When word broke that the Philadelphia Eagles were going to make Michael Vick a hundred million dollar man again, commenters on the Internet immediately dug into their trenches and started lobbing grenades at the other side. After all, this is Vick we’re talking about. If the hype on either side is to be believed, he’s either a vicious, unrepentant dog killer who deserves nothing, or he’s one of the greatest quarterbacks of the modern era.All this controversy came on top of an earlier explosion, this one being totally out of Vick’s control. On Thursday of last week, ESPN ran a piece that will appear in the September 5th issue of ESPN the Magazine titled "What if Michael Vick were white?". The author of that piece, Touré, says that he asked ESPN not to title it as such, but obviously that request went unfulfilled. Touré’s article was actually a nuanced piece on how asking such a question is, in the world we live in, impossible. However, the title was what a vast majority of people saw. Those who did not see the title nor read the piece, though, had plenty to take away. Accompanying the piece, ESPN commissioned a photo illustration, literally depicting the titular question. All subtlety and nuance from a gifted writer went out the window.Instead what we were left with was very reminiscent of the political landscape of today. The aforementioned trenches were dug, opinions were honed to an even finer point, and pithy, five- to ten-second commentary abounded. No one’s mind was changed by Touré’s article, nor by the comments that followed as it was reposted on site after site. Those who thought we live in a post-racism world before reading the article still do. They hold up the article as an example of minorities harping on a problem that no longer exists. Those who were sympathetic to possibilities of racism in the world finished the piece by shaking their heads, finding yet another textbook case of proving their viewpoint right. It’s difficult (nigh impossible) to honestly discuss these sorts of issues nowadays. If you want to talk sports, you’ve got to be able to get on TV and give a thirty-second opinion. If you’re not screaming, you’ve got to be issuing some sort of fierce rebuttal to the person who screamed before you. If you want to discuss things at length, you’re an academic: out of touch with the world and only interested in perpetuating ideas, refusing to deal in reality. There are serious questions that are raised by the Touré piece, including but not limited to: race and racism, black style and black lifestyle, the ever-changing morals of bringing up children in America—regardless of race— but keeping in mind how that race (something no person has a choice on) affects that upbringing. There are questions on the American judicial system and the penalties that any person should have to pay for any crime, whether it’s against human, animal or another form of life. There are questions on how worthy any thought experiment really is.But, at the end of the day, instead of those questions being discussed, most people saw the picture, read the headline, and started screaming.
Michael Vick Signs New Contract
Point Of Touré's Espn Piece Mainly Missed
3 min read
