SCHADENFREUDE

by Malik Isasis



















Schadenfreude is a German word and it means someone taking pleasure or joy in the misfortune of others.

I watched MSNBC, Fox News, and CNN throughout the day on Tuesday as news broke that Michael Vick, the Atlanta Falcons quarterback, pleaded guilty to dog fighting charges. It was an interesting spectacle and as I knew they would, reports of Vick’s plea drabbed on, and on, and on, and on throughout the day.

The corporate media diverted untold resources to cover the story, rather to seek and destroy Vick. The media is efficient at building up celebrities only to destroy them—kind of like a child building a sand castle and then taking a baseball bat to it.

The Blacker the Berry the Sweeter the Juice

Since O.J. Simpson, the black athlete has a special place in the heart of the media and white folk, so when they fall, the media makes sure it’s a face plant on the concrete. O.J. has made the media feel like a jilted lover; he's betrayed their love and trust and like a jilted lover, every other lover after will have to compete with that ghost.

You are probably thinking what does this have to do with race? Wrong is wrong. Everything in America has to do with race. We all know that justice is distributed unequally based on race, gender and class.

The bathos of the punditry, the manufactured outrage over Vick rings hollow. Mutilating and killing dogs is of course disturbing; however, is it more disturbing than the twin genocides in the Congo and Darfur? Or how about the 500 Iraqis that were killed in Iraq? I say all of this as a person who lives with three very large French Mastiffs
(the Turner and Hooch dog ).

9 billion dollars of taxpayers’ money was stolen in Iraq. Where is the perspective on the spectrum of outrage?

We are occupying two Arab countries, and discussing plans to attack a Persian one. Meanwhile, China is slowly creeping in on Africa to colonize its resources.

I am outraged at the so-called outrage because this strategy works. It's why the corporate media does what it does. So while, the public is distracted with being outraged with Michael Vick, Bush is still wiping his ass with the Constitution.

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