By Sikivu Hutchinson
Last week, when former Stanford athlete and
convicted sex offender Brock Turner walked out into the California sunshine to
the arms of his nervous parents his status as a lightning rod for outrage over the
U.S.’ rape culture complicity was solidified.
After serving three months of a lenient six month sentence handed down by
disgraced white Santa Clara judge Aaron Persky (the
subject of a vigorous recall
campaign), Turner is now the poster child
for new legislation that would redress longstanding inequities in rape
reporting and awareness which promote victim-blaming, shaming and predatory “boys
will be boys” behavior.
AB
2888 would require that the sexual assault of an unconscious victim carry a
mandatory minimum sentence. It was
overwhelmingly supported by Democrats and now awaits the approval of Governor
Jerry Brown. In addition to AB 2888, California’s
SB 813, dubbed the “Justice
for Victims Law”—which was introduced by State Senator Connie Leyva and
inspired by women who were allegedly sexually assaulted by Bill Cosby—is also
pending before Brown. SB 813 would
eliminate the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution of rape and
sexual assault.
Of course, Turner is part of a long legacy of white
rapists that have eluded justice, but the firestorm around his case reflects a
genuine shift in consciousness prompted by generations of organizing against
rape and sexual assault. Yet, needless
to say, the response to Turner’s crime and Persky’s transgression stand in
stark contrast to what generally happens after a campus rape.
In comparison to the scores of poor women of color
who experience rape and sexual assault, Turner’s victim was relatively
privileged. The intersection of race,
class and gender, combined with growing awareness of the gross double standards
afforded white offenders in the criminal justice system, made this case a
national and legislative cause célèbre. Yet,
the victim’s privilege as a white female student at an Ivy League university
did not shield her from the legal apparatus of patriarchal white supremacy. It is estimated by the Rape and Incest Survivors
Network (RAINN) that only six of one thousand rape cases ever make it to a
trial that ends in conviction and jail time. And these numbers are not disaggregated by
race. According to RAINN, college student
female rape victims are the least likely (in comparison to women in the
military, elderly and non-student college-age women) to report sexual assault.
By contrast, a 2005
Justice Department study found that, “black victims reported
sexual assault at much lower rates than white victims, [and] while 44 percent
of white victims report sexual assault, only 17 percent of black victims did”.
Such
reporting disparities are no mystery, given that the dominant culture tells
African American women rape victims that they are solely to blame for being in
the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong crowd, consuming the wrong
things, behaving in the wrong way. Black
women are not only subject to disproportionate sexual assault by black men, but
may be policed, criminalized and discredited
by law enforcement when they report being sexually assaulted.
Recently, in an interview with KPFA radio, activist Aishah
Simmons discussed the need to take activism against rape culture to the
streets and classrooms. Simmons’
acclaimed documentary “No!” is a
must for culturally responsive curricula on sexual assault prevention
education. In the film, black women from
all walks of life discuss their experiences with sexual assault and rape,
connecting them to prevailing white supremacist, misogynist myths about black
women’s sexuality, morality and femininity.
The commentators powerfully debunk insidious historical notions about
the “unrapeability” of black women and identify the ways men of color have
internalized these images.
This fall, the South L.A.-based Women’s Leadership Project for high school girls of color will be conducting
sexual harassment and sexual violence prevention outreach with high school
athletes and ninth grade health classes.
Students will participate in peer-facilitated trainings designed to
unpack the victim-blaming, victim-shaming, complicity and silence that allows
sexual assault and rape to thrive as cultural norms. While there has been a
mandatory push for restorative justice alternatives in large public school
districts like the Los Angeles Unified School District, sexual violence
prevention education remains sparse and piecemeal. Indeed, far too often in the
everyday climate of K-12 schools, girls of color in particular are admonished
by adults about how their “distracting” dress, behavior and attitudes are
really subtle provocations for boys to act “badly”. At the end of the day, the culture that
spawned Brock Turner is not changing fast enough for victims who don’t have the
benefit of Ivy League notoriety. And
while pending legislation may strengthen prosecution of rape and sexual assault,
the crisis in prevention demands that all school communities become accountable
for dismantling the culture of male privilege, sexism, misogyny and misogynoir
that allow rape to thrive.
