A 15 year old black girl in Broward County, Florida was gang raped by six men this past April. Her rapists took photos, and the police found the camera on scene. Seems like a cut and dry case, right?
Not quite. The police aren't pressing charges against two of the men. Their acts were captured on camera. They have admitted to having sex with the girl.
So why are these two not being charged?
According to CBS4, the victim is being "uncooperative".
Why that matters when the acts are captured on film, I'm not quite sure.
Renee at Womanist Musings wrote an excellent post on 8 June, providing her take on the situation.
"It has been stated repeatedly that the bodies of
black girls/women are always already sexualized.
What we fail to really conceptualize when these
words pass our lips is that this translates into
the rape of Black women/girls. Our bodies have
been violated for generations by both Black and
White men because we are seen as commodities
and jezebels."
I think that her analysis is inarguably correct.
It is a well documented phenomenon. Do a quick google search if you don't believe it.
I found an interesting article on OPEdNews by Freddie Venezia. He writes on the subject of empathy. The empathy that white people feel for each other, but not for others. I think it would be beneficial for everyone to read the entire piece, but I'll quote the most relevant part for our discussion here.
"If a Black man was convicted of raping a
white woman, the victim received so much
Empathy, that the perpetrator was sentenced
to death, or was the Empathy for the woman
really the governing value? I ask because if a
white man was convicted of raping a white woman,
the victim seemed to receive much less Empathy,
enough less that the assailant was usually not
sentenced to death. A victim who was Black and
raped by a Black man didn't seem to receive as
much empathy either. And of course a Black woman
who alleged that she was raped by a white man got
so little Empathy that juries never believed her."
This needs to end. A black girl who gets raped by 6 black men is just as traumatized, violated, disrespected, and deserving of justice as a white girl raped by 6 white men. Or raped by 6 black men. Or raped by 6 asian men. RAPE IS RAPE IS RAPE. It is never ok, no matter what the skin colour of the victim & rapists.
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I'm not quite sure this is the place to express this, but I really wanted to drop a thank you to Renée for opening my eyes for these cruelties.
Your analyses are always on point, and your experiences have changed my world view. I can only bend my head in gratitude. It's not your job to eductate this priviledged white girl, and I really appreciate it that you do.
Absolutely. These men should be charged and prosecuted. And convicted, I mean come on, it's on their camera! Why am I not suprised to see racism and rape-apologism going hand in hand?
"...If a Black man was convicted of raping a white woman, the victim received so much Empathy, that the perpetrator was sentenced to death, or was the Empathy for the woman really the governing value? I ask because if a white man was convicted of raping a white woman, the victim seemed to receive much less Empathy, enough less that the assailant was usually not sentenced to death. A victim who was Black and raped by a Black man didn't seem to receive as much empathy either. And of course a Black womanwho alleged that she was raped by a white man got so little Empathy that juries never believed her...."
My guess is that the Empathy wasn't for the actual victim but for white men having "their females" raped by nonwhite men. These sentences seem to boil down to:
"one of them took one of our females from us, how horrible!" after a black man raped a white woman
"one of us took one of our females from another one of us, that wasn't very nice" after a white man raped a white woman
"one of them took one of their females from another one of them, who cares" after a black man raped a black woman (or the more recent variant, "one of them took one of their females from another one of them, it's a private family matter to be handled within their culture and none of our business" after an immigrant man rapes an immigrant woman)
"one of us took one of their females, score!" after a white man raped a black woman
It also reminds me of a comment I made a while ago on a post about street harassment:
"Peter commented on July 19, 2008 11:25 AM: 'nor do they have to view her as a person - someone's sister, someone's Mom.....'
"I got the impression that in some cases the harassers do view their targets as someone's sister, someone's mom, etc. and they don't like that someone.
"Kinda like the way some guys out there seem to compete with each other while regarding 'their females' as practically goal nets (trying to keep the ball out of your net while trying to get it in the other team's net isn't hypocritical in football/soccer, basketball, etc.)..."
"My guess is that the Empathy wasn't for the actual victim but for white men having "their females" raped by nonwhite men. These sentences seem to boil down to:"
I hadn't thought of that before. It makes sense.
The woman never matters.. :(
The CBS4 report writes it up as men "receiving sex acts", which renders the violence and non-consent just a tad ambiguous. To be clear, getting orally raped - which is, I presume, what the report was insinuating in the word "receiving" - is not a matter of giving and receiving. It is not "giving head". It is being forcibly penetrated against your will. We wouldn't say a man "received sex acts" if he vaginally penetrated a woman, but apparently we're supposed to infer that oral constitutes a grey area. This, however, doesn't say "grey area" to me:
According to a police report, Ryan Johnson told detectives he thought the girl was "18-19 years of age." Johnson also told police during the sex act "he noticed the victim crying and discontinued receiving oral sex."
What a fucking nightmare.
I can't imagine walking around in the world knowing that I have no control over the societal sexualization of my body.
The lack of cooperation on the part of the young-lady can be read as many things such as fear, shame, etc., but it is despicable that the authorities would ever read it as a reasoning to deny the prosecution of this young-lady's rapists. I truly believe that part of healing from a rape, especially a gang rape, is knowing that you will not be harmed in this way again. Knowing that her rapist were not prosecuted will hinder her emotional healing. It is SO unfortunate, and unfortunately nothing new!