Millennial Justice-106: Lessons in Existential Crises
Hi All, This week’s class is gonna be called “Lessons in Existential Crises” (fun times).
We’re gonna go over why people keep saying ridiculous things in order to defend these guys who’ve been accused (and even found guilty) of sex crimes; because ridiculousness is too rampant to NOT address it. Let’s start!
You have a pretty good idea of who you are, and the people you associate yourself with; and (for the most part) you would say that they’re decent human beings……..but what if they weren’t? What if YOU weren’t?
People are often fixated on holding onto their beliefs, regardless of outside factors. What if you went back and found out that you had committed an act that caused someone to feel violated? You, as a “good person” would probably feel a lot of feelings. “It was a misunderstanding; I was inebriated, I’d never do that if I was sober”, etc. Now you have to come to terms that you’ve committed an act that you ordinarily don’t see as a big deal, or possibly even despise. This caused a sense of discord in your mind; causing you to have to reevaluate your very being. And if not you; it’s your favorite actor, athlete, musician…….friend…….boyfriend……….brother…………..your own dad.
“Is my brother really a rapist? What does that mean for me, if I associate myself with him? Will people look at me the same way? You don’t want to believe that people who you hold in high regard could commit such an act. You also might worry about the fallout from the revelation; you might want to lend support, you might want to defend, or you might honestly let them know that the act was unacceptable. And if you think that this is hard for this group, imagine how the victims feel. So this is a guideline for how to deal with the internal struggle of navigating a sexual assault claim.
1. Default reaction-Believe the accuser. They virtually never make this up.
2. Don’t internalize the actions of others. Acknowledging the transgressions of an associate doesn’t mean that you’re a bad person, yourself (unless you were involved. In which case we’ll be getting to you next).
3. Take time to heal, and evaluate your new relationship dynamic, and start developing a further understanding of the accused. There’s obviously more about them that you didn’t know. Now we should find out with the deal is.
4. Think about what you can do to actively stop thinks like this from happening; and speak out against people who will potentially commit these crimes. Don’t be OK with rape jokes. Know the laws on the books. Ensure that others are safe.
This change starts with all of us. All it takes is for one person to speak up, and many assaults could be prevented. If you want to be as good as a person as you think, and you want to hold these people in a high regard; let’s make sure that they’re living by these standards.
