What's more tragic, that a 14 year-old black girl was given the business (pretty much every kind of business there is) by R. Kelly, or that some dogs may have been mistreated by Michael Vick? To hear the media tell it, it's arguably the latter. Do they have a point?

It's been over five years since a video tape surfaced of R. Kelly having his way with and subsequently miterating upon a girl who was said to be only 14 years old at the time, but it looks like the singer will finally appear in court to face charges of child pornography.

In the mean time, there's been any number of unfortunate legal proceedings involving black male celebrites, especially athletes. The latest such incident involves Michael Vick, whose back yard is being dug up for the bones of dead dogs as we speak, and you know how people are about dogs. I suppose it was only a matter of time before someone compared the Michael Vick incident to the R. Kelly incident.

It's hard to say, because it's been a while since the R. Kelly tape was discovered, but it does seem like there's been more outrage over the revelation that Michael Vick was probably running a dog fighting ring than the revelation that R. Kelly took a piss on a 14 year-old girl and even had the sheer balls to tape it.

For example, Michael Vick hasn't even been convicted yet, and already he's been losing endorsement deals. Meanwhile, R. Kelly's career was never as hot as it's been since we learned that he's into underage water sports. While Peta is throwing the biggest bitch fit evar over Michael Vick, the NAACP actually tried to give R. Kelly an Image Award after the infamous video tape surfaced.

As easy as it would be to play like your boy Common - who has a line on his new album about white people's love for their pets vis a vis black people - and assign some sort of race element to this, I think it's worth noting that white people were arguably more upset with R. Kelly when the shit piss hit the fan than black people have ever been.

While it had been whispered in the black community that R. Kelly likes his girls young (and who doesn't) going at least as far back as that time he married Aaliyah (I don't even want to think about what he did to her), if not even further, it took a white journalist in Chicago to set the wheels in motion that ultimately led to this trial.

Black people, meanwhile? Not so much. This weekend, my parents are down in Atlanta for my family reunion. I'm not going, because I'd rather go to Chicago for Lollapalooza (maybe I'll meet a nice young girl...), but I'd be willing to bet dollars to donuts that someone's going to step in the name of love before it's all said and done with. Old black people love R. Kelly, and it's not like they don't know what he does.

I've already speculated before on this site on why this might be the case, and of course mofos had to jump all down my throat. But I think there's a case to be made that a 14 year-old black chick, especially the one in the R. Kelly video, has probaby already been around the block once or twice. After all, the ghettos of America didn't get to be filled with 29 year-old grandmothers by osmosis.

The unfortunate young woman in the R. Kelly video looked like she enjoyed what she was doing and may have even been paid for it. Meanwhile, no dog enjoys getting its face fucked up trying to chew another dog's neck open and then being buried in Michael Vick's back yard. Do I mean to suggest that a young black woman's life is worth less than a dog's? No. I'm just saying you have to consider the crime.

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