Dog-fighting, Hip Hop, Black People

I didnt have any intention of jumping on the Michael Vick commentary bandwagon until today, when I read an article posted on CNN by actress Emily Deschanel, who plays the lead on the Fox show "Bones." Most of the article is respectable, talking about how this case has brought attention to a problem of animal cruelty that is more pervasive than we might think. But in the middle she had a couple of paragraphs that bothered me (and several of the commenters on CNN):

"Unfortunately, legions of today's youths are being sold the lie that fighting dogs is a way to prove their bravery and machismo. This twisted mind-set is marketed by certain forces of popular culture, from high-rolling rap artists who boast about their pit bulls' prowess to millionaire sports stars like Vick.

As a result, the scourge of street dogfighting has infiltrated virtually every urban area across the country. Gang members and street thugs seek street cred by showing they have the baddest dogs on the block."

First of all, I always like it when "urban" is used as a code for "black." Second, even though my sparse and anecdotal knowledge of dog-fighting may involve black individuals (Michael Vick, some people back home in SC and...well that's about it), I doubt its a particularly African-American phenomenon. For one thing, despite the article decrying it as an urban problem, my pre-Vick knowledge of it came from living in the rural south, where I would think that white individuals would be likely to engage in such activities as well. Note that Vick is a southerner as well, growing up in VA. Furthermore, a quick glance at wikipedia's "dog fighting" entry shows that it is practiced all over the world, including Russia, India and Japan, which I doubt are taking their cues from African America or Hip hop.

Which leads me to my last annoyed point-how did dogfighting suddenly become a consequence of hip hop? Now of course you can find references to dogfighting in rap songs if you look hard enough, but it's not really something that's prevalent by any means. The fact that it's there at all just reflects that such fights happen in the real world. Are there rappers who own vicious dogs? Sure-they can be a macho status symbol as the CNN article said, and/or used for (over)protection of one's property. And I wouldnt be surprised if some rap artists had engaged in dogfighting. But to say that hip hop promotes dogfighting is a stretch. The only artist I can think of that might fall guilty of that is DMX, and even in his case he uses the image of a vicious dog in large part as a metaphor for his own personality and upbringing rather than in a "hey i fight dogs, aren't I impressive" sense (though he is no stranger to animal abuse allegations, so i wouldnt be surprised if he had been involved in a fight or two in his life). Now I'm not trying to be an apologist for rap music-certain strains of it do promote or glorify a lot of negative things. Dog fighting though-I just dont see it.