Dear Nate Parker,

I’ve seen “The Great Debaters,” I’ve seen “Red Tails,” I’ve seen “The Secret Life of Bees,” and I liked you in all of these movies. And from the look of your characters you’re a wholesome young man with a positive direction. I liked your passion, I admired your dignity and most of all I enjoyed your performance.

“Birth of a Nation” is coming out soon, and until recently, I was excited to support you in theaters. I was excited as a young Black woman to celebrate the accomplishments of another young Black man…until I read the details of your rape charges.

Wrongfully so, when I first heard of your college allegations, I was suspicious of the victim. As a woman, I questioned the validity of claims made by another woman who accused you of rape. I took your victims claims with a grain of salt because I gave you the benefit of the doubt — a luxury rarely granted to young men of color.

Then I looked a bit closer.

While I know you can’t believe everything you read, see, or hear, I looked into as many details about your case as I possibly could. I read testimonies. I fact checked (and while I am subject to my own bias and limitations, I feel as though I did a decent job) — and no matter how I tried to spin things in a positive direction towards you, the entire situation pointed at you and your colleague. The young woman you raped was drunk, vulnerable and alone. You admitted to sexual relations with her, but it seems you “felt” she was sober enough to understand the implications of her own, your own and your colleague’s actions.

When I think of your victim, I try to imagine how difficult it was for a young woman to come forward in the 1990’s and speak on sexual abuse. I try to imagine how hearbreaking it was for no one to believe her, and how her trust was betreyed and manipulated. I reflect to times when I too, felt sexually abused and as though I could not relate to anyone. In so, I instantly recognized my error: I was giving YOU the benefit of the doubt instead of your victim. Eventually I found myself viewing you under eyes of suspicion and disgust.

In all, I have come to the resolution that I do not trust your past. And no matter how many times you had consentual sex with a young woman…no matter how much you may have mutually enjoyed relations at some point, it does not give you a right to her body despite her sobriety or lack thereof. As a young woman, I choose to stand with other young women against campus sexual assult.

You may have gotten off in the US “criminal justice” system, and you may be a “successful” actor, but you will never earn another one of my hard earned, vulnerable, intersectional wage-gap, lady-dollars.

Sincerely,

Annonymous