The obligatory "Kobe" thread

[CatWoman]

Would this issue be as large if his alleged victim were black?

I was living in Indianapolis during the Mike Tyson rape trial. His victim was black. Because Mike Tyson is who he is (an out of control mental defect), the average white person considered him guilty. I came to my own conclusions of his guilt after following the news and reading the daily court transcripts.

Add to the fact that right in the middle of the trial, the hotel where the jurors were sequestered suspiciously caught on fire (to this day I still think Don King took that page out of the George Bush School of Strategery ;-) ).

The thing is, the black community turned on Tyson's victim. I'm still tripping over that one. Also, the limo driver who was a key defense witness (a black woman who owned the business) was ran out of business for testifying against Mike.

Fast forward to Kobe. He is the anti-Tyson, and I think because of his "good guy image", more people are willing to give him a break. However, this story is everywhere in the press. I don't remember Tyson's trial getting this much press.

Which brings me back to my question: Is Kobe's situation worse because the alleged victim is white?

[MicheleGsc]

1. The same thought crossed my mind.....eom

[XanaDUer]

2. No

but it seems worse for the alleged victim since she is not rich or famous.

Earlier here at DU, someone reported that , since she is "trash", her complaint should not be taken seriously.

Whatever that means.

[lazarus]

3. It hasn't crossed my mind at all

I think the Kobe situation is bigger than the Tyson situation because Tyson had the reputation of being a thug. Kobe had carefully groomed a clean cut, all American image. I really think that's all.

I've been stunned by how the entire sports community appears to have turned against Kobe's alleged victim, to the extent that the prosecutor has received death threats. Sheesh.

[wellstone_democrat]

4. Perhaps, but one thing

You brought up the fact yourself that I hear repeated and repeated by both big Lakers/Bryant fans and even those who were only vaguely aware of the man: the "good guy image"

I've heard ad nauseum that this is :
"not a kid from the streets"
"a kid that had two parents and a strict upbringing"
"a kid that saw Europe and had educational opportunities"

Two of those three comments were from black men I work with, the other from a white man. Only one of the three is any sort of fan of the Lakers. But, what struck me was that there is a class issue here as well as one of race. Kobe is "nice" he's been designated/marketed as "well spoken" and "polite" he is also, as one man said: "no Alan Iverson"

Of course there is still room for race in this formulation. Kobe is the designated "good black man" or "gentleman" who validates the white claim that race doesn't matter by earning trust through his image. If Kobe is guilty that threatens THEIR view of not only him but their racial attitudes built on this shabby platform.
In the case of the two black men I quoted, one said flatly that they needed Kobe to be innocent because he was sick of the "predatory black man image in our society" Can't blame him for that, he lives with it every day.

There is more invested in Kobe Bryant as a symbol by both blacks and whites that spurs the media interest. Tyson was already known to be a man with little self-control and immature. But, finally, there was no fully operational 24/7 news cycle that had to be fed when Tyson was on trial. that might matter most of all.

[nini]

5. I think the bigggest issue is/was his image.

It wasn't too hard to believe Tyson would do something like this.. with Kobe the image he had makes it harder to comprehend.


Though I'm sure there are those around who are more incensed about the whole thing because he is black and she is white. They can't get the segregation mentality out of their minds.

[Demobrat]

6. I'm not following this story and didn't know until

yesterday that the victim was white, and even then I wasn't sure because my source was the front page of the Inquirer at the supermarket. I thought her identity was a secret 'till now. Was her race common knowledge before this weekend? Anyway, in answer to your question, I think her being white will win him support from blacks who think he's being railroaded, like it did for OJ, and lose him support from whites. Too bad her identity had to get out. This should be about rape, not race.

[CatWoman]

7. The judge who has jurisdiction over this case

issued a gag order late last week.

I wish he had done it sooner.

And I intentionally left out the O.J. parallels, as this is about rape, not murder.

[Demobrat]

8. Rape is unfinished murder.

And I wish he'd done it sooner too. Didn't the victim go straight to the hospital and get tested? Or am I thinking of something else? In that case, her injuries or lack thereof should provide the main evidence. Everything else is just BS.

[MountainLaurel]

10. What a metaphor.

Might want to throw that one to those over in the thread thinking that a "no" during sex as opposed to at the very beginning of intercourse should be discounted.

[Demobrat]

11. It's a book title, actually.

Unfinished Murder: The Capture of a Serial Rapist
James Neff, William Grose (Editor)

An investigative reporter's chilling account of the case of Ronnie Shelton, Cleveland's West Side serial rapist. Through interviews with the survivors, police, psychiatrists, & Shelton himself, Neff probes the mind of the sex offender.

There's no way I'm going over to that thread you mentioned. I'm having a good day so far, I don't need it ruined.

[karlschneider]

9. The only Kobe I have any interest in is when it's the name of

a great big t-bone steak on my plate!
:D

[salin]

12. Another one- I hear that Kobe (Japan) is beautiful, shame about the

earthquake.

Catwoman, I don't get all the knee jerk reactions on either side of this or similar stories. We all have to get involved, we all demand (?!) the media give us 24x7 coverage, we all KNOW what happened (though we disagree - meaning some don't really KNOW)... As to the coverage dynamics changing due to the race of the victim? Wouldn't surprise me one bit. Heck, here we had an NFL player allegedly kill his wife and the coverage wasn't anything like this. Both the player and the wife were African American.

[CatWoman]

13. who are you speaking of?

someone playing for the Colts?

Are the Colts still in Indy?? :shrug:

[salin]

14. Ya know... if it isn't basketball and it isn't local

I am the last person to remember the name (yes it was a colts player... and for now the colts are still in indy :-) ). On the one hand I have never followed any of the celebrity trials closely. On the other hand - to prove my above point - even in trying NOT to follow it - if the coverage had been anything comparable, I would not have been able to have forgotten the name.