Vick is a Victim of Public Passions over Celebrity, Wealth and Race Says Noted Political Analyst

Countless numbers of pro football players have committed rape, physical assaults, and armed robberies. They have been inveterate spouse and girl friend abusers, and have even been accused of a double murder. Yet none of them have ever had an airplane fly over their training camp with a banner that read abuser, killer, robber, assailant, or thug. None have ever been taunted, jeered, and harangued by packs of sign waving demonstrators screaming for their blood when they showed up at the courthouse. None of them have ever brought the wrath of the entire sports world—sportswriters, fans, league officials, advertisers; sports talk jocks and bloggers down on their heads.

Political analyst Earl Ofari Hutchinson tells why disgraced Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick has drawn unprecedented pubic heat, fire, and anger. Hutchinson contends it is less about dog fighting and animal abuse than it is about Vick’s fame, wealth and race.

“The supreme irony in the Vick saga is that Vick’s fame, riches, fan and sportswriter adulation, and fawning sponsors turned out to be a vicious double edged sword that hacked him apart,” says Hutchinson, “ They stoked public anger, hostility and vengeance. Vick is as much a victim of the ugly passions of the times as for his crimes.”

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His forthcoming book is The Latino Challenge to Black America: Towards a Conversation between African-Americans and Hispanics (Middle Passage Press).

Contact: Earl Ofari Hutchinson
323-296-6331