"You know from his background this is not an unusual thing for where he comes from," said Goldberg.
"For a lot of people dogs are sport," she added.
"This is part of his cultural upbringing," she said.
"This is a kid who comes from a culture when [sic] this is not questioned."
"It's like cockfighting in Puerto Rico," she said. "There are certain things that are indicative to certain parts of the country."
Goldberg also compared the allegedly wide spread dog fighting in the south to Chinese, who, she implied, eat cats.
That's us stupid southerners for sure. Don't hold us responsible for drowning and hanging dogs not deemed up to snuff. Blame southern culture. But somehow I don't think Whoopi would accept the Klan harassing and killing blacks as a natural part of southern culture.
I mean, according to prevailing negative stereotypes, lynchings are a dime a dozen in the dirty, racist south. Therefore, it's not unusual. Ask any Yankee. And for a lot of the Klansmen, torturing and hanging blacks is sport. A sport that's part of their cultural upbringing that's not questioned, or so the stereotypes proclaim. Now, if Whoopi actually believes Vick is not fully responsible for his violence because of southern culture then the same must hold true for all southerners.
Gravelly grits, I groan. We southerners - black, white, Indian and all points in between - are not sub-humans who have yet to evolve into civilization. We are fully capable of abiding by laws and do not need to use the defense of diminished capacity resulting from being born in the south. After all, like it or not, southerners did pen the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights.
Further, how dare Whoopi Goldberg claim that dog-fighting and torture are a part of the common culture of the south. How dare none of her ABC co-hosts challenge such a maliciously bigoted falsehood. The vast majority of southerners that I know hate dogfighting and look down on the thugs who do it. Are ABC and The View endorsing negative stereotypes about the south?
Y'all listen up. We southerners are tired of being lumped together into one mindless mire. We are sick and tired of being openly portrayed as stupid, backward, ignorant, racist, sexist, hot blooded, lazy, inarticulate, corrupt, violent and unable to take responsibility for our own actions. Such talk toward any other group would be called hateful and intolerant. Shame on the View for allowing such blatant bias to go unchallenged.
Just think of the resulting outrage if on national television I said Goldberg couldn't help being a big-mouthed, holier-than-thou know-it all given her upbringing. Look at her culture and where she's from: New York, in the heart of the deep north. Just overlook her. She can't help but run her mouth without thinking of what's coming out. What she lacks in substance she'll more than make up with quantity, loudness and obnoxiousness.
Such remarks would be properly and promptly condemned as bigoted, condescending and divisive. Yet when someone like Goldberg bashes the south, no one bats an eye. No more. Those days of politely sitting back for this liberal while my fellow southerners are demonized are gone with the wind.
B. 1952, GA, USA. D. To Be Determined. Beloved husband, father, grandfather, lover, confidant and friend of many from bikers to Zen masters; American writer and speaker, known for his criticism of Mammon's unholy trinity of big business, big government and big religion; served the least of them professionally as psychologist and voluntarily as activist for decades; loved to shoot basketball, billiards and the bull; lived free, died game. (memorial sketch by davidhewsonart.com)
Because it is part of his "culture" does not make it right! By punishing him for this transgression it will send a message to all the other "rednecks" that this is wrong and a civilized country will not tolerate it. I say "rednecks" because they are the group that is more inclined to participate in this type of inhumane "sport" and not Southerners. If culture made it okay to do something then we would all be sacrificing our children and livestock to appease the Gods still. Advancing ones culture takes some intelligent thought and common sense to move forward to a more sensible and appropriate type of humanity. Most all religions are based on this principle although as we all know they are not always practiced that way.
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Hayesml47 (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 374 comments)
on Wednesday, September 5, 2007 at 7:26:34 AM
Moreover, I'll bet you that there is dog and/or cock fighting that goes on in NYC. Should the perpetrators be forgiven if they came from a country where such actions are common? Should wife beaters be cut some slack because their culture of origin condones domestic violence? I think not.
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Richard Mathis (127 articles, 103 quicklinks, 5 diaries, 121 comments)
on Wednesday, September 5, 2007 at 11:39:43 AM
I've also enjoyed your comments on the piece about the dirty south. As a southern liberal I often feel like singing the old rock standard: clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am stuck in the middle with you. Non-southerners look down upon us for being southerners and many conservative southerners look upon us as being traitors. Personally, I am very tired of having to defend being a southerner and having to watch every thing I say lest a trace of a southern accent appear and make me the immediate laughing stock. I have been mistaken by native speakers as a native speaker myself in German, Italian, Spanish and, miracle of miracles, French. My Korean and Thai are considered excellent and I can get by in a handful more languages. I have a doctoral education from Duke University yet let me make one slip that reveals my southern origins and I immediately am viewed as intellectually inferior and something akin to a talking mule. But what really gets my goat after 40 years of challenging bigotry in the deep south is that simply based upon my place of birth that it is all too acceptable to throw me in the same league with the Klan. Keep up the comments, brother.
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Richard Mathis (127 articles, 103 quicklinks, 5 diaries, 121 comments)
on Wednesday, September 5, 2007 at 11:52:42 AM
I guess, by Whoopi Goldberg's way of thinking, circumciscion of little girls, also known as genital mutilation, is understandable and forgivable, because it is part of the culture of some peoples.
Some dog fighting, cockfighting as well, goes on here in the South. These practices are illegal and are not looked on favorably by any but the few who engage in them; they are in no way characteristic of Southern culture. I have no doubt that the situation is similar in the other regions of our country.
It seems to me that if Ms. Goldberg wants to indulge in a little South bashing, she should just give it a go. No need to bring Mr. Vick into it.
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B York (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 86 comments)
on Thursday, September 6, 2007 at 10:01:17 AM
