Get With It

It's real pleasing to see that the state of African Americans has improved beyond the levels most would have ever predicted in a hundred years. Ninety percent college enrollment for both men and women, a seventy five percent reduction in felony and misdemeanor convictions, and a whopping twelve percent out-of-wedlock birth rate. The only thing is none of these stats are true, because African Americans, in particular young black men, face a steep uphill battle to just get where working-class whites are, let a lone where Asian Americans are.

The point is this: With collegiate enrollment and graduation rates abysmal, and incarceration rates higher than any other racial group in the country (probably the hemisphere), why the hell is the NAACP of Atlanta - of Atlanta! - spending its time and resources defending the reinstatement of one Michael Vick?! Is that what W.E.B. DuBois meant by his Ten Percent doctrine? Forget encouraging secondary and higher education for our people, lets focus on gifted individuals who had the world by the balls, and decided to take themselves down to the depths of a ghetto pastime, and as a result, threw away all that this magnificent, celebrity-addicted nation had to offer. The Vicks, Michael and his equally moronic brother, Marcus, need not our sympathy, empathy or any other 'thies. Their faces need to be up on giant billboards in every Chocolate City as signs of guys who had the yellow brick road paved for them from the respective ages of eighteen, and purposely decided to divert.

It's relatively easy to see the preponderance of the underground economy in Black ghettos. The labor statistics consistently show African Americans' unemployment rate is double that of the national average, and that just counts people who still collect unemployment benefits, so the rate may be much higher. Though it's not to be condoned, one must comprehend why drug dealers deal, why prostitutes hustle and why a brother's got to do what he must do to get by. That's why it's all the more appalling to see a man on his way to billions (not millions, but billions!) engaging in low-class, shoddy activity in such an enterprising manner. You would have thought he could have put that energy in creating his own sports agency, real estate empire or something in entertainment. Help get other young brothers and sisters ahead with the enormous leverage he was to attain, not to mention the sugar daddy in Arthur Blank who was the man's handler. But no, Vick had to keep it real. Let's see how real he keeps it in D-block.

God knows how many young Black men are turned away from jobs because of that irritating question towards the end of applications. Have you ever been convicted of a felony? Vick is pleading to one, and the NAACP believes it should be as though nothing happened. That's why the organization is so outdated and insignificant. Along with still referring to Black people as "Colored", it's defending a spoiled brat who chose not grow up and lead. To hell with Vick, we got some young soldiers to save.