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Protecting The Good Brother: On Nate Parker And The Good Black Men (And Women) Who Defend Him

On the proverbial eve of the release of the highly anticipated Birth of a Nation, it seems as if Nate Parker's once bright star is about to be extinguished, or at least dimmed by decades old rape allegations--and it should be.
C. Nicole Mason, PhD
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Author and Executive Director, CR2PI at the Washington Area Women's Foundation

Author and Executive Director, CR2PI at the Washington Area Women's Foundation
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Getting convicted of rape is hard. Out of 1000 reported rapes, only 7 will result in a felony conviction and less than one-third of those incidences will every get reported to police. You could steal a box of Twinkies from a corner store and face more jail time than you did if you raped a woman.

On the proverbial eve of the release of the highly anticipated Birth of a Nation, it seems as if Nate Parker's once bright star is about to be extinguished, or at least dimmed by decades old rape allegations--and it should be.

As a former professor at two top historically Black colleges and Universities--Howard University and Spelman College--the Nate Parker rape allegations and the defense of him sound eerily familiar. They go as follows:

  • He's so smart and talented. Let's not ruin his future by bringing up sexual assault allegations that happened nearly two decades ago.

  • The media and "the man" are out to get him just like they did Bill Cosby. Our brightest stars are often extinguished just as they are about to shine their brightest (i.e. Buy NBC or release an Oscar winning movie about slavery).

  • Boys will be boys. What did she expect to happen? She should have been more responsible and not drank so much.

  • If you have sex once, you can never say no or refuse it a second time.

  • And from the victim, I often hear "I don't want to get him [the perpetrator] in trouble, expelled, or cause him to lose his job or status. I should not have been drinking so much. It's partially my fault."

    • In addition to the excuses above, when the Nate Parker rape allegations (re)surfaced, I braced myself for the defense of Parker by Black celebrities, Hoteps and others who don't want to see a "good brother" taken down by a decision he made when he was just a "kid." In my opinion, these are the same group of people who in the past have come to the defense of Bill Cosby, R. Kelly, Mike Tyson, and OJ Simpson. It needs to stop.

    Over the next few months and maybe longer, there will be many who will come to defense of Nate Parker and fuel conspiracies that he was indeed a victim of a corrupt system meant to rob the Black community of our brightest and most talented starts. This is simply not true.

    It is my hope that the discussion around Nate Parker can open up more serious dialogue about rape, consent and accountability not only in the Black community, but in the larger society as well.

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