Update (03-29-13) So yesterday after we ran this story about Royal Mayo who was identified as president of the Steubenville, Ohio NAACP, stating he didn’t think the rape victim was really a victim, we soon heard from the National NAACP..Derek George Turner, director of communication sent this statement:
NAACP Condemns Remarks Disparaging Steubenville Rape Victim; International Business Times Article Misidentified Mayo as Local NAACP President
(WASHINGTON, DC) – The National NAACP released the following statement condemning the remarks disparaging the victim of the sexual assault in the Steubenville case:
“The NAACP abhors the remarks attributed to Royal Mayo regarding the rape victim in the Steubenville. The remarks are Mayo’s own, and do not reflect the position of the NAACP and its membership.
Mr. Mayo is not the president of the Steubenville NAACP and is not a spokesman for the NAACP. The article attributing him as such has been corrected by the International Business Times.
Rape is a despicable crime of violence. The NAACP understands that comments that blame victims for the actions of their attackers contribute to and perpetuate a culture of acquiescence to rape.
The NAACP advocates strongly for a society where victims of rape and sexual assault can come forward and seek legal redress without further retribution from the community, media or society at large.”
Royal Mayo
Reading this article from Steubenville, Ohio, where the NAACP president Royal Mayo is raising the issue about why only two men got convicted and not everyone else.. His claims and layout of the incident should not be immediately dismissed, especially as he places it in the context of long standing police corruption in Steubenville. He notes it’s the first police department in the country to come under a federal court decree..
Where Mayo, loses me and I’m sure many other folks is when he makes the outlandish statement that this teenage girl really isn’t a rape victim.. He claims that the teenager shown in those sordid videos and pictures wanted to have the type of sex the young men from the football team were on trial for… Unbelievable.. No wonder we have such confusion amongst people about sexual assault…Thinking like this is not usual it’s embedded in the minds of far too many people..The thinking goes; If she’s drunk and out of it and unable to stand, she’s good to go.. Inevitably that leads to young men making moves to get a young women in that condition.. ie Dropping a molly or some other mind altering substance in her drink.. All that gets accentuated when popular entertainers like rapper Rick Ross rap about it in a song..or as you may recall last fall, Cee-Lo Green gets accused of doing this..
Perhaps its time we draw clear lines in the sand similar to ‘No means No‘.. How about we make it clear, being drunk, too high, unable to stand and be in full control of your faculties means ‘No’.. end of story?
The article that appears in the IBTimes has the following excerpts: Peep the entire article
Mayo described the 16-year-old girl as the “alleged victim” and said she might have been having consensual sex. “She said her mother brought her to the party, at 3 o’clock, with a bottle of vodka,” Mayo said. “Where did you get it, young lady? You brought it from home? Where’d you get it? You came to the party with your mother.”
Mayo added that she might have been a willing participant, apparently unfazed by the inflammatory nature of such statements. “They’re alleging she got raped; she’s acknowledging that she wanted to leave with Trent. Her friends say she pushed them away as she went and got into the car, twice telling them, ‘I know what I’m doing; I’m going with Trent,’” Mayo said.
By 10:30 p.m., other partygoers were making catcalls and bets to urinate on her, according to a New York Times time line of the incident. The victim was “carried” out of the party by Richmond and Mays two hours later. In the car on the way to another party, Mays was videotaped digitally penetrating the victim. At a third party, the victim was unable to walk on her own, and, according to testimony, Richmond was seen digitally penetrating her from behind. In the videotaped testimonies from the teens at the party, they understood that something wrong was happening but did not stop the sexual assault, as reported by Gawker.