The system fails minorities and women pretty hard, but no one was prepared for the case of Brock Turner, the ex-Stanford swimmer who sexually assaulted a woman behind a dumpster on campus. The jury found Turner guilty of multiple rape charges. However, that is just the tip of the iceberg. What was infuriating about the case was that Judge Aaron Persky gave Turner a six-month jail sentence and told the star ex-swimmer that he could be released on good behavior in a little as three months. The reason behind the short sentence? Because Persky felt that “a prison sentence would have a severe impact on him, and I don’t think he’ll be a danger to others.” Maybe that is because Persky was a standout athlete just like Turner, and saw himself in the young man.
I wish I was kidding, but that is not the case. Turner’s father, Dan A. Turner, even wrote a letter to Judge Persky before his son’s sentencing, saying that the burden his son will hold is a “steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action out of his 20 plus years of life.” I am not sure what is worse; Judge Persky’s inability to bring a rapist to justice because of coddling, the rapist not taking responsibly for his actions, the father refusing to acknowledge what Turner had done to the victim or none of the individuals caring about the person who is traumatized by this experience: the victim herself. So with that being said, I’m going to go with all of the above. This trial was a travesty from the moment the judge gave the lenient sentence. Perhaps this is because of a little thing I like to call “white Privilege.”
“What does this have to do with race at all, Jelani?” You ask your computer screen.
Let’s go back to the case of Cory Batey, a former Vanderbilt football player who was found raping an unconscious student in a dorm. The then 19-year-old African-American was sentenced to a minimum 15 to 25 years in jail, and rightfully so. The ex-football player’s actions were inexcusable and the evidence was overwhelming. What I’m getting at is that the justice system did its part in throwing Batey behind bars, but didn’t do the same for Turner. One man will spend most of his life in jail while the other gets six months. One man is black while the other one is white. This is our country, ladies and gentleman, where black men are given prison sentences 20 percent longer than white men for the exact same crimes. This is the free country where African-Americans and Hispanics are three times more likely to have their cars searched by cops than whites.
There is a lot going on with the case, more than anyone thought. Whether you look at is as a prime example of white privilege or how rape culture is still alive and thriving on campus grounds, it all comes down to this in one word: unacceptable.
