Black, white split over Vick seen not clear cut

By Matthew Bigg

ATLANTA (Reuters) - The conviction of football star Michael Vick on dogfighting charges appears to have polarized U.S. opinion along racial lines but it would be a mistake to assume divisions are clear cut, analysts said on Tuesday.

On the surface, many black fans appeared supportive of the disgraced Atlanta Falcons quarterback who has been suspended indefinitely without pay by the National Football League.

"The man is black. He's rich. He's in Georgia and they (authorities) want his head," said a caller to a phone-in show hosted by civil rights leader Al Sharpton in an extreme version of a view that was widely expressed on the program.

That view is anathema to many fans both black and white who argue that Vick's crime, which involved the execution and torture of pitbulls he helped breed on his property in Virginia, is so repulsive that sympathy for him is impossible.

Some fans and animal welfare advocates have argued for the maximum five-year punishment for Vick, who pleaded guilty in federal court on Monday and later apologized for his actions.

Ron Thomas, director of the Journalism and Sports Program at Morehouse College in Atlanta, said it would be a mistake to say that all blacks supported Vick but the black community did often exhibit a willingness to forgive celebrities quickly.

African Americans were also sometimes wary of condemning famous blacks who ran into legal trouble because of past instances in which blacks were unjustly accused, said Thomas.

"Part of a reflex response among black people is to be protective about well known blacks when they come under intense public or legal scrutiny," he said.

RIVAL DEMONSTRATIONS

Differences in opinion between whites and blacks over Vick echoed divisions over football running back O.J. Simpson, accused of killing his former wife and a friend in 1994. Most blacks said Simpson was innocent while whites said he was guilty, polls showed.

At the time many took the polls as evidence that the United States had failed to heal racial problems rooted in the country's history of slavery, segregation and resistance to civil rights.

Simpson was acquitted in 1995 after a high-profile trial but was found liable for the deaths in a civil court in 1997. He maintains his innocence.

Evidence of the way in which issues of race cloud the debate about Vick came in two rival demonstrations outside the Georgia Dome where the Falcons played a pre-season game on Monday evening.

A group of protesters from Georgia Animal Rights and Protection chanted slogans, held up pictures of abused dogs and banners such as "Vick is Sick" while some equally loud Vick supporters, who were black, demonstrated across the street.

"We are out here today to let people know that what Vick did was totally reprehensible," said Dino Vlachos, the animal rights group's leader.