Plenty of people like me empathize with traumatized animals. But somehow that empathy often doesn’t extend to other human beings, particularly black people — many of whom have been traumatized by poverty and white supremacy.

We can’t consider the story of Vick’s rise and fall with understanding the context of the systemic racism that informed his life at every step, including his interaction with the criminal justice system and an American public intent on punishing people of color far more harshly than they do white people.

There is no shortage of evidence showing the profoundly racist double standards our society applies to black boys and men, particularly those who have found financial success or have any sort of public platform.

White boys make mistakes. Black boys are thugs. White boys have their whole futures ahead of them. Black boys are superpredators.

White boys get second, third, hundredth chances for some of the most cruel crimes we can imagine. Black boys can work their whole lives to atone for their sins — and we still be consider them beyond redemption.

A player such as Ben Roethlisberger gets to keep his contract and his career — and is now one of the highest paid athletes in the world — after twice being publicly accused of rape by actual human women. When Vick appeared in Atlanta on New Year’s Day 2017, social media treated him like he were some remorseless monster who didn’t deserve to live, much less have a chance at redemption.

I challenge anyone, even the staunchest animal-rights advocate, to look at Vick’s post-2007 life and tell me he’s not a fucking exemplar of redemption and rehabilitation.

Since pleading guilty to the dog-fighting charges 10 years ago, Vick has served nearly two years in federal prison, paid for the care of all of the dogs seized from his property, apologized sincerely and completely for his crimes, publicly campaigned for stricter laws against dog fighting and joined— on his own volition — the Humane Society of the United States’ campaign against dog fighting.

“Given the penalties available at the time he was sentenced, U.S. District Court Judge Henry Hudson meted out a strong penalty to Vick,” the Humane Society stated. “He paid a steep price for his crimes, in addition to serving his prison sentence.”

So if you’re white and you still think Vick is the scum of the earth, perhaps your hatred is rooted in something deeper than just loving dogs.

Writing is hard. Money is short. Support this reporter. Follow Defiant on Facebook and Twitter.