Rape

[EDITORS' NOTES: Date changed to reflect promotion to front page./liza

For an earlier diary on this issue, and some broader issues, please see this diary. And help out if you can!/mole333]

Herstories on the issue of violence against women

A Cheyenne proverb states, “A nation is not conquered until the hearts of its women are on the ground. Then it is done, no matter how brave its warriors or how strong its weapons.” Our hearts are not on the ground. Our feet are. And we are moving forward.

A travesty to the true spirit of justice is taking place on the Standing Rock Reservation that covers North and South Dakota. Predominantly white male rapists are sexually assaulting American Indian women and getting away with inadequate consequences or no consequences whatsoever.

Crossposted at Native American Netroots

Show me a rapist of an American Indian woman and I’ll show you an upstanding member of society. That’s what the Major said about a man who plead guilty to raping an American Indian woman. Maybe the thieves and vandals who have caused property damage so severe that Pretty Bird Woman House had to close its doors for now are “upstanding citizens” as well.

Little by little I am getting more media traction and, quite frankly, I am down with that. I am going to post about a TV appearance I made on NY-ABC about two weeks ago but right now I am going to point to you to Farai Chideya's show on NPR, "News and Notes". I was on the show's Blogger Roundtable with Baratunde Thursoton in NYC and Avery Tooley in Washington DC shooting the breeze on the black elite's split between Obama and Hillary, on how Obama is redefining blackness and, more somberly, on the LaVena Johson case.

These 20 minutes are, by far, the funnest I have had in a loooong time. I used to be a voice over artist and, quite frankly, if I had to choose between being in front of a camera or microphone and typing, I would go for the talking --because its easier on the body. And as I said that, I still have my issues when it comes to on-camera work, but that's topic for a whole 'nother post.

Click To Play

What I am about to discuss contains a great condemnation of our society as well as a great act of charity. Some of you will already have read about it, but as usual, I will try to take my own, personal, integrated slant to it.

Amnesty International just published a report that became the focus of a series of Daily Kos diaries. The jist of the Amnesty International report is that, one in three Native American women are victims of rape...and most of those rapes are committed by outsiders, not fellow Native Americans. This Daily Kos article covers some pretty nasty aspects of American law covering Native Americans that allow this kind of crime to thrive with almost no consequences. Many laws relating to American/Native relations were written in the 19th century during a period of extreme abuse by the dominant American culture against Native cultures...and many of those laws are still in force.

A side story in that Daily Kos diary discussed a single women's shelter on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, the Pretty Bird Woman shelter, that was just about out of money. This shelter, one of the few facilities set up to help those one out of three Native American women who are raped, mostly by outsiders, was about to close due to lack of funds. Daily Kos, for all its faults, can do wonders. In no time a site was set up to collect funds for the Pretty Bird Women shelter, and within days thousands of dollars were raised, saving it from immanent closing.

About 21 years ago I was in what I would like to dramatically believe was a tempestuous relationship. Unfortunately, it wasn't that glamorous. I was obsessed with a guy who by the age of 19 was an alcoholic coke and then crackhead. The toxicity of my desire trumped my better judgement and I allowed myself to enter in one of the most unsafe relationships I have ever been. It was also the most formative. This was the same relationship that ended with the abortion I have never regretted.

In one of our alcohol fueled outings, I said "NO", he said "Yes" and what happened next, I believe, is a matter of semantics : I would have probably described it as "me abusó" --he abused me. Sexual assault sounds a degree or two more violent than what happened. And I would never name it rape. I can't.

This was Puerto Rico after all and it was the 1980s, a time when we had an influx of South American dissidents fleeing Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and bringing with them stories of los desaparecidos, "the dissapeared". Some of these people had survived their own disappearances and talked about the systematic rape and torture they endured at the hand of the military during their imprisonment. The others who didn't suffer that fate, fled their countries fearing they would be next.

To make matters more complicated, at least for me, I come from an extended family of alcoholics, drug addicts and gamblers. Some of them were wife or child beaters. Some of them were cops. Some of them were all of the above.

UPDATE 2:
I have removed Ms. Mangum's image but left the original post.

What I wanted to have with this post was the possibility of her image being associated with a good discussion about this case. I think it is important that when people go searching for her photograph --given it has been released and it's under the public domain-- that her photograph is associated with a good discussion about this case.

This unfortunately is not the post.

UPDATE :
I have been asked to take down the photograph of Ms. Mangum. Believe me, I am not taking lightly at all that The Smoking Gun rushed to reveal her. On the same breath, believe you me when I say I am not taking lightly at all the gross miscarriage of justice involved in this case.

I want to go on record as saying that I do believe Ms. Mangum when she says she was raped. Yet, as the mother of two boys, one of whom could easily pass as a "white boy", I can't even fathom having to hold my son's hand during a trial in which he was wrongly accused of rape.

There are serious issues that have to be discussed about this case : Mike Nifong was a Democratic candidate for District Attorney who needed to be in the graces of the "black vote" to win the primaries and reelection.

It's indecent that many people in the "left" --people who traditionally vote Democrat-- found it politically expedient to decry Reade Seligmann, David Evans, and Collin Finnerty as guilty of rape because, you know, they were three easy "white guy" targets. This particularly goes out to the feminists who rushed to called them rapists.

Now let me reiterate : I believe Ms. Mangum was raped. I do believe the three "privileged white guys" didn't do it. I do believe there is a truth that nobody who was in that house that day wants to reveal.

What terrifies me is that the evidence that could have potentially vindicated Ms. Mangum was probably tainted, mishandled or even not gathered at all because of the political ambition of a corrupt Democrat who saw her as a political expedient pawn for black votes.

To call this case a gross mishandling of justice is to put it mildly.

And yes, I have even more to say about this, but that goes on a separate post.

Her name is Crystal Gail Mangum. She is the woman who accused Reade Seligmann, David Evans, and Collin Finnerty of raping her at a team party where she had worked as an exotic dancer.

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper announced yesterday his office was dropping all charges against the three Duke students and that they were closing the criminal case because there was no credible evidence against, and I quote, "the innocent" trio.

Live on CNN : All charges have been dropped due to the inconsistencies in the evidence, especially the accounts by the alleged victim herself.

The North Carolina attorney general says the investigation was so faulty from the beginning, after his office's 12 week-long investigation, he is asking for all charges to the dropped and the names of the alleged attackers cleared.

DA Mike Nifong is under ethics investigation due to his mishandling of the case. The attorney general considers Nifong to have been a rogue DA, which is why he is under ethics investigation. He also is seeking for the state Supreme Court to enact proceeding for the swift removal of DAs in future similar situations.

Now the only recourse the accuser has is to take her alleged attackers to civil court --but that would lift off the privacy shield he has had under sexual assault laws.

I have more to say about this, but have to run out to pick up the kids from school. More later.