the “deep, deep” south then what the heck is Mississippi? Sub terrain? I think Whoopi is a wee bit confused on her geography but that is another issue.

Here is my gripe: I have lived in the “Deep, Deep, Deep South” for about 6 years and I have yet to be invited to a dog fight, hear of a dog fight, or hear of someone who participates in dog fights. I am starting to feel a little bit left out because if it is so “cultural” like I have heard several people mention (Jamie Foxx to name another) then why have I not seen any traces of it? I live in a very rural area and the closest thing is my neighbor’s beagle breeding and rabbit hunting hobby. And I do not think Fred has strangled or electrocuted one single beagle dog for his failure to find a rabbit in the woods.

I am friends with some very poor people, white and black alike, and I am sick and tired of hearing this Michael Vick dog fighting garbage handed off on poor southerners like it is some kind of “Southern National Pastime” and all these ignorant hicks who live down here just don’t know any better, it is just ingrained in them to do it — along with marrying their cousin.

This line of reasoning is a gross fallacy and I am frankly tired of hearing it used and it is a bias against people who live in the south. Michael Vick is a sick person. Anyone who would find pleasure in animal abuse and something so brutal is — I don’t care where he or she is from — a sick individual. I would like to inform Whoopi that dog fighting is popular with people who are brutal and bloodthirsty and it is as popular with the hoodlums in Los Angeles as it is with the hoodlums in the “Deep, Deep” South (wherever that may be) — cultural hobby be damned. Stop throwing the cultural word up like some kind of a little shield for someone who needs to go to jail for their crimes.



Shani Hay

Meridian