Mike Tyson’s Fans Just Don’t Get the Message

It’s over. The system worked and Mike Tyson is going to be in jail for a very long time. But the outrage lingers.

I had almost stopped pondering the annoying oddities of the case: the rallying ‘round the rapist by many of his boxing fans and the Baptist church officials to whom he had pledged $5 million; the tragically self-destructive instincts of a man-boy who had the world at his feet; the curious fact that the story usually ran on sports pages instead of news pages; the way so many people wanted to blame the victim, Desiree Washington, because she “should have known better.”

All that really didn’t matter for the moment because a jury found him guilty of rape.

But as I puttered in the kitchen last week, my anger bubbled back to the surface as I listened to a male caller on KABC Talkradio.

The man said he’d done “a lot of research” since the Tyson case first made news. He’d discovered a big difference between “sexual brutality” and “rape.” Sexual brutality, he said, is when a woman puts herself in a position in which a man may take advantage of her, even over her protests. This is not a crime, just an unfortunate incident. Rape, he said, is when she doesn’t consent at all.

His kicker contained his real message: “No woman can be raped unless she wants to be.”

I wouldn’t waste space reiterating such an inane argument except for the astonishingly meek response of the host, Ira Fistell. He neither addressed nor challenged the caller’s sexist proclamations. He simply moved on.

The next caller, also a man, took issue with the first caller: Rape, he said, is virtually institutionalized in our culture. (You can make a pretty good case for this point of view.) But the literal-minded host was outraged by such a ridiculous statement. He hung up on the guy. Fistell wanted to talk about something really important--the NCAA tournament.

I don’t usually scream at my radio. That evening, I made an exception.

I know that times have changed, that, as Marybeth Roden of the Santa Monica Rape Treatment Center told me, 20 years ago Tyson’s crime probably would not have been reported, let alone prosecuted.

But the outpouring of goodwill for Tyson, the signs carried by supporters outside the Indianapolis courtroom saying “You don’t go out with strangers at 2 a.m.,” show we are still fighting attitudes that are so deeply entrenched, so profoundly sexist and selfish, that it sometimes seems a miracle that Tyson or any other rapist who knows his victim ever goes to prison.

Selfish? I’m talking about the preservation of one’s world view in spite of the facts, about the powerful defense mechanism called denial. Denial allows men and women to believe that a foolish Desiree Washington should shoulder half the blame for what Tyson did.

Here’s how it works. You tell me that my hero is a criminal, and that news tilts my world view to an uncomfortable degree. I refuse to believe it.

You tell me that my daughter can be raped in a hotel room by someone she has no reason to distrust, but that’s too upsetting; that means it could actually happen to her. So I choose to believe she can be raped only by a stranger in a dark alley.

You tell me that the man who has just pledged $5 million to help me build a headquarters for my church has committed a felony and faces up to 60 years in prison. I’m gonna tell you that the racist Establishment is trying to bring down another successful black man.

Except the hero is a criminal.

The victim did feel safe with the rapist.

And the successful black man, as we see from the conviction, brought himself down.

Plenty of people cannot bring themselves to believe that a man such as Tyson could rape. Or, since he is such a superlative boxer, that it really matters. After all, the victim was in his room voluntarily.

Foremost among the defenders is the Rev. T. J. Jemison, president of the National Baptist Convention U.S.A. Inc., who led pro-Tyson rallies after the boxer was arrested and undertook a petition drive for a suspended sentence after his conviction.

His is the organization to which Tyson had pledged so much money, the organization with which Desiree Washington’s church is affiliated.

And Jemison is the churchman who called Washington before the trial began, urging her not to “use the trial to hurt this fellow.”

The poor fellow. Tyson could hardly believe what had befallen him.

“I am not guilty of this crime,” he told the judge at his sentencing. “I didn’t hurt anybody--no black eyes, no broken ribs.”

Does it surprise anyone that Tyson feels this way? After all, he had the tenacious support of an important clergyman and thousands of fans.

It’s possible that prison will teach Tyson the error of his ways.

Unfortunately, the lesson will probably be lost on some of his supporters.