I was watching an old documentary on Mike Tyson, the “Fallen Champ”. Damn, at age 15, Mike looked like the grown-ass man he is now. I mean EXACTLY the same. Did he ever look like a kid?

I didn’t realize how young and naive he was when he got started in the boxing game, and how quickly he rose to being the youngest heavyweight champ of the world. He had a drive about boxing that was admirable. He worked really hard to get as far as he did, and was taken advantage of most of the way. He lost his mom at an early age, and didn’t have any family to look after him. He adopted his coaches and managers as parental units, and when the best of them departed, he was left with Don King.

Dang.

I was feeling bad for the poor kid. There was something endearing about Mike.

 
Until that whole domestic violence thing came out.

 

Then they got to the rape accusation and later conviction.
(circa 1991)

This part of the documentary was incredibly disturbing. I was still pretty young when this occurred, so I wasn’t fully aware of the politics surrounding the incident, but it was ug-ly to say the least.

They showed parts of the “Free Mike Tyson” rally where Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan said some……frightening things. Saying things like, what did Desiree Washington, Mike’s rape accuser, expect when she went to the hotel room at 2 o’ clock in the morning. She was accused of being a groupie and being after Mike’s money; and the only reason she cried rape is because Mike didn’t “show her any love” after the sexual encounter was over - apparently he didn’t walk her back down to the limo, so she got mad/offended and cried ‘rape’. Then the Minister asked the women in the crowd, “Ladies how many times have you said ‘No’, when you really meant ‘Yes’?” Farrakhan and several other religious leaders and prominent men in the black community had a good chuckle at that one.

 

Oh the misogyny!

I was mortified. I wanted to spit at the TV. I still don’t have the words to describe the extreme sadness and hurt I felt, knowing that these men could joke about that situation, on a very public platform mind you, and talk about the woman (who was only 18 at the time) like……like……I mean, they utterly and completely disrespected her and the rest us with their mindless banter about how she justified this “rape” by being in this knowingly groupie-like situation (according to them).

 

“Mike’s a wealthy, famed athlete, he’s calling you at 2am, you’re going up to his hotel room……Hello!……what’d ya think was gon happen? Sex was clearly on the agenda.”

 
Yeah, I guess that’s how it always goes down. No one goes to hotel rooms at 2am to talk, use the bathroom, change clothes or anything.  

 
Now I don’t know what did or didn’t happen on that night…and neither do they. To talk down the situation and talk down the RIGHT of a woman, groupie or otherwise, to say “NO” to sex, even at 2am in a hotel room with a rich & famous athlete……that is some callous and cruel shit.

 
I believe that might’ve been the beginning of the end for male/female relations; particularly in the black community (which I am apart of). That exposure of the ugly truth, where (some of) our men stood on this issue……the self-proclaimed “leaders” of our society at that……I think thats when many black men started to openly and freely berate black women, especially those in groupie-like roles.

 
Hmph.

 
……and then that whole Anita Hill thing went down around the same time……

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and everyone is entitled to my opinion.