Throwing stones in contempt
I’m an avid reader of the Loaf and especially the new column The N Word. I am also a Charlotte native and an African born in America.
Thank you for writing such an informative piece this week regarding the trial of Michael Vick (The N Word: “Guilty Until Proven Innocent” by Nsenga Burton, Aug. 8). I also loved the piece you wrote about Pat McCrory regarding our youth as “thugs” with “criminal mindset” (The N Word: “Fear of a Black Uptown” by Nsenga Burton, July 18).
Let me just say, being black, the law of “innocent until proven guilty” was never written for us. The motto of the South is more like, “guilty now, then we’ll see.” And Mr. Vick is no exception. Very few people realize that he made these decisions before playing for the NFL, not during. To see Mr. Vick on TV walking to the courtroom on that hot summer day in Suffolk County between a clearly segregated crowd of Pro Vick vs Anti Vick took me back to the days of Malcolm / Martin and our fight for free trials and rights. Back then, we got no justice, and now, we are still considered criminals. If you’re poor and black, you’re a thug in a white tee, a ghost. If you’re rich and black, they hate you immediately and will jump on the hate bandwagon for more hate talk. The same with O.J., the same with T.O, the same with Michael Jackson. The same hate that brought riots to Oklahoma City on Black Wallstreet is the same origin of hate for a man who hasn’t even had a trial yet to pronounce his guilt or innocence. If you’re black, you’re guilty. If you’re white, see you in court. Nobody (in White America) mentioned a single word when America’s favorite Bob Barker of The Price is Right was accused of having sexual relations with all of his hostesses, all while having been married for 40 years. No … they just gave him a TV show and a farewell goodbye for a job well done. I pray for Vick and his family, as well as those that throw stones in contempt. May God forgive them.
Thank you Ms. Burton for your voice in these clearly racially/financially biased Creative Loafing pages.
— Julian B., Charlotte
This article appears in Aug 15-21, 2007.
Thanks to you for playing the race card for someone who doesn’t deserve it. Save it for Corey Maye and the countless numbers that actually have been railroaded.
Some white folks can look at cases on their individual merits thank you very much.
What a load. At leas try to make sense. For example, noi one said a thing about BArker? Then how, prey tell do you know about it? (And PLEASE: DO NOT try to convince yourself that hte white media gave him a pass and the black media did reported it. It was WIDELY reported, and he was widely ridiculed.)
As to innocent until proven guilty, here’s a news flash for you: that is a legal doctrine. It hardly means that people do not form opinins about guilt or innocense all the time. In fact people (not white people or black people, just PEOPLE) almost always form an opinion about events and people in the news. And I absolutely assure you that white pepole do no assume that all whites are innocent.
WHEN Vick was involved in those acts (pre-NFL) is of no consequence. Whether he was is of great consequence. As it stands right now, the evidence -in the form of testimony of the other defendants- is mounting against him. Expect rational and unbiased people to form opinins based on that evidence. Expect racists and bigots to focus on a defendant’s color and form their opinions based on that. you have just done the latter.