Female Journalist Suspended After Tweeting Kobe Bryant Rape Article

Honestly, when I heard of his passing, the first person I thought of was his victim. I cannot imagine what her life has been like over the years. She has my sympathy and I will always remember her. Rape is a big fucking deal and to me it is unforgivable.

This. He lost his life the other day in an accident, she lost her life the day he intentionally raped her.

Any other crime and it wouldn't be considered 'bad form' to mention it. If he'd been jailed for burglary or gun crime, it would have been mentioned as part of his life.

For a journalist to be suspended? Well misogyny is constantly reaching new depths.

Yes - we've gone so far backwards from #metoo

I wonder how many rape and death threats the NYT obit writer received

I can’t stress how different it is to actually write an article about Kobe and putting the rape case in context with everything else.

.... and tweeting an old article written by someone else just hours after his death. The former is journalism, the latter just tacky and honestly, twitter trolling.

I wonder how many rape and death threats the NYT obit writer received: www.nytimes.com/2020/01/26/sports/kobe-bryant-obituary.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article#commentsContainer

I think its a woman excusing the behaviour of a man she liked, it's as old as the hills.

The article is, as I imagine is obvious, written by an American woman. While we have our own big issues with racism here, I guess it’s on a different scale over there. When so many freedoms are under threat, I imagine it’s very easy to feel that some are neglected in pursuit of others (I do this myself in other contexts), and to disagree with the priorities of others. Right now, if I were still living there, I would be feeling pretty damn terrified as a white woman, but even more scared as a WOC.

His dream of coaching a women's basketball won't happen now. However, if he had lived, the continuing positive impact he would have had on the lives of hundreds, if not thousands, of women and girls can't surely be ignored.

I'm not American nor a sports follower so I'll admit to knowing virtually zero about him prior to his death other than a vague name recognition.

I understand that his daughter, who sadly died also, was a very talented basketball player so I have to question whether his interest in women's sport was motivated by this rather than a wider 'calling'. Would he have championed female sport if he had only sons?

I ask because it seems to often be a thing with fathers of daughters to become very much into something that directly benefits their child after becoming a parent. Completely understandable but this doesn't translate to a saintly respect of all women and girls.

That said it was a terrible accident, sadly probably an avoidable one and it must be dreadful for the families of all nine victims. I feel very sorry for his wife losing a husband and a daughter.

The rape allegations against MLK have been made, not by any supposed victim, but by members of an organisation determined to defame and destabilise the civil rights movement by attacking MLK's character.

In any sphere, a plurality of opinions is healthy. I am only speaking for myself and defending my right to remember that Kobe was a rapist and no hero to me personally. I respect the right of those who entertain a nuanced analysis of Kobe's legacy.

To me, racialising the viewpoint that focuses on Kobe's wielding of his wealth and privilege in his rape case is really disturbing and lazy and patently untrue.

I don't think things are black and white. Martin Luther King allegedly used Prostitutes. New FBI documents show he was present at a rape encouraging the participant. How do we as a society judge and process that?

Kobe did a lot for poor, marginalised women and children. Using his star power to lift up women's sport. His dream of coaching a women's basketball won't happen now. However, if he had lived, the continuing positive impact he would have had on the lives of hundreds, if not thousands, of women and girls can't surely be ignored.

I wonder how nuanced the feelings of these women defending Kobe's legacy about their own rapists or the rapists of their loved ones?

That I totally agree with. I think nothing trumps the right of survivors of sexual violence to own their reaction to this. I am not one.

Just read the posts above this. I don’t think any more of him as a man than I did this morning. My own immediate reaction when he died was ‘good’. There are black women in the group calling that point of view bollocks. I just want to think about my own reaction and whether I am wielding privilege in a way that ultimately doesn’t help because I don’t have the right to dismiss that point of view. (Not that random shit posted on the Internet by me makes any difference to be honest.)

It’s sparked a huge debate in the group too. I don’t think I agree entirely with it or entirely with criticism of it. I hate ‘woke’ wherever it’s used, and I don’t think it’s fair to say that white women can’t be angry about it all. But I also think it’s worth considering the dynamics of the impact of the work he did (whether to atone or to polish up his reputation, and my jury is firmly out on that one) and to absorb the potential criticism of failing to apply an intersectional approach.

Personally I have also been critical of Bowie, and Lennon, and others, and am sick to the back teeth of ‘talent’ outweighing shit behaviour. But it also doesn’t stop me liking their work, even though I don’t want to.

I wonder how nuanced the feelings of these women defending Kobe's legacy about their own rapists or the rapists of their loved ones? They can rationalise their hypocrisy until the cows come home. They will not change my feelings about him. I am black and I do not see him as a hero. He was a very rich and powerful individual who bought his way out of a rape conviction. He had more in common with other rich and powerful people than with he did with me.

Agreed. You can’t philanthropise your way out of being a rapist.

This is not the first time I’ve seen women being dismissed as hideous white feminists for discussing a rapist who is black. My anger with and contempt for rapists has no relation whatsoever to their race.

Calling women who object to rapists 'woke' is appalling. That piece of writing ( if you can call it that) made me feel ill.

feelingverylazytoday

Desiree'schildwhy are you surprised? Not everyone does the 'we believe you because you have a vagina' thing, even on this board. It's not compulsory

Eh? I don't know what point you are making.

My surprise is about the number of times I've seen Bowie lauded on here for being wonderful because he was a "gender non- conforming" man in a dress. It"s a bit odd to praise a man who had sex with a 13 year old girl for being "gender non- conforming"

Or are you suggesting it was the 13 year old who should not be believed?

It seems she wasn’t meant to post stories which were not on her beat.

www.theguardian.com/media/2020/jan/28/washington-post-staff-reject-reporter-suspension-kobe-bryant-felicia-sonmez

I saw this today which really gave me pause. I am aware of Bryant’s legacy in sports and in inspiring young people, particularly those of colour, and I think that is important to bring into discussion of a mixed legacy. But these FB posts, c&ped into a discussion group, made me think about how I was putting across my views.

Desiree'schild why are you surprised? Not everyone does the 'we believe you because you have a vagina' thing, even on this board. It's not compulsory.

It’s disingenuous to say she’s been suspended for tweeting that article. Seems she’s been suspended for sharing a screenshot of an abusive email with personal details of the sender visible. That goes against most employers social media policies.

There are plenty of instances of women being silenced for speaking uncomfortable truths. We don’t need to fabricate situations where this isn’t what happened.

Sometimes all the over the top adulation and grieving for someone people have never known is a bit much to stomach when you know about something like this.
The over the top gushing is separate. I can't stand public gushing over celebrities they have never met and don't know. His rape allegation and the half arsed confessions, the returning to his team and lucrative work has been in the public domain for ages. The people gushing will know about it already.

I still think when someone dies they have friends and family who aren't in the limelight, aren't responsible for the deceased actions and it must be a difficult enough time for them to grieve when the whole world is watching without people digging up as much as possible within the early days of their death.

I really don't think anything is lost by giving a family, who has unexpectedly lost not one person but two, a small space without talking about the crimes of that person. He's dead and not going anywhere, but his family is alive and deserves some consideration.

"The worst thing about mens violent behaviour is that it makes men look bad."

"100% this lansgdestiny. Don't speak Ill of the dead also appears to be a privilege that is less likely to be applied to women."

My response has nothing to do with him. I'd have a day or two's pity on his family, that's all.

And yes, he sounds like a scumbag. He still has children a wife and a mum who may want a day to grieve the person they wished he was.

I've never heard of Kobe Bryant but even by his own words he sounds very unpleasant even if you believed his version of events.

I don’t particularly hero worship anyone but I didn’t like the thread the other day regarding David Bowie and sex with the 13 year old

That's ancient news but I'm always surprised how often Bowie gets plaudits on here for being "gender non- conforming"

He may have just died but there is a fairly sizeable percentage of people in the world for whom the name Kobe Bryant is synonymous with ‘powerful men get away with rape’. They associate their own trauma with him as much as their own attacker, not to mention his actual victim. Don’t their reactions deserve an immediate voice as much as the hero worshippers?

This.