Foxx takes side against hounds

Jamie Foxx has chosen to squander much of the goodwill he's built up over his career to date by not only defending animal torturer Michael Vick, but also suggesting that it's a black thing:

"It's a cultural thing, I think. Most brothers didn't know that, you know. I used to see dogs fighting in the neighbourhood all the time. I didn't know that was Fed time. So, Mike probably just didn't read his handbook on what not to do as a black star.

"I know that cruelty to animals is bad, but sometimes people shoot people and kill people and don't get time.

"I think in this situation, he really didn't know the extent of it, so I always give him the benefit of the doubt."

So, we have an appeal to a benefit of doubt - which, erm, isn't there, with Vick announcing his intention to plead guilty; a bid to offer some sort of moral equivalance - hey, sometimes people don't go to prison for torturing people; and a kind of confusing suggestion that making dogs rip themselves to pieces for enjoyment and betting is part of a black culture (even if that insulting stereotype was true, it wouldn't make it right, and what would happen if a white artist played the 'the black boys in the 'hood don't know any better' card). Then it's all topped off with the suggestion that it's a problem because Vick is famous - he hadn't read the book on being "a black star": two parts insinuating that Vick is being prosecuted for being a black man who dared to get rich, rather than because he's a sick bastard who killed and tortured creatures for fun, to one part suggesting that it's celebrity and not criminality that has caused Vick his current troubles.