A Tale of Race and Rape

I don't consider myself an activist. But in this particular case I am 3 things that apparently matter to how your treated on a large scale, even in 2016.

I was an athlete: +1
I'm male: +1
I'm not white: -10.

We all know the story, or at least the bones of it. Brock Turner, Stanford swimmer, was caught by 2 students raping an unconscious woman behind a dumpster.

That should be all you need to know, right? It's a rape. Period. End of story. That carries with it a certain punishment regardless of creed, status, or color, that sentence is levied, and we move on. Seems like it should be relatively simple from a logistical standpoint... right? The crime is what it is.


They weren't lacking for evidence, he literally got caught, tried to run (nice touch), and hawked down by 2 noble Swedish guys on bikes.

Ahh, but guess who presided over this trial. Aaron Persky. Why does that matter? Because Persky, is a former Stanford athlete himself. So time out. We gave the trial of a white Stanford athlete to a white, former Stanford athlete!?

OK, so here's where this gets really bad, because forcing sex upon a lifeless person isn't bad in and of itself.

Turner received a six-month jail sentence with the possibility of being released early for good behavior. Persky actually said that "a prison sentence would have a severe affect on him." Well, yeah, I mean, isn't that the point of a prison sentence?

Six-months... He'll be home by Christmas.

Unsurprisingly, comparisons are being drawn to other rapes of unconscious women (which, guys... are you fucking serious with this shit?), and the unfortunate truth is that these very similar situations are being treated drastically differently.

Cory Batey, under similar, disgustingly inexplicable circumstances, was convicted of rape and sentenced to a minimum 15-25 years (2,900% longer for the same crime). He'll too be home by Christmas... when he's 40. Judge Wilkins (a black man), punished a grievous crime severely, as he should have.

Oh, it's worth mentioning... guess which one of these offenders was white. This isn't a case of the minority being over-punished. This, unfortunately, reeks of white privilege.

I'm disappointed and confused for 3 main reasons.

1. This may come as a bit of a surprise, but I'm a little upset at the lambasting of Turner's father. Yes, he made some comments that appeared insensitive to the effect of not punishing his son for "20 minutes over the course of 20 years." Does it sound dumb, yes? But is this situation personal to me, no? So, the natural question is "well Price, what if this was one of the women in your life." Of course I'd be headed home with Turner's teeth and awaiting a cruiser to show up at my door. Without a doubt. 





And that's exactly my point. When it's personal, you expect your reaction to be outside the realm of what any garden-variety stranger would do. I'm confident he didn't raise his son as an entitled, sexual deviant, and I'm also fairly sure it can't be easy to call your son a rapist, even if he is. No, I don't necessarily agree with what he said, but I get it, he's doing what any dad would do, looking out for his boy. 


2. Instead, channel all that virility to Brock Turner himself. Post his name everywhere, meme his pictures, ruin his reputation, force the popular media outlets to tell the true story in it's entirety. I can't get on board with the argument that "this was a mistake," or a "lapse in judgement." Most people who have been to college have been over-served at some point. This isn't a "oops I peed in public," or "took a bag of chips from Wawa." Think about the message this sends to this poor young woman when we basically say "meh, boys will be boys."  


3. What in the high hell is going on with our judicial system?! I don't want this to be a race issue, I really, really don't. I think it detracts from the act itself and takes the spotlight off of the offenders and somehow makes this a social argument. It shouldn't be. But how the actual fuck does this Persky clown get this case. And further, we expect our judges to be approach reproach and to uphold the law not the reputation of their alma maters. 

Aaron Persky, you're a disgrace and this should ruin your career. Cory Batey, you're a disgrace. Brock Turner, you're a disgrace, the latter of you in 100% equal measure. To your families, schools, teammates. Shit bags, both of you. Black, white, rich, poor, tall, short... inconsequential, all of it. What's confusing is the fact that our judicial system doesn't see it that way. That, my friends, is an issue.

Was there a drastic difference in these cases that I don't know about, outside the race of the perpetrator? I would love for someone to tell me that Turner was actually implanted with a micro-chip and was being remotely controlled by some sinister cabal out to mar the pristine reputation of elite, higher-education institutions. 

Unfortunately, that's probably unlikely. 

Here's another major issue with this whole scenario. The entire world who knows this story, (save the people who are objectively assholes), feel that Turner was let off too easy. Even in a vacuum, six-months is super lenient, but in the racially-charged society that we live in, this is bound to piss off a lot of people.

So I leave you with two questions. What if someone beats the shit out of Turner? Rolls up on him, and whoops his ass with a bat. 

According to Cornell Law School "if the crime of violence results in serious bodily injury (as defined in section 1365), or if a dangerous weapon was used during and in relation to the crime of violence, be imprisoned for life or for any term of years not less than 10."

I get it, that's relatively watered down, but it sheds light on what we're dealing with. That's a sentence 20x longer than Turner's, and, I mean, who would begrudge someone a few free shots at this ass-douche?

Next question: what if his assailant is a minority. It shouldn't matter, but...

You decide for yourself.