 The requirements: Rich, White, and Privileged
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On April 1, 2001 the U.S. established Sexual Assault Awareness Month nationally, also known as SAAM. Where women and men, work together in an effort to raise awareness of rape, unwanted sexual contact and explicit language.
Recently, President elect Donald Trump made headlines when he announced April as Sexual Assault Awareness month as President Barack Obama did each year before him, stating, “We dedicate each April to raising awareness about sexual abuse and recommitting ourselves to fighting it. Women, children, and men have inherent dignity that should never be violated.” The difference between President Obama and President Trump, Obama has never made such a proclamation while having several women accusing him of sexual assault. Had Obama been recorded saying, “grab them by the pu–y,” he would have never seen the light of day, which would have been justified. let alone would those in his company excuse his actions as ‘locker room talk’ or ‘boys being boys’. A few female Donald Trump supporters took his ‘words’ as joke, sporting shirts giving permission for such action.Â
This proclamation was announced by President Trump, March 31, 2017. Not even one week later, Bill O’Reilly made headlines. O’Reilly and Fox News paid five women a total of 13 million dollars. It was not the amount of money he paid these women for their silence, but the endorsement he received from President Trump. Just a few short days ago he was announcing his proclamation of April being Sexual Assault Awareness Month. This is not the first time Trump defended a Fox News associate. Back in 2016, Trump was on the side of Roger Ailes the CEO of Fox News, when Gretchen Carlson established a lawsuit against the CEO for firing her after she denied him unwanted sexual advances.
Last year, Brock Turner made national news after raping an unconscious fellow woman behind a dumpster. The victim remains anonymous, but her direct statement to Brock Turner is out there loud and clear:
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“I was not only told that I was assaulted, I was told that because I couldn’t remember, I technically could not prove it was unwanted. And that distorted me, damaged me, almost broke me. It is the saddest type of confusion to be told I was assaulted and nearly raped, blatantly out in the open, but we don’t know if it counts as assault yet. I had to fight for an entire year to make it clear that there was something wrong with this situation.”
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She was labeled as the drunk woman behind the dumpster, while news sources continued to glorify Turner as the Stanford swimmer on the road to the Olympics. Turners, father claimed his son wasn’t eating, and taking this very hard, that being kicked out of school or going to prison was, “A steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action.” Turner, was facing a maximum 14 years, sentenced to six months and only served three. What message is our judicial system sending to victims?
A similar case that made headlines near the same time as Turner, was that of Cory Batey. The two cases, nearly identical. Batey raped an unconscious woman and was sentenced to 15 years, Turner raped an unconscious woman and was sentenced to six months. Both individuals had the reputation of being a star athlete, both are male, but one is black and the other is white. Registering as a sex offender for the rest of your life, is not enough. Do the crime, do the time.
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How are women supposed to feel safe, is the law even on our side? Excusing fowl language as “locker room talk”, rape as “20 minutes of action” and harassment as, “I don’t think he did anything wrong.” what are we really fighting for, when even Donald Trump the President of The United States of America has 12 sexual assault cases against him. Power can be such a dangerous tool, in the wrong hands.
I recommend every college student, male or female to watch, ‘The Hunting Ground’ a documentary about sexual assault on college campuses. The film is a little biased, meaning that the documentary solely focuses on high ranked universities, with limit to no acknowledgment of male rape victims.
You are not victim, you are a survivor…just like me.