The Village Voice has a good article on feminism and the Central Park Jogger case (as does Newsday). Susan Brownmiller, unfortunately, provides the obligatory "what a jerk feminists are" soundbites (although other feminists reacted better). But Brownmiller is on to something when she says that feminists shouldn’t be the ones blamed for the way black activists and feminists failed to connect a decade ago. Were feminists at fault? Absolutely – feminists, like everyone else, should have been skeptical of police statements and of confessions generated under unfair police pressure. (Of course, some feminists were skeptical at the time – including, unsurprisingly, some feminists of color).
But let’s not forget that some defendants’ advocates were misogynistic in ways that feminists rightly found it impossible to ally themselves with. Kharey Wise’s lawyer questioned (insanely) if a rape had taken place at all, and also suggested that the guilty party might be the victim’s boyfriend, whom the victim was lying to protect. Feminists were right then to consider this approach a misogynistic lie – and none of the new evidence changes that.
That was mild compared to what some non-lawyers were saying. According to Newsday (July 17 1990), "Some of the more vocal spectators denounced the defense lawyers for not questioning the jogger about her sexual activities around the time of the assault." From The Sunday Times, July 22 1990:
Some suggest the jogger was in the park looking to buy drugs; others say she was raped by her white boyfriend. One black woman last week even claimed that the police photographs were fakes. ”That wasn’t pictures of the jogger. That was just some corpse they got for the case,” she announced.
The low point of this type of behaviour occurred when the jogger left the courthouse. Several black women surrounded the police van carrying her away and shouted: ”She’s a prostitute, she’s a whore, she’s part of it.”
I think it’s great that some feminists are questioning their role ten years ago, and looking for ways to take anti-racist action today (according to Newsday, several feminist groups have joined protests and "have called for a federal investigation into the way the case was handled"). I hope that at some point, some of the defendants’ advocates from ten years ago will find time to question their own misogyny and victim-blaming, as well.
(Links via Body and Soul. Much of this post’s text was "recycled" from a post I wrote last month).
UPDATE: Via Negroplease, I came across A Burst of Light‘s excellent blogging of the Central Park Five case. Here’s a bit of sick irony: three of the youths missed chances for parole because they claimed they were innocent.
Also, Jason brings up a good point for folks writing about this case – is it time to start calling this “the Central Park Five” case, rather than the “Central Park Jogger” case?.
