A recent episode of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” drew attention over a storyline in which a white rape victim resisted testifying against her black attacker out of fear that he wouldn’t get a fair trial due to his race.
In the January 25 episode “Truth Embargo,” the man raped a character named Natalie during a smash-and-grab robbery of a clothing store. At the hospital, Natalie denies seeing her rapist’s face, despite video camera footage showing the man removing his mask before entering the dressing room.
Natalie eventually and “reluctantly” identifies her attacker as a man named Jay Watson, portrayed by actor Mykey Cooper.
Natalie’s lesbian partner, Brooke, explains to the detectives that Natalie is angry at the criminal justice system over her belief that black criminals don’t receive “fair trials.”
“She’s inconsolable,” says Brooke. “We’re acutely aware of the systemic inequities that exist within the criminal justice system.”
“Well, I can’t deny that there’s a history of racial bias,” the officer responded. “It’s certainly not a perfect system.”
Later, the episode portrays Natalie as so privileged that she need not seek justice for rape.
The character tells the prosecutor she has the “luxury” of getting therapy to heal from her trauma, but the black rapist would have to sit behind bars.
“I can afford therapy. I have that luxury. And maybe, one day, I’ll be okay. But if that teenager goes to prison? He may not be, ever. I don’t want that,” she cries.
The detective finally convinces Natalie to identify Watson as her attacker from the stand. However, the district attorney agrees to a plea deal and commends Watson for taking “responsibility” for his actions after he apologizes.
The message here is repulsive: white women should have sympathy for their black rapists and thus fear reporting them.
That is grotesque.
If “Law & Order” convinces even one woman to feel that way, and a rapist walks free because of it, the show is complicit.
Rapists do not deserve sympathy, whether they are black or white. Rape is one of the most heinous crimes imaginable. Rapists deserve to be punished to the fullest extent.
Raped and battered victims should not be pressured to concern themselves with the supposed racial bias of the justice system.
They have enough to worry about.
Black rapists are not victims. They are dangerous vultures who ought to be taken off the streets, along with every other rapist, regardless of their skin color.