Eric St. Bernard is a senior
English writing major from
Brooklyn, New York.
Last week, TMZ, the kings and queens of celebrity gossip, released video surveillance of Baltimore Ravens ex-running back Ray Rice’s vicious assault on his then- girlfriend and now wife Janay Palmer in an Atlantic City casino this past February. Hours after the public had access to the video, Rice was released from the Ravens organization, and suspended indefinitely from the National Football League. Public figures commented on the blow-up, with president Barack Obama’s press secretary chiming in “hitting a woman is not something a real man does…. All of us have the responsibility to stop it”. These are truths that cannot, and should not, be put up for debate.
The rest of the conversation, however, can be.
Months before, the first surveillance video was released; a 5’8”, 212 lbs. Rice dragging Palmer’s laid out body out of an elevator, and onto the hotel floor. As a repercussion, Rice was given a two-game suspension from the NFL [14 games less than Josh Gordon’s full-year suspension for marijuana showing on his drug test], and faced no legal consequences. John Harbaugh, Rice’s ex coach, stood in public support of Rice this past June, proclaiming “I stand behind Ray, he’s a heck of a guy, he’s done everything right since [the assault on Palmer]. He makes a mistake, he’s gonna have to pay the consequence.” Raven’s teammates of Rice echoed the same sentiment, standing in support of Rice.
A month later, cable network ESPN suspended TV show host Steven A. Smith for a week, after he asserted on live air “Let’s make sure we don’t do anything to provoke wrong actions…. If we [men] come after somebody has put their hands on you, it doesn’t negate the fact that they already put their hands on you.” Despite what Smith’s intentions were, his comments were deemed unacceptable, with no place for it on the air. In a joint press conference last May, both Ray and Janay Rice apologized for the roles they played in the violent incident. Despite outcries about Rice’s slap on the wrist by the NFL, controversy seemed to fizzle down in time for the start of the NFL regular season.
After last week’s second video, however, things took a dramatic turn for the worst.
In reaction to the shocking video, social media celebrated Rice’s firing, and some even labeled the controversy ‘a victory in the fight against domestic violence.' That is where we, as a society, have been rinsed in media brainwash. Whereas Steven A. (and anyone else constantly under a public microscope) has to suppress his true beliefs to protect his high profile job, we have learned to critique, question, and deconstruct the information being spoon fed to us.
Let’s do just that:
When asked in a press conference what he thought happened in the elevator [prior to Rice dragging his wife’s semi-motionless body onto the hotel floor], coach Harbaugh conveniently rebutted, “I don’t want to get into that right now." Since the initial video was released in February, we knew what happened to Palmer in the casino elevator. More importantly, the NFL knew what happened. The league, which last year grossed $6 billion in revenue, launched a “full investigation” on the case. Are we willing to accept that TMZ was able to access the full casino footage months later, before both the NFL and the Baltimore Ravens organization were? If we agree that ‘no man should hit a woman,' why would the league launch a half-fledging investigation on the matter? Was the first video of Rice dragging Palmer from the elevator not enough? Why was Rice given only a two game suspension, and welcomed back with open arms by the Ravens’ organization – from the head coach, to his teammates?
The reality is this: by suspending Rice, the National Football League was not standing in solitude with Janay Palmer, and domestic violence victims across the globe. The Ravens, by firing Rice weren’t making a political statement on the seriousness of the issue, either. If that were the case, those steps would have been taken months ago. Instead, they held on to Rice, because after all, he is “a good man”. Even with Palmer sticking behind her husband, why did the NFL’s stance suddenly change? The NFL and the Baltimore Ravens are making moves to protect themselves – nothing more, nothing less. Rice immediately lost sponsors after the second video was released, and I am willing to claim league commissioner Roger Godell (who makes $35.1 million a year) thought about protecting corporate affluence ten times before thinking about the seriousness of domestic violence once.
We need to reconsider the way we interpret social justice. The Ray Rice incident is not a ‘victory in the fight against domestic violence’ (and the conversation about Janay Palmer’s stance in all this can take up an entire edition of The DePauw). It is a disgrace, a disaster, a tragedy. It is a corporate slap in the face to domestic violence survivors, and their allies. It is not a step in the right direction; it is a reminder that political correctness and corporate image can be mistaken as progress.
If even after reading this, you think domestic violence has been taken in a more serious context, Google this:
“Paul George Tweets”.
-St. Bernard is a senior English literature and communications double major.