There is only one question I have: Why does it matter that he’s Latino?
6
This article is only existing because the Diaz is a minority?
We haven't let white men off because of their "childhood" or race" - they were brought to task because of their ACTIONS!
Though everyone wanted equal opportunity?
We do not need affirmative action for sexual abuse, violence or
sexual harassment.
10
You know, I might have had some respect for him if he wrote an article in the New Yorker about his affair with the poet and explained it all instead of trying to preempt with a rape story. Bad timing, self defence journalism. The guys are always defensive, why not just confess, seek repentence, maybe we could forgive then, but this jockeying for points on this important matter strikes me as part of the problem. Then he gives a statement to the New York Times while the women have to make do with websites. Male power is still using its power.
5
I predicted fairly early on that when #MeToo hit women or men of color, opinions would change very quickly. It is sad to see how fast that became true.
I'm not going to sit here and lament about the "poor white men!" because I'm not an idiot. But justice needs to at least attempt to be color blind. If the guy who belongs to your group is being treated too harshly by the movement, then either you are too close to that situation, or the movement really is too harsh.
As I always say in these pieces, it wasn't that long ago when black men would die by being incorrectly accused of sexual impropriety. Be very careful where this goes.
6
So is the attack on him because of his actions or because he is Latina?
Race should not be used as a sympathy scapegoat.
4
Anyone who wants to cut Diaz a break needs to read Shreerekha's essay in "The Rumpus". Diaz tells Shreerekha's friend that he "... is deeply attracted to strong women of color, and inevitably, he finds the crack in them and breaks them before taking off. It is his way of teaching them a lesson, a gift he leaves behind for them in resilience. It is sort of like a continual experiment for him -". Too many women have suffered these "lessons" at the hands of megalomaniacs like Diaz and Weinstein.
9
and: This Is Not Just About Linda Martín Alcoff. I couldn't disagree less
1
Last I checked men are not the most emotionally forthcoming, even on a good day.
Now, after 40 odd years Mr Díaz bares his tragic story and the impact it inflicted on his self and all close to him.
Yet I hear no empathy for the unspeakable abuse he endured and hid, only the voices of the women he was unable to love.
Compassion and forgiveness would serve us all well.
8
How long do women get to air their old but still fresh wounds inflicted by men in their lives? Is it productive to still remain in the open sharing phase of MeToo movement? Where do we go from here and when do we start getting there? MeToo movement has made it abundantly clear that there is a systemic abuse or disrespect of women -- large and small, obvious and very subtle. But is it still productive to applaud women for stepping forward to reveal what her male boss did 30 years ago and then unleash the public jury and judge in the social media? Shouldn't we focus more on the current, repeat offenders? Shouldn't we focus on lending our support to so many women (and men) whose abuser is not famous?
7
As a woman of color, feminist, and aspiring author who grew up reading and listening to Junot Díaz, both his fiction and his activism, my heart is twisting and turning for him and (more so) for the women whom he harmed.
Yes the portrayal of women of color in Díaz's work is often sexist. Lovers and mothers are presented as hypersexualized, static, one-dimensional characters. Yet Díaz writes complex masculinity. His male character's pain and vulnerability grate up against ingrained cultural norms. Maybe this grating is not pushed far enough.
In the media, we see the holes in our cultural language for describing survivros, abusers, and specific gendered violences. I agree with Alcoff that often Díaz is reduced into 1-dimensional characterizations, a mechanism and binary thinking that mimics the way he reduced women in his books. I still admire, on a literary and social level, the ways Díaz allowed his male characters to be complex in their misogyny.
In literature, writing is deeply empathetic towards its characters, allows them to hold multitudes. In life, it is women of color who are often burdened to perform this labor for ourselves and society's vulnerable. But what if this labor is more evenly distributed? Face the fact that after Junot Díaz's takedown, we are still confronted with systems that will continue to marginalize women of color artists. I believe narrative complexity and empathy do not let individuals off the hook, but advances how they are held accountable.
8
What is it that makes women think they're the only ones who get picked on? It isn't true. From the sandbox bully in grade school, to the guy who picks a fight to chase you away from a date, through the person who uses their status to marginalize what you say at a meeting, men have seen and endured it all. Some learn to defend themselves, and others remain victims.
If men don't get harassed for sex nearly as often as women, it's only because their sexuality is less valuable. They have to deal with every other type of bullying that there is. Their one advantage they have is that they are perceived as being more likely to fight back, and therefore the bullies have to be more careful in how they pick their victims.
Maybe #meToo should include anyone who's ever been picked on, as long as they aren't abusive themselves.
Finally, let's not confuse being a lout with being a sexual abuser. Some people are just plain unpleasant, which is bad, but is not necessarily sexual.
11
You say men only have one advantage. I say men have one huge advantage. My perception is that men are most often HUGE compared to most women!
Van Cleef & Arpels.
Norman Mailer Gala.
Junot Díaz.
2
Based on the logic presented, if you are molested as a child, you are excused from assaulting others as an adult. If you are an amazing writer, you should get a pass. Someone who has gone through that pain would not wish that on others.
It sounds to much like what I heard from the police and the college infimary when my then-boyfriend raped me in college. I had said yes in the past gave him implied consent, so I could not say no in the future. They claimed it was not rape. Since I have been teaching high school, I have had to fight off male students who would back me against my door and try to kiss me by force. I got told by male administrators that I must have misunderstood their intentions.
Each time I was held accountable for my actions, and the offender was excused. No matter how fond I am of an author, past childhood sexual assault is not an excuse. He is not the only man who has been sexually assualted as a child, and it is not a free pass for adult behavior.
35
My observation is that truly horrible abuse visited on children can traumatize them, and perhaps cause them to in turn abuse others in adulthood.
On the other hand, the majority of individuals who as children suffer at the hands of adults do not become abusers.
Most abusers exposed in the me-too stories we read of in the papers have not been the subject of childhood abuse. Those I have known who were guilty of systematic sexual harassment were not subjected to childhood abuse. In most cases, abuse is a function of power and what you are allowed or able to get away with. We have all heard the saying "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
Regardless, it is no excuse for bad conduct toward others to argue that such conduct was perpetrated against you by some other person earlier in your life. Period.
Moreover, it is not for Latinx society to decide how a Latino (man) should or should not be treated in the wake of the exposure of his abuse, any more than it is for whites to have exclusive jurisdiction to decide how Harvey Weinstein should be dealt with. Nor is it up to the victims of such abuse to decide such matters--whether the abuser apologizes personally to the victims and/or is forgiven by the victims.
Eventually, we will figure out the terms under which we might re-admit such individuals to society, depending on the circumstances. Let us see what the purportedly repentant abuser does, not merely what he says.
18
There are the Creeps, who see someone vulnerable as an opportunity to exploit, and there are the Humans, who recognize a moral obligation to protect the weak and vulnerable. Both Creeps and Humans come in all colors, genders, ethnicities, etc.; and many members of both groups have suffered at the hands of other Creeps. But the Humans decline to absorb those lessons in domination. They reject their training in “Creepology,” refuse to perpetuate the pain by treating others as badly they have been treated, and choose instead to be Human.
4
Some have witnessed not just on the Soap Operas but in real life the predatory females, bosses of other women, social register types and their maids, several of them terribly wont to use either their wealth, class, or employment authority to exploit and abuse other women under their power. And in the literature there are examples aplenty of female predators busting up marriages and families of their so-called best friends in order to become the wives of the divorced husbands, because of the males’ social pedigree and wealth.
While the feminist dominant media focuses on male offenders, isn’t it time for more gender balance in the discussion of gender workplace etiquette and abuses of all kinds, starting with the power to fire and hire, to reward and punish, and other class related power imbalances among the genders as well as between them? As George Orwell might have put it, “Not all professional females are equal” when it comes to the issue of an abuse of power?
4
newyorker. com / magazine/2018/04/16/the-silence-the-legacy-of-childhood-trauma
The subtitle alone of the above article seems to anticipate and preface Diaz´s ensuing defense against the coming storm of allegations against him: ¨I never got any help, any kind of therapy. I never told anyone.¨ Detectable in such an underlying strategy is a highly artful and astute survivalist mentality coupled with an air of desperation, but also a continuing self-belief in the extraordinariness of his personal destiny. What it does not communicate is anything remotely along the lines of strict historical accuracy, far from it: think convenient subjective collage, half heartfelt Augustinian psychoanalysis/confession, half calculated escape from the intrinsically complex and indivisible phenomenon of personal/public shame. A classic Hamletic performance.
But then what exceedingly imaginative/well-read soul could hope to escape such a fate in light of their own likely conflicted self-consciousness of both their rationalistic limitations and at the same time boundless ambition to supersede just such rationalistic strictures? By daring–albeit half consciously–to tempt fate in the pursuit of the supreme gratification that is fortune´s ¨affirmation¨ of one´s immunity to the common ¨physics¨ of the general reality of the world–thus making of it the true ¨unreality¨–Daedalus alas only confirms the supreme psychological egoism of his perspective. An all too common fate of male artists in any case.
4
The point of adopting a model of consequence other than public shaming, harsh condemnation, permanent ostracizing and one-size fits all justice has nothing to do with the perpetrators themselves, many of whom probably deserve just that, or in the case of a Harvey Weinstein, worse.
It has to do with #MeToo’s own reputation. As many of the comments here show #MeToo is developing a reputation of vindictive, angry-mob justice and nothing more. To that extent it hurts itself by alienating lots of people who otherwise fully support the cause of better, fully equal and respectful, dignified treatment of women.
It’s about rising above (see Nelson Mandela). Even if forgiveness isn’t warranted it could still be the best strategy for #MeToo to achieve its goals.
15
I tired of people being tired of this new movement. It is about time that women are being heard and I don't like other women jumping on some muddy murky forgiveness train just because they are tired. It is time to yes, cut the emotional ties to those who have played their hand both ways like some kind of emotional monster. If we don't call out this kind of person who brain has operated in a way that plays up to things you like but then that allows them to do things you don't want to know about.... then you are falling into their dark web. It is a monster personality and we women need to back each other up not be part of the cult.
20
My problem with this whole line of thinking is that if we really look at the murders, the rapists, the very bad people we would find that most if not all had some kind of issue growing up - they were abused, they were bullied, their dad or mom belittled them, they were raped, they were critisized, they were poor, they were wealthy, etc. etc. I call these excuses and while some are tragic to say the least, we all grow up into adults. Once we are adults, it is our responsibility to seek help from friends, therapists, or whomever to heal ourselves.
The kind of thinking in this article scares me - are we to just let everyone go, abdicate their adult responsibilities because they had a tough or sad childhood? Who will advocate for the victims. I my daughter was raped and murdered by a man (regardless of color; please this has nothing to do with race) and he was released because he was raped as a child, I'd kill him myself. And then you can release me for temporary insanity.
16
I believe race is indeed an issue brought up in this article...
1
a really wonderful, thoughtful piece. I was struck by how universal to all "wrongs" her words are. There are many forms of abuse and we do have to find a way to co-exist with all other human beings. Thank you for the wisdom and invitation to growth
3
My takeaway is that there has to be room for people to repent and be forgiven if the movement is to endure. I think this is true for any action from which the person can show honest regret and take responsibility. If people are cornered with no way out their only option is to fight back against the movement instead of turn around, repent and then move forward (even in support of the movement).
4
The so-called #MeToo movement is not even one year old and the cries of "too much" are drowning out the voices of victims. For millenia throughout civilizations, people, mostly men, of power and influence, have abused and assaulted women as they wished, with impunity. With impunity. The seismic shift that is #MeToo says, "No more silence. No more impunity." When we look at the roster of men named as abusers (to one degree or another), we see many successful and talented men who do, in fact, contribute to society. Greatly, in many cases. That's perhaps why it's hard for many (including women) to accept that these high achievers nonetheless cannot simply do what they want anymore. Yes, we will as a society consider how to re integrate offenders. But right now the focus is rightly on exposing the culture of silence where abuse flourishes.
14
The problem with this line of thinking is that its essential premise being "I know him, and he's a good guy; he should get a pass," you'd have to accept the same from others in cases when you don't know the perpetrator. A focus on the specific acts of the perpetrator - leaving aside all other considerations of 'character' or professional achievement or contributions to causes you care about - is the only way to reach any equitable kind of justice for this movement.
And if you don't accept that, and you're willing to make exceptions for public figures you know, like, or agree with - well, Roy Moore had lots of people testifying to his character to. So have others you may find despicable. In holding to this line you are undermining the objectivity of the justice you hold dear, and thus turning millions off to it.
11
That’s not an accurate description of the American justice system. For guilt or innocence only the act matters. For sentencing judges have the discretion to consider the person’s character, prior history, ability for rehabilitation, threat to society and other factors.
As they should.
3
Many comments remind us of those successful men and women who did not exploit their position to exploit other, less successful writers. I agree with the need for victims to feel completely safe prior to forgiveness, let alone reconciliation. Many victims will never feel safe in any proximity to the perpetrators. However, the intense anger many of us felt in response to our past valid complaints should not get displaced into a silent acquiescence to any and all current accusations. Linda M. AlIcoff words, "not that we simply believe without question every accusation," strike me as not only even-handed, but a plea not to allow the rage accompanying victimhood to make us into perpetrators ourselves.
5
As a longtime fan of Diaz' work and someone who knew him a while ago, I was surprised by the allegations. I think there is a place to still study and admire the writing, but put it in context (elucidate what's wrong with a misogynistic character, for instance). I was sad to hear how he belittled women writers of color. Hopefully he will make amends. But dead male authors seem to be getting off scot free even when we find out about their misdeeds; few are questioning how to teach them now. A thinking educator can teach the works in context.
5
According to the author, some perpetrators should be forgiven while others should be shunned. Where does she believe we should draw the line? There are at least two very different suggestions: we should forgive the repentant and not the unrepentant, and we should be more ready to forgive those who have made valuable contributions to "the movement," even when the makers of these valuable contributions have exploited the movement's language and ideals to exploit others. Am I alone in finding the second suggestion troubling?
13
I know someone who was responsible for a terrible act years ago, accepted responsibility, served his sentence and worked hard to change while doing so, and is now doing wonderful work, aware he cannot undo the harm he caused but still trying his best to serve others. Knowing him has changed my view of crime, punishment, forgiveness and rehabilitation, as I may have thought before that someone who had done what he had done could have no path back to societal acceptance.
Don't we want to think even misogynists can change and grow and become better people who no longer hold those views? If they sincerely repent and change, can they be forgiven, and how can they demonstrate they have truly changed and deserve forgiveness? Wouldn't a wonderful outcome of the #MeToo movement be to truly educate men who have acted badly so that they understand they were wrong, do what they can to make amends, and change their minds and their actions? I don't know the answer to whether or how men who have committed these types of offenses can change and be forgiven (once they have faced appropriate consequences, of course, which sadly is usually not the case), but I hope there is one.
8
Yes, absolutely agree.
But I think a lot of comments conflate redemption and change which are entirely possible (and which take a lot of work, introspection and usually a long time and therapy) with a high-profile man being assumed to having changed his character quite quickly just because he's called out on his bad behavior. I think that's the rub for many of us.
7
Change is verifiable. Redemption is not. I’ll take change.
1
Thank you for this much-needed clarity, Linda.
2
It is amazing that we are expected to be non-judgmental, understanding, and empathic to a wide variety of addicts, criminals, and members of the lumpenproletariat, while the same consideration for a child rape victim and writer, namely, Junot Diaz, requires a philosophical analysis, complete with bizarre jargon.
Is 'imaginary' generally understood to be a noun?
6
Apparently, “imaginary” used as a noun is a thing among literary theorists. When I think something is stupid, Google sets me straight.
1
Yes, men who assault, insult or mistreat women should have a place in society. At the very bottom of the barrel. They should be scorned, mocked and ostracized. Why should they be resuscitated? They certainly should never be allowed to be president of the US.
6
Not to throw a brick through this lovely courthouse window but shall we consider forgiving 52% of white women - the largest voting block - of very intentionally elevating a serial misogynist to the office of the presidency while he was gloating about his sexual assaults? There is no room for feigned innocence from anyone about this.
But to forgive these tens of millions of Hillary-hating misogynistic women of their sins would first require their apologies and repentance, something we are not witnessing as underlined by the fact that T's poll ratings have risen back up to 40%.
Shall we allow these millions of propagators of misogyny and sexual abuse a respectable place back into society? Or will they knowing elect yet another monster to replace this one?
In the meantime, to evade this herd of psycho-sexual elephants in the middle of the room, we can judge and punish a series of worthy presidential surrogates (all of them superficial media personalities, just like Trump). Without the women-hating women voters there would be no President Trump, or for that matter no #MeToo trend at this time. So much for moral purity...
10
What it comes down to is that Junot Diaz is getting harassed and condemned for often being a jerk. Apart from his kissing of Zinzi Clemmons, he is being castigated for having issues that many men and women of poor and oppressed backgrounds share. Clemmons herself showed a complete lack of perspective and sensitivity by dismissing Diaz’s account of being raped as a child in the NYer as a mere preemptive tool against brewing accusations. It is relatively easy for liberals/leftists/progressive to champion the oppressed in theory, but experiences of displacement (Diaz himself is an immigrant) and discrimination seldom make for better individuals. It’s is very nice to claim love and understanding for abstract humanity, the real deal is to muster empathy, nuance, and understanding in our interactions with specific individuals.
12
His abusive behavior has been long discussed as an open secret in the literary community; he has targeted not just women but also men...anyone, in the words of a friend, he could squash like a bug because he could. Was this because of his personal experience with abuse and he became the victimizer before he could become the victimized again? There's no excuse for abusive behavior. Period.
11
No. They are only repentant because they got caught. Think if this was reversed and women were the abusers. We would get shunned for life. We get shunned for just daring to be human in public. I can’t imagine the privilege granted for being a disgusting pig and having the New York Times wagering on my time spent “repenting” so I could have my debutante ball back into polite society.
8
Not to excuse Mr. Diaz, but it is my experience as a lawyer that people who commit misdeeds only become truly repentant after they get caught. And, not just in the realm of "criminal" conduct. How many cheating husbands, wives, boyfriends and girlfriends are repentant before they are caught cheating versus only after getting caught. That is simply human nature. It is often only after getting caught that an individual is called to truly realize the harm they have truly done.
2
What's best about this essay, i.e., Ms Alcoff's apologia, is that the left is now eating its own. Couldn't be happier.
5
"The left is now eating its own"? I think of it as the Left having the self-awareness and honesty to recognize when its own members do wrong, and to correct it. I'm more impressed with that than with the Right falling in line to blindly support its Dear Leader and his cronies, no matter what cliff he tells them to jump off.
3
Can we now rehabilitate Al Franken? He doesn’t belong in the same category as the others. We’d be better off if he came back and the self-righteous Kirsten Gillibrand resigned.
22
Glad to see some pushback against the mob of scorned and less-talented women who are trying to destroy a great writer, Junot Diaz.
He was raped as an eight year old boy. And they're making a big deal about an alleged forced kiss?
8
Is there no place in the #MeToo conversation for the bad behavior of women? Do women ever brutalize men? I have personally observed women completely tear men to shreds with their words. Leave them in pieces.
I can’t be the only woman in the U.S. to have had this experience. I’m not sure that #MeToo is particularly radical or liberatory. I think it’s just the latest salvo in a battle of primal origins. Women are sexist, too.
This has gotten way out of hand.
15
I agree. A woman can accuse a man of anything, and she will be believed! She can start an investigation of a male friend who has done nothing sexual or sexist and she will be believed. Me too has gone too far, and can ruin people. Especially if the woman who brought the charges is out to get that person.
5
calling this article "This is not just about junot diaz" is soooo close to getting to the point.
1
Would Ms. Alcoff have written this article if the subject was white? I think we know the answer.
4
The fact that our heroes can be guilty of heinous mistreatment of women simultaneously with their truly admirable principles and accomplishments, is not merely an unfortunate side story to #MeToo. It is the central core of the issue. The mental shift that is necessary for society to benefit from this Aha Moment and move forward along the long arc of history that is taking us toward Justice requires us to root this ugly, unjust behavior out of its deep core within the male psyche and move on.
The trick is to understand that the presence of male oppression of women is not some sign that men are inherently evil. It is simply another marker, albeit a big one, along the long road toward civilization. We don't hit one another over the head with clubs in caves any more, we don't practice slavery, we can stop oppressing women. Men have dominated and mistreated women because they could; they were bigger and stronger and women were vulnerable because they had to bear and raise children. But it has to STOP. All over the world, it has to STOP.
9
"...might have a place"? If they don't have a place then what is to be done?
1
I think the writer has really misjudged the purpose of Metoo. It’s not to respond proportionately or appropriately to what anyone actually did. It’s to malign people enough that they appear to warrant the movement’s one-size-fits-all punishment reflex.
Diaz=weinstein=cosby=franco=rose=lauer=keillor=franken
It’s like one of those archaic law codes in which every possible crime is punishable by death. Except (haha!) it’s retroactive! And unwritten;) And at this point I doubt even children are innocent.
You had better hope you never said anything mean to a girl, because the chivalry codes are back in effect with a vengeance and the council has spoken.
7
I generally found the ethnic side of this article to be smoke and mirrors. Harvey Weinstein is Jewish and so am I. Can I write such an article for him, arguing about how Jews were oppressed and somehow this lets him a little tiny bit off the hook for what he did? There is a general question (Latino or not) about to what extent we should be surprised/enraged/outraged/gobbsmacked when we find out a man (read: celebrity) has done some untoward things towards women in his life, not to mention what we can hope to do about it. I don't think the question of his being Latino or Jewish or whatever has anything to do with it and I passionately object to such implications turning up in the pages of the New York Times.
15
Once again, #MeToo has become exclusively a mechanism to displace Democrats of a certain upbringing.
Everyone else will get a pass for one reason or another.
Carry on ...
3
if Mr.Diaz were a white ethnic male, would this article even have been printed in the ny times?
I sincerely doubt it. there is a difference between
repentance and apologizing for getting caught.
the author of this piece seems to have conveniently forgotten that.as for him being
abused,many others, myself included, have
gone through that experience and never laid
a hand on a woman.with all due respect to the
my times,a little too much P.C. here.
10
The Times opinion section is becoming almost unreadable in its constant harping on identity politics. And now Latinos--ALL Latinos--are an "oppressed group"?? (This is simply taken as fact now?) Hello? In every country, even the Dominican Republic--as Diaz so astutely writes about in his novel--there are oppressed and oppressors. Painting giant groups with such a wide brush is absurd and runs counter to history.
16
Translation: Diaz is "one of us" so he is salvageable, but other men who are not of our shade can get bent.
14
NYT stop giving sexual harassment and assault apologists a platform! This is not the beginning of a conversation, this is silencing and gaslighting. The voices which deserve to be elevated are those of Diaz's victims.
Diaz's victimhood does not erase his culpability. It does not erase his accountability for the pain he caused.
11
" . . . confer presumptive credibility on accusers . . . "
How gracious. By the time any presumption is proven unfounded, the damage has already been done. What can we say about justice then? And the core due process principle of our entire legal system -- that a person is presumed innocent until proven guily -- has already been so cynically tossed aside. I hope that women achieve power in all aspects of their lives. But, as always, the today's zealots will create a backlash in the future. Jordan Peterson and Camille Paglia are already articulating it.
5
Again, excuse making for a predator because they are a buddy. Didn't Hannah from "Girls" already get crushed for this?
8
From the open letter that Alcoff signed, "The resulting characterization of Díaz as a dangerous and aggressive sexual predator from whom all women must be protected reinforces racist stereotypes that cast Blacks and Latinxs as having an animalistic sexual “nature.”
She is siding with race instead of sex.
6
She is siding with a sexist racist misogynist instead of common decency and character driven behavior.
4
Classic clash of the pieties.
1
Junot Diaz was my professor in college. He was not only an incredibly engaging teacher, but a kind human being who genuinely cared for the well-being of his students. He worried about us going hungry and brought us food - something above and beyond his pay grade. (I was in fact surviving on a subsistence diet of ramen.) He cared for us regardless of whether or not we were talented writers or our backgrounds. I took his seminar in 2007, a year before his Pulitzer: he was incredibly humble despite his enormous professional success. His seminar was the highlight of my week, and he and the entire class stayed in touch both in Cambridge and on social media for years after. During the recession, he went out of his way to help me look for a job even though I was far from his most talented student. He was my greatest professional role model.
It has been devastating to see the recent headlines - first, his New Yorker account, and now the revelations of his behavior. As the victim of a fair amount of sexual harassment myself, I am not excusing his actions. But the press's character assassination is unfair and even cruel, particularly given his childhood.
As hard as it is for me to acknowledge this, as someone who wants the men who harassed ME to rot in hell, Junot Diaz may have done some "bad" things, but he has also been a very kind person to a large number of his students. Like most matters in life, this is not a black-and-white situation and should not be treated as so.
13
Dear god please understand when people abuse others they don't do so uniformly. That wouldn't be possible. Even with the worst most violent perpetrators, they may have been utterly wonderful caring and generous with the vast majority. That says ZERO about the issue of their mistreating of their victims. No one said Junot attacked or harassed every student, writer, woman he encountered. Specific women told their experience. Think about them and what they endured not hash out reminisce on your positive time with him.
My sister was abused by a trusted adult: I didn't turn around and say, well he was nice to me. This line of comment is so strange.
7
What is an "imaginary'"?
4
We have a different standard that, by default, we grant to powerful white men. Witness the current occupant of the White House. He has pedophilia charges on the record, among other issues, he has not answered to. How about we start with that? We need to keep this discussion alive and hold everyone accountable.
5
Dear Linda,
Philosophy, unlike love, is too coarse to cleanse our wounds.
In my youth, Israel touched my very heart, to give me a beyond beyond Eden, but proved more desert than oasis
Why can't you settle for being Linda who makes a difference in her community and who has a rich heritage and a sense of justice.
Why the earnest chin and chip on your shoulders.
Today's social justice warriors get their marching orders from 70s Saturday Morning Cartoons.
Why don't you just let it be sometimes around the camp fire of life rather than burn with anger
All the best, just shrug it off your shoulder Atlas, you won't lose your way in the world
2
In the midst of the understandable eruption of female rage over all the abuse women have suffered forever on this planet, I find it odd that dead incredibly gross users/abusers of women who happen to be national American heroes, in particular JFK and MLK, seem to be getting such a free pass now that American women are so thoroughly "woke" about living sexual predators. Why don't their sins with regard to women get weighed in the national balance and seriously compromise the hagiography surrounding both these men, and others like them? If it's painful for Dominicans to face their hero Diaz' faults with regard to women, but nonetheless necessary for justice, why mustn't black Americans have to go through an even more wrenching facing of the dark side of their greatest hero, King himself? King was one of the very greatest Americans of all time, a figure like Mandela of world historical significance. Nonetheless, justice demands brutal consistency in our fully outing the flaws of all, and King's sins with women have been much more danced around for decades than JFK's, and even JFK tends to get a free pass on the grossest sexual misbehavior in the history of the White House. He made Clinton look like a choir boy. The Diaz affair forces us to face the fact that we can't pick and choose once we are "woke." Like former Nazis, former gross abusers of women, dead as well as living, must be put in the dock of history, and face the potentiality of disgrace. Selectivity is not allowed.
4
Those men are dead - by nearly 50 years and Clinton has not been in the news as an alpha male predator since he was president, 20 years ago. We're more than kept busy working on the live Millennial and Gen X predatory creeps. If only there weren't so many of them every generation.
1
"Repentant sexists?"
These aren't "sexists." They are criminals. Stop downplaying assault and rape as mere "sexist" behavior.
Ms. Alcott, one can't help but feel that you are part of the problem.
2
I see a number of commenters using the term Latinx to describe Diaz?
Is Latino now an offensive term?
7
Apparently. Then again I find the gross Americanization in the term offensive. Try saying Latinx in Spanish. I love the irony of it being used so widely by the type of people who go outta their way to over-enunciate in a Spanish accent a term or a name in the midst of an English language conversation. I'll start using Latinx when it catches on in Latin America and Spain. Until then, I'll just try to be a decent person when I encounter someone from the small fraction of humanity of any race or ethnicity who consider themselves non-gender-binary.
2
I don't know if this makes a case for Junot Diaz, seeing as he forcibly kissed a women, but this may make a case for other people (mostly men) who offer true regret and remorse for past sexist remarks or beliefs. By no means should we offer sympathy. However, offering some type of understanding for repentant sexists might lead to a better conversation in the future. but junot diaz, did what a lot of unchecked powerful men do. we'll never rid the earth of scum, but offering alternative solutions can help.
3
“We need to hear from more victims, not fewer.”
More specifically, we must honor, learn from and support change in the nearly invisible world of low-wage working women. Disproportionately women of color, and paid less than their male peers, they have the least power and the most to lose by speaking up.
There is no hurry to sort out seating for Junot Diaz -- or Mario Batali, Kevin Spacey, Matt Lauer and the lesser-known inhabitants of Charlie Rose Island. They simply are not a priority and have no special rights.
6
His talent is exaggerated, as is the perhaps gravity of his alleged offenses. It would seem some want to outlaw human behavior, and seek to damn Mr. Diaz to lifetime unemployment for behavior which isn't (yet, at least) criminal.
We might also inquire about women who seek "mentoring" and expedited career advancement which they know full well would never be offered to similarly positioned men. Are they really so naive to think sex has nothing to do with it? Or is it vanity or venality which exposes them to the connivance of these men?
Consider what would happen if career-ending offenses against others included more than unwanted sexual advances. How many persons of public esteem, women or men, including the administrators who do the firing. would survive that scrutiny?
If this is blaming the victim, the alternative is treating them like children.
5
For far too long the victim was presumed guilty and had to either endure the abuse or prove that they hadn't done anything to invite it. Reputations were damaged beyond repair and careers were lost. Now that the perpetrators are finally getting a taste of what victims have endured suddenly it's too much and we must find a way to temper our anger. Hogwash!
Actions bring consequences. These men knew that they were behaving inappropriately but they were protected by patriarchal societies that gave them a pass with a "boys will be boys" mentality. Times have changed and these men are going to have to suck it up.
The #metoo movement is scaring men. Good. They need to rethink how they treat women and children. Once the anger subsides we'll have a constructive conversation about how these men can earn their way back into polite society. But we don't owe them the courtesy of making it easy. They certainly didn't care about how their behavior impacted their victims lives.
7
My first "sexual experience" was an aggressive sexual assault (while I lay shocked & uninvolved) under the guise of young lust, by a hippy girl who I wanted nothing to do with, who forced her way into my room and lay in wait for me in my bed, in college. This, as I have learned posting here, does not count. Women don't aggress, they are only and always the victim. In fact it being my first time I thought it was acceptable, though it was completely disturbing and disorienting, screwing up a semester of college and contributing to me dropping out.
Adding men set upon by hyper aggressive women to a metoo movement, ie allowing it to expand organically, would be ridiculous, because it would dilute the narrative being used as a power play by a cadre of writers and activists who have risen to own and control that movement.
If you challenge the narrative of a social power scheme, be it a victim situation or not, you get rebuffed. This is interesting in this particular case because while many men can tell you stories about being sexually assaulted by women, it's always recounted as an accomplishment, however damaging or dysfunctional it was in fact. Drunk women, horny women, jealous women, selfish women, all go at men exactly like a Harvey Weinstein. Male culture stupidly treats this poor behavior as a plus, but I can tell you it's not, it harms the mind. That the metoo movement practices gender exclusion proves it to be far less of a positive thing that it purports to be.
10
It does count and you were assaulted. I'm sorry that happened to you.
5
You seem to miss the point. I told a tale that is general ie lots of men can tell it, probably as many men as women. Therefore the metoo movement is to some degree fake and to a large degree inaccurate. If you try to communicate that, your get trashed. It identity politics tyranny. Feel sorry for that.
Thanks! This is very courageous of you. Hardly a man exist who hasn't experienced being touched, set upon, and/or harassed by a woman. Of course, as you point out, stupid patriarchal culture puts the burden on the men to question themselves as for why they feel like rejecting these "opportunities." I am only thinking about the ways women can behave physically aggressive, like the Homo sapiens they are, never mind the myriads of other ways they can humiliate men.
3
Thank you.
This is finally a step towards sanity.
To the angry who want vengeance, well, vengeance solves nothing.
To the bitter, who see no difference between a "forced kiss" years ago and rape, I urge you to return to the real world.
Even to this author, whose wisdom I admire, I urge caution. We have freedom of speech. We can teach respect, but we cannot enforce it. When Alcoff writes, "Even verbal offenses, like sexist comments, can instigate shame, humiliation and feelings of unworthiness, and in some cases, post-traumatic stress episodes, nightmares and self-harm," I have to shake my head. Some of my friends who are the most enthused about the #MeToo movement also gleefully listen to rap music filled with sexist slurs. I am not offended when comedians make jokes comparing Mitch McConnell's neck to testicles, but would we accept a similar joke about an older woman looking like a vagina? No.
We are all human. Folks will say stupid things. Men will make awkward passes. And a certain percentage of women will still throw themselves as men with power. "Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac," said Henry Kissinger. I know too many men who have been in abusive relationships where they were being abused to think this is one-way street.
To every #MeToo warrior: build bridges not battlements.
9
Have men actually had their careers end in any real numbers due to accusations of abuse?
Historically, not really: Michael Jackson, Rob Lowe, R Kelly, Donald Trump.
In the #MeToo era, we don't know yet, it's been less than two years. And many accused abusers are already planning their career comebacks.
How can we already be talking about forgiving abusive men and inviting them back into their careers and positions of power, positions which they used to carry out their abuse? What about the untold numbers of women who lost their careers because they spoke up against powerful men, or left their careers to escape abuse? Shouldn't we first talk about how to invite them back in?
By pivoting now to making amends and restoring previous status we continue to ignore the impact of sexual harassment, abuse, and discrimination on women and women's status in society. Furthermore, this inclination to forgive merely signals to men that there are no real consequences for their actions. If nothing changes nothing changes.
6
We're erring on the side of taking matters that should remain private grievances and airing them publicly to damage people's reputations. I don't know what a "forced kiss" is exactly or how to evaluate it as a violation. I'm sure we all have some fictional reenactment in our heads that is based on unknowns. As a human being of either sex, unwanted kisses sometimes go with the territory. kisses are by their nature spontaneous and not consensual by legal standards. How egregious was this kiss? How "forceful" was it? Then there is the argument that Diaz got into with a woman. If arguing with a woman, however passionately or rudely, is a #metoo offense then we have definitely gone too far. Any true second wave feminist would agree that treating women like delicate flowers that need protection from a man arguing with them is deeply condescending and paternalistic. Just to be clear, I don't know Diaz's writings or care one way or the other about his advocacy.
3
Like a pedophile, a "meetoo perp" can never be rehabilitated. The Weinstein's, Lauers, Rose's, Spitzers, Clintons and Scneiderman's of the world have earned the scarlet letter for life. Never again can they be trusted in a room, alone, with a female. CNN and MSNBC will be calling soon. Let them work there.
1
I read Junot Diaz's moving piece in the New Yorker about his childhood sexual assault. But what was missing from it was any real apology to the women he hurt along the way. He basically said, "I was messed up, so I screwed up my relationships," but he still seemed to think of that in terms of how that had hurt him -- not how it hurt the women in those relationships. He didn't say, "I'm sorry to the women I hurt along the way because of my issues." I think that would have gone a long way toward changing how people felt about him and how they are reacting now. In fact, I think that lack of apology was what caused the wave of anger.
A similar case, for me, was Nate Parker, the young filmmaker who made the Nat Turner film. Then it came out that he and his screenwriter friend had (allegedly, but pretty clearly) raped a woman in college who later dropped out and committed suicide. Parker gave an interview where he said, "I realize I am a product of our culture of toxic masculinity, and that's something we all need to work on." But he never said he was sorry to the woman he had hurt. And by blaming his behavior on the culture, he never took ownership of it.
People who own what they did (e.g. Dan Harmon, of Community) and apologize for the harm it caused are going to come out of this better than people who don't. Unless of course the apology seems pre-scripted and insincere (e.g. Louis C.K.)
The lesson is to actually be sorry, not just to be sorry you were caught.
10
Men, including white men, pick on other men too. Mostly it isn't to get sex from them, it is to remove them from the competition for sex.
Raise your hand if you've never been chased away from a potential date by a larger, stronger man. Maybe you're the biggest, toughest guy on the block, but if you're not, it has probably happened to you. When I was dating, it happened to me plenty of times, and I had to measure the situation and choose: fight or flee.
Halelujah! #meToo has arrived! Now the woman can compel the bully to go away and date the man she chooses without the fear that he'll get beat up.
How about it ladies? Is this #meToo thing going to work? Step up to the plate; it's your turn now.
2
I wish we could have taken the time to consider these questions more fully when Al Franken was in the midst of his scandal. Would he have been repentant enough to satisfy our concerns? Could he have done more good if we fought for him to stay, and demanded that he be better?
8
What struck me when I read Diaz's brilliant and horrifying article in the New Yorker was that nowhere in the article did he indicate any empathy for the vast majority of rape victims - women.
Knowing the trauma of rape, why didn't Diaz become a crusader against rape and on behalf of women? Soon after the New Yorker article we learned in the press that in fact he had become to some extent an abuser of women himself.
Surely when he wrote the New Yorker article he should have been wise enough to show some compassion for OTHER victims of rape? I saw none. It stunned me.
7
RE: "All of us — including the #MeToo movement — need to think about a future in which repentant sexists have a place"
While not all abusers and sexists are men it seems to be predominately so. It's my observation that men expect to be forgiven and come back home. It's in all of our psyche and culture. "I'm sorry. I won't do it again. It will be better next time. I promise." So it is not surprising that they would seek and be supported in their wishing to be allowed back in the good graces of society upon repentance (sincere or not).
But I find it interesting that from Biblical to Salem to modern that women once shamed, reputations damaged, are often perpetually scorned and shunned. Unless, of course, they are young and beautiful. Even in forgiveness there seems to be a double standard.
3
While I agree that not all forms of sexual aggression should be treated equally (a rape is far more serious than a stolen kiss), I disagree with the premise that Junot Diaz is getting unfairly battered by the media. He is not facing prison time - he's being called out for unacceptable behavior.
The type of sexist behavior and malicious misogyny that he is accused of is something that almost every woman has been exposed to at one point or another. It causes trauma at the workplace, where it's hard to feel like a valued employee when you are being sexually harassed or your ideas are discounted simply because you're a woman.
It causes lost income because women either quit and look for less hostile workplaces or they stay and are denied promotions because they're the wrong gender. It causes bouts of low self-esteem - especially in its younger victims since they tend to believe that something they did has inspired this behavior towards them.
The only thing that will change this behavior is if the condemnation of it is swift and terrible enough to cause would-be aggressors to consider the consequences of their actions.
6
I toil in the literary arts. As a woman you have to work twice as much to get maybe half the recognition a man would get. Put up with frequent putdowns, sexual or otherwise, and have your work attacked by men whose egos feel threatened by you. Be dismissed by dudes who assume you have nothing to contribute because you're a woman, or by other women who have thoroughly internalized the notion that every major talent must be male. There are too many men who build a career on the exploitation of women's bodies - even symbolically. Junot Díaz seems to be one of them. I've encountered the kind of machismo attributed to him so often already. Honestly I just feel tired.
45
"Sexist behavior, whether slight or severe, is never acceptable or excusable." Except when it's my friend, apparently. This is yet another well developed p.r. campaign. It has often occurred to me, as we have seen various men taken to task for their crimes agains women, how many do we *not* hear about because of good friends like this, who I suspect are discouraging those who would speak publicly or otherwise helping to sew doubt about past allegations? Good friends who can write a column in the NYTimes, no less. Why on earth is forgiveness being sought from the public to begin with? Because the guy is being lambasted in public? Give me a break. You need not worry Ms. Alcoff. The news cycle will move on and Mr. Diaz will continue to earn a fairly decent living as a writer, in all probability.
4
Sincerity? He was called out. Had he not been, his abusive behavior would have continued. His oft-cited NYr essay did not make explicit, honest reference to his own mistreatment of women. He talks about the essay now as if it was a mea culpa. It wasn’t. It’s become a crutch in his feeble attempts at saying he wants to be part of some abstract dialogue. If Ms Clemmons had not called him out, he would be doing to other women what he did to her. It’s pathetic to cut him slack because he is a Latino writer. No decent Latino writer would agree with that. He should be treated exactly as any other male writer, white, black or brown would be treated for serial predatory activity: with condemnation. People in the literary community know that a lot more is going to come out about Diaz. It’s been a very open secret for a long time. And he never tried to change his behavior. Bringing his rage to a therapist, not a young woman he cornered and laid hands on, seems not to have occurred to him. Would-be tough guys don’t go to therapy, after all.
7
Finally. Thank you, Linda Martin Alcoff.
2
"We have a responsibility to think about the future — specifically, a future in which repentant sexists might have a place."
Okay. Now ask yourself if you believe in the statement "all white people are, to some extent, racist, because [the legacy of slavery, white cutural hegemenony, whatever]" Got it?
Now, how about the statement "all men are, to some extent, sexist, because [patriarchy, inherent misogyny, whatever]." Still with me?
All of these things are being said at the same time. Put them together, and what do you get? You have intellectual chatter questioning whether white males should be allowed to have a place in society, due to their inherent racism and sexism, unless they go out of their way to apologize for cultural factors and forces that are external to them and outside of their control.
It boggles the mind that this kind of thing passes for intellectual discourse, or that nobody is thinking more carefully about what horrible precedents are being set.
2
This entire debate is pointless as long as all the real decisions are made by an anonymous group with no public accountability
#Whoismetoo?
1
Interesting how women are always required to feel sorry for the people who have abused us. And it's often other women (like this author of this piece) who try to shame us into it.
There's no good reason to sexually assault people. Period. No childhood traumas justify it. No cultural norms excuse it.
The greatest good you can do for anyone is to let them accept the consequences of their own actions. Until they do, they can't be rehabilitated. So Ms Alcoff should back off and stop being an enabler of an abusive man just because she likes him or shares an ethnicity with him or thinks he is talented.
Behaviour is what matters here, not identity.
9
"Ists", "isms", shaming, vengeance, political correctness, thought police, victimization. The "Scarlet Letter" of the new age? Is this the new secular religion?
1
That letter of support for Diaz reeks of the same reason why he was able to get away with being a great big misogynistic jerk for all these years. I don't understand why he is so revered, his misogyny is painfully clear in his writing from the very beginning, I've been in countless settings where a discussion of his misogyny is squashed because people have some kind of blinders on about him, seeing him as a progressive genius rather than the misogynistic manipulator he really is. The author of this opinion piece should be ashamed to have signed that letter, keeping him from dealing with the consequences of his actions. Academia has coddled him for too long. It's dismissive and disgusting to dismiss his machismo as simply "machismo nonsense" that is not nonsense it is the cornerstone of heterosexist society. It's Academics like her how have allowed him to flourish and hide his true identity. Yes he was raped, no every single act of sexism, misogyny and bigotry can not be attributed to rape.
4
Ugh: "repentant sexists"--what an awful expression. I say there is so much sexism out there of various degrees that when someone who has behaved as badly as Diaz is exposed, I don't think we have any obligation to "make a place" for him.
A minuscule percentage of men are exposed for their sexist behavior. To them I say, don't let the door hit you on your way out. Let's make space for good, decent and non-sexist people instead.
4
Let's do some PRE-habilitation.
Use common sense. Don't keep interacting with someone who hurts you.
3
Raise better sons. The lowlife predators are the problem, not victimized females and not the good guys.
1
How clever of the NYTimes to choose a photo of Mr. Diaz accepting an award named after Norman Mailer, wife stabber, and paleo-macho.
And how good of philosopher Alcoff to recognize - along with the Catholic Church which continues to do so much to make sure that women have rights over their bodies - the importance of sincere repentance.
3
It is Dr. Alcoff. She has a PHD from Brown. Something tells me you wouldn't miss this if she weren't a woman.
1
Nothing like the moral contortions brought by having someone you respect turn out to be so very flawed.
3
I have a question: is repentance only a possibility for sexual harassers who are minority men of the Left, or is it possible for white men, even white men with conservative views, to be rehabilitated?
1
A new system of punishment is in town. It’s based on unwritten laws, enforced retroactively, and tried in an unauthorized, anonymous court. There are no appeals, no rules of evidence, and no countersuits. You have no right to an attorney; you have no right to equal protection; your silence will be interpreted as an admission of guilt. Every trial has the same outcome. No one is accountable for the verdict, and all sentences are for life.
Gotta love these enlightened times! Sorry I have to get back to collecting armfuls of mud and swinging a cat against a doorpost.
2
How gracious of this article to consider extending a victor’s welcoming hand to repentant sinners like Junot Díaz. The intro to the article (“All of us—including the #MeToo movement—need to think about a future in which repentant sexists have a place”) make it seem like the #MeToo revolution has already stormed the palace of gender inequity and taken control of the future. Aren’t we getting ahead of ourselves? Sadly, I think the only impact the proliferating #MeToo scandals will have on the future is to weaken the Democratic party, while moderates tune out and the progressive wing puffs its chest, and Trump’s poll numbers keep inching upward in the face of new Stormy Daniels revelations. Oh well, “philosophy” is forever, I guess, not for today. Defeated at the polls, we can all wallow in the pathetic solace of our intellectual superiority, calmly making irrelevant plans for a future that never comes.
2
And this is why they’re called Professors.
1
What do we do with all of the exaggerating or outright lying women?
2
You're right...it should not be 'just about Junot' and/or solely because his latina etc. supporters want to stand up for him, because he's 'one of them'.
As a female, I am frankly disgusted by the whole #metoo frenzy, and what it has become...the fact that 'resist' is now a vacuous tagline used by savvy hipster 'authors, poets, bloggers, crochet artists...what have you...', to sell products, sell themselves, etc.
I am tired of the witch hunt, where any man who is merely 'accused' is pilloried on social media.
I am tired of witnessing so many of my fellow Americans simply 'reacting', jumping on a PC bandwagon, and not being able to think for themselves anymore.
Not one of us is without sin. Who are we to decide that some sins are worse than others, and simply because they are committed by men? What exactly is 'forcible kissing'?....kissing someone without first 'asking permission' or getting a notarized document of permission from the woman's lawyer beforehand? And what if a woman decides to kiss a man, without 'asking him' first? Is that too considered 'forcible kissing'?
This has become utterly ridiculous and I will have nothing to do with women who think in such black and white terms, and all out of political correctness or because they are so incredibly gullible and so easily swayed by social media and their peers.
45
He's admitted to his behaviors. They were repetitive and despicable. It's not 'hipsters'; it's actual humans. And your use of 'accused' indicates that you deny the egregious behaviors. Get over yourself. You're not cutting edge to deride those who have been attacked by these men; your dismissal of legitimate accusers as being 'gullible' or 'easily swayed by social media' indicates your own silly prejudices. You put up a strawman and then tear it down with your deluded rantings. Grow up.
15
Lisa, your lack of empathy for abused women is striking. I urge you to read the letter published in the Chronicle of Higher Education in response to the open letter defending this powerful writer from his own actions:
"The accusations, spanning a 20-year period, are serious, and speak to a calculated targeting of young women writers of color who simply wanted a place in the publishing industry. The accusations range from unprofessional conduct regarding a sexual relationship with a student, to emotional and psychological abuse. I hope the signers of this open letter, many of them women of color, recognize how women of color have been traditionally disbelieved or dismissed when they speak of their abuse at the hands of the powerful."
6
"Not one of us is without sin."
Well, most of us have not most certainly have not abused, molested, gleefully engaged in sexual harassment and misconduct of the vulnerable. Thus, we also have not manipulated the public and press, hanging our self-righteous and unrepentant selves on the cross as deflection for more smarmy narcissistic jabs at the victims, again and again. The man is a predator. Just because Diaz is brown skinned and a good writer, well, that does nothing to change his true stripe that's yellow, propped up by misogynist power and pedestrian entitlement.
5
>
Unfortunately the #MeToo seems to encompass every grievance from horrific rape to inane bad dates to hurt feelings and everything in between. It has the vapors of McCarthyism.
It certainly does not believe in due process and disappears people into the ether (e.g., Kevin Spacey; they actually erased him from a movie etc....). It does this mostly by taking their right to make a living. There really is no due process setup here; hence this is where #MeToo has setup camp, destroying people's livelihood.
Now rape has a due process setup to punish the predator, but Charlie Rose walking around in his birthday suit, bad dates and hurt feelings don't.
“[H]e who has enough strength to protect everybody, has enough to oppress everybody.”
Hobbes
4
Can we hold people to account at the same time as we acknowledge their own victimization?
(lyrics from West Side Story)!
Gee, Officer Krupke, we're very upset;
We never had the love that ev'ry child oughta get.
We ain't no delinquents,
We're misunderstood.
Deep down inside us there is good
2
Um, maybe.
But our real concern here as women should be the women who were kept out of the careers that their abusers and oppressors have dominated. Why worry that these men will lose face? Lose their valued positions?
OK. So Diaz is your friend. Now you personally feel for the oppressor.
But the rest of us... We hope to hear from new voices. Voices that were silenced by sexism and sexual aggression.
I for one am happy for Junot Diaz to sit down and shut up.
5
Why do I suspect that this concern to someday rehabilitate Junot Diaz is a biased one? The writer here worries that she will be seen as “protecting her own.” Her worry is warranted as she. says she “absolutely identifies with Mr. Diaz.” To sort out the good and the bad in Mr. Diaz, the piece winds it’s way through a labyrinth of casuistry involving “intersectionality,” “imaginary of liberation,” “non-dominant differences,” “barriers across sense,” etc. This opaque jargon shows that the social justice arbiters are going to have a tough time explaining and taking the rest of us through this process of redemption.
4
All I have to say is Al Franken and Donald Trump. Franken is gone for crude comedic photo and supposedly pinching people. He admitted wrong doing, he is gone. Don Trump is a graber and masher, he denies and he is still in office. Me too movement is hysterical, with no real discernment, it has done good but it has done real damage.
Well I'd heard Junot Diaz was some sort of author, but that's about all I knew until this article. So, my apologies, I'm coming at this from a fully ignorant viewpoint. And worse, I'm male, so feel free to brush off this comment right away.
But is it the case that Mr. Diaz is accused of kissing one woman without her consent, and also speaking harshly to other women, and that's it?
For me, pedantically, forcing women into sex (eg: Harvey Weinstein), groping women without consent (eg: Bill O'Reilly), exposing genitals to women without consent (eg: Louis C.K.), beating up women (eg: Ray Rice), having sex with underage women (eg: R. Kelly), and similar heinous actions, are things to be punished. I think perpetrators should not only have their careers ended, but should do jail time and pay reparations. These are all crimes, basically.
Kissing a woman without getting a clear go-ahead just isn't something I can think of as being a violent crime. Saying mean things to people is something that most people do rather frequently. Am I not getting something here, or is this Junot Diaz case not that big a deal?
Sorry if I've offended, and I'd enjoy being instructed about this, I just haven't kept up with the news lately, and missed out on this one. First time someone mentioned his name to me, I asked if it was the screenwriter of "Juno".
1
You haven't offended this is a common misunderstanding because he is being called out on his misogyny which frankly is obvious from every bit of writing I've ever read of his, so I don't understand the surprise and disappointment, He is being called out because he has been lauded as this genius and a beacon of progressive thought so many of these incidents are misogynist bullying, that stand in sharp contrast to his public image, but not sexual assault, with people lumping everything under the me too movement, I can understand that someone would think that.
3
So many of the comments on this article suggest a complete inability or refusal to move beyond absolutism. Dr. Alcoff is a postmodern philosopher; she deals in conceptual ambiguity, and the liminal space between those ideas we take to be fixed. But most people are not philosophers, and cannot tolerate ambiguity. They cannot fathom that a person might have behaved unethically, and yet be worthy of forgiveness—that a person can change—that what was need not always be. Until the collective consciousness moves beyond the predominant, absolutist standard of reason, then it will deteriorate further into contentious tribalism.
So, what about the obscure serial rapists, pedophiles, violent abusers, and sexual assaulters who are sitting in jail because they aren't "geniuses"? Dig into their histories and you'll find a good many of these men to have been victims of child rape and other forms of physical and mental abuse. Don't they deserve the same outpouring of print attempts to "understand" them as the Diaz's, Allens, and Polanskis of this world?
5
I don't know why the New York Times opinion section is so misguided. Within this article we have a woman outright calling for the acceptance of sexual abuse in the interest of the racial equality struggle.
The struggle will do just fine without Diaz, who *isnt* repentant, he just got caught, he's trying to save his reputation.
6
We have many, many things to think about before we get to this: "That we have a responsibility to think about the future — specifically, a future in which repentant sexists might have a place." Would Junot say this of his own abuser?
3
I remember many years ago that it was common knowledge that some of our most powerful preachers were reformed sinners. Forgiveness and redemption once were part of our culture. It seems that in this time of jubilation over sins, many of which are in the distant past, is rampant and thougths of forgiveness or redemption long forgotten. Ms. Alcoff speaks of it differently but the issue is rampant in our current debates over policy. Retribution and revenge often seem today's favored tools rather than punishment and forgiveness. If All are trashed who will the Preachers for a better future be... those whose life is devoted to destroying sinners??
This piece recalls the words Jesus spoke as he looked down from the Cross at his tormentors: "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." The stories by abused women rightly ask us to stop excusing the inexcusable, to acknowledge what has long been unacknowledged, and to demand that abusers be punished for their acts. What most of these stories don't acknowledge is that - as Jesus recognized about those who crucified him - at least some of the abusers had no understanding of the harm they were doing. Too many women were silent in the face of what they suffered; too many authorities looked the other way. This does not excuse or diminish the abuse, but as this writer argues, it should open minds to the possibility of forgiveness as a necessary part of the great reckoning.
hmmm, we want to punish men for boorish behavior but want to give men convicted of crimes the right to vote. Makes perfect sense?
1
If a person treats a group of people poorly over years or decades, it's eventfully going to catch up with the person.
Some of the comments here are focused on the fact that the behavior of Diaz was not criminal, and therefore--it seems--should not have consequences. But there are always natural consequences to our behaviors.
His life is not ruined. He's not going to prison. But he is going to suffer some loss of status and probably financial loss as well. Is that unfair or bad when he's admitted he's treated women poorly over the years? And if you think it's terrible or problematical that it's negatively impacting him, task yourself if men (or women) should be immune from their behaviors as long as those behaviors fall below a criminal threshold.
Three is room for redemption, but there's also room for accepting the personal damage incurred when we behave in hurtful ways.
6
I’m wondering where this media “thrashing” of Diaz is taking place. I’ve read three or four accounts of the accusations against him in the MSM and they’ve reported the accusations against him, and his responses. Seems proper and appropriate to me. I have however seen the thrashing of plenty of people who’ve suggested there should be such a thing as proportionality in #metoo, or that abusers should be entitled to redemption.
5
The problem I have with this latest "#metoo" brouhaha is that it elevates Mr. Diaz's transgressions to the level of outrage we should be reserving for more serious problems- there's no shortage of those, look around and take your pick (infrastructure, opioids, income inequality, the erosion of our democratic norms...). Whether or not the allegations against Mr. Diaz are factual, they clearly demonstrate to me that the movement is losing its ability to delineate between bad behavior and legitimate instances of sexual predation or assault. Shame is now being co-opted for every perceived mis-treatment, regardless of severity. I'm sure that while his behavior rises to the level of scandal among the liberal arts faculty departments across the country, that if you listen closely to the clamor you can hear the fiddle that's playing while Rome burns.
1
Yes, Junot Díaz has behaved reprehensibly and that behaviour has been linked since to his own traumatic experience as a child. Now that he has been tarred and feathered and paraded in the streets, what exactly has been achieved? Will this type of behaviour disappear as a result? It seems unlikely.
Many comments echo loudly our general reaction to those declared guilty of anti-social and criminal behaviour - lock them up and throw away the key. Punishment alone does not address the source of the problem. If we truly want this behaviour to stop, a larger part of our energy must be invested in better understanding why it exists in the first place - and to recognize that simply blaming the patriarchy will come up short as a remedy. Once the tsunami of condemnation recedes it might be useful to reflect on we address the devastating impact of childhood sexual abuse on both its primary victims (male and female) and on those with whom those victims form relationships in later life. That is harder work.
Ironically, this piece further fuels the ongoing narrative that has Diaz at its center. The women he affected are merely peripheral to the story of HIS rise, HIS downfall, HIS redemption.
Let's have more attention on the women in this story. Let's elevate the life and works of Zinzi Clemmons, Carmen Maria Machado, Shreerekha, Alisa Valdes, Alisa Rivera, and others. Let's invite THEM to panels, read THEIR books, learn more about THEIR lives, give THEM fair consideration for awards, and listen to what THEY have to say about the human condition. Let's make DIAZ peripheral to THEIR story, the ugly formative event in a life of many chapters, the necessary but ultimately secondary obstacle in the story of THEIR journey to become who they want to be.
6
“Judge not lest ye be judged”. I speak as one who was an abused child. Because I am a woman I am not physically strong enough to back a man into a wall and force a kiss or nasty words on him, or her, or them.
Would I if I could? Possibly but I doubt it would be with full knowledge of my actions. As a result of the abuse I developed a Personality Disorder which deprived me of the gift of insight until very late in life.
If I have been verbally cruel and nasty to others it has been [and possibly still is? I am not sure although I have been in therapy for many years] well hidden inside a Place of Pain which resides inside my brain. That Place would rationalize my responsibility away - they would definitely have “asked for it” or “deserved it” or even "wanted it". I recently read that what I am calling my Place of Pain can be seen on an MRI as a damaged area.
Possibly we should consider “There but for the grace of god go I.” Better to be the abused than the abuser?
Practicing medicine in the Bronx for almost thirty years, serving a large Dominican community, I have seen a large number of sexual abuse cases. Like most crimes, these rarely cross racial/ethnic lines. I was raised by a single Dominican mother and am also a victim of some of her boyfriends.
As stated by Katiek from Minneapolis, how is sexism defined in this article, not clear. Furthermore, no one knows what actually happened, and in my experience as a clinician, the realities that the victims experienced are probably far worse than what we know. So please don't repeat what has traumatized so many, and Latinos will especially relate to this - denial! Let's start believing the victims as a de facto position. Just read Junot's violent language and his positioning himself always as the victim, two signs right there something is not right. I loved the book "Drown", however, him as a self appointed speaker of the Dominican community, no way does he speak for me. And as for representing the Latinx/Afro-Caribbean diaspora and on and on, give me a break.
38
Misters Diaz, Weinstein, Franken, Rose, Ansari et al are punitive surrogates for Trump whose victory and current 40% approval rating is sustained by Republican women. Taking the high moral road of condemning these men while simultaneously elevating Trump is hypocritical in the extreme. Liberal women should take note that their conservative sisters are sustaining this system of abuse, and what do they have to say about that? Silence...
This is far less Manichean than a good girls versus bad boys scenario as presented in the NY Times these days. When 52% of white women vote for Trump then the battle is not about women versus men, but conservatives versus progressives, and in the case of Hillary, women versus women with jealousy and ambition being the competitive issues.
It would be interesting to engage is a real discussion how men and women exploit each other for selfish ends, but that fuller discussion is not happening yet.
2
Where are the brothers and fathers of these women? Don't they have responsibility to protect their blood relatives from guys like this?
I've had a "talk" or two with bad actors who did not treat my sister well. The behavior stopped.
1
The argument here hangs on the idea that Junot Díaz is a “repentant sexist”. How do we know that? We must keep alive the hope of restorative justice, but the invocation of this to stem the tide of criticism of the original letter is specious. How to we know when a racist or a pedophile or a rapist or a sexist is repentant? It takes time and it takes years. Why should we believe Alcoff? Oh, because she knows him? And not once does this letter talk about the accusation by the women of color who have spoken out against Diaz that he wrote that piece to get ahead of what he knew was coming. A way to, in a calculated way, mitigate his bad behavior. I do not know if that is true but what does Alcoff have to say to that? She must at least address it? How does a process of restorative justice hold open that possibility while recognizing the possibility of such calculations? His behavior and the world of institutions and people (including many of those women of color who signed the original letter) who have protected him do not have the grounds to adjudicate that he is a “repentant sexist”. Most models of restorative justice that I know of involve victims and Alcoff and the signatories of that letter really had nothing to say to them. Invoking then now and invoking restorative justice after the fact is just a way of not acknowledging the problem with the original letter. It also does not account for why the signatories felt they, who know him well, are in the position to judge.
3
This article dismisses a huge dot that needed to be connected.
People (men) who have been sexually or physically abused very often grow up to abuse. It's a cycle.
Furthermore, women who have been abused, very often (subconsciously) psychologically seek out men that have been abused and therefore will abuse, because the relationship models what they have known. That's how all this all often starts (The times recently did an article about how abusive relationships start and missed this cycle entirely - the blame is always focused on the man - but it takes the psychology of two to develop a broken relationship.
The phenomenon has been widely studied. It is often missed with the immediate stone throwing and lack of understanding that mush of the me too movement is based on/
4
Where is the line?
It is certainly not partisan as politics of any sort is wrought w sexual misconduct. There are students who solicit professors and those who prey on their students. This happens in college and education in general. Much of it is harmless but some of it is not. Blaming of the right or left is nonsense. The right is boldly self-righteous. We have Trump entitlement which is a bit messy, don't you think and that is about what we do know. Cultural roles and double standards are everywhere. Religion enhances that dynamic.
As an independent woman, I had been touched, followed, propositioned, talked down to, etc etc. If you are in public, or alone, in a bar or a foreigner on a train, you are a target.
Is there a particular animus toward people of color? Absolutely!
2
I have a letter of apology from Mr.Diaz. He had written in a publication that writer Frank Chin and I were feuding with minority feminist writers. He was posing as a feminist. In my case, he said he'd gotten the writer with whom I was supposed to be feuding mixed up with another writer.I told Mr.Diaz that he was a token manufactured by the Manhattan literary machine that has been manufacturing minority tokens since the 1920s.I told him that as soon as he messes up, they'd replace him with another token. I'm 80. I've seen tokens come and go.
3
I absolutely agree with you , it's been clear to me that he is a token and a misogynistic one at that, it's all there in the writing, the surprise and disappointment is hollow, in my view. I hope they do replace him, because I'm tired or hearing how this third rate Bukowski is a genius.
5
This letter left me with the distinct impression that the author wants to shield Mr. Díaz from public humiliation because he is an indispensable ally in her struggle for Latinx liberation from white oppression. I may be completely wrong, but I can't help wondering if the author called for moderation or forgiveness when the MeToo movement was having its way with white artists, authors, actors, and scholars. Did she only start talking about forgiveness when MeToo came after one of her own tribe?
The open letter she signed only confirmed these suspicions: "The resulting characterization of Díaz as a dangerous and aggressive sexual predator from whom all women must be protected reinforces racist stereotypes that cast Blacks and Latinxs as having an animalistic sexual 'nature.' "
Her actual position, which she hides behind claims about principles of moderation and justice, is that when a sexual predator turns out to be a person of color, he or she should be treated with sympathy and offered forgiveness.
6
I once attended a talk by Diaz in which he lambasted all of the white people (including myself) in the audience as racist because of the color of our skins. At some point, somebody brought up the question of sexism. Might he be sexist because of his gender? No, he replied. Because he is a person of color, it is impossible for him to be sexist.
If I ever read that he had better insights than he expressed then, I might be inclined to believe that he had learned something. But I don't see it anywhere.
6
I was picked up by a child molester at the age of 6. He exposed himself to me, but I got out of the situation. I have never used my horrible experience as an excuse to sexually harass or abuse anyone. I do not think that Mr. Diaz deserves forgiveness because he was good in some ways. He deserves to be vilified for his abuse and harassment. I have spent a lifetime dealing with the repercussions of my assault. The actions of abusers lives with us forever. Why shouldn't Mr. Diaz have some of the same consequences I had to deal with? He brought this on himself by choosing to be abusive. He knew what he was doing. He chose to behave this way. He deserves the backlash.
3
I am still puzzled by what Prof. Alcoff calls a “media-bashing.” Indeed, the only article she cites, Shreerekha’s reflection on her experiences with Diaz, Alcoff considers “beautiful and painful.” In the last few days, some other insightful, detailed, thoughtful essays have appeared (I recommend Marianella Belliard’s on the Latino Rebels site). Without being able to point to a single article that has been unfair, vicious, or demonstrably ungrounded, Alcoff runs the risk of dismissing all the pieces and testimonials about Diaz’s behavior as shrill. That is not how you open a discussion. That’s how you shut it down. This is how you lose us.
5
I find it ironic that the photo of Diaz is at the Norman Mailer Center. Mailer was a misogynist of epic proportions so the photo reinforces our long tradition of lionizing men who diminish women. Is there a path of redemption for such men? If so, it should include public apologies, significant donations to sexual assault and domestic violence programs, and a lifetime commitment to educate other men about how damaging and wrong their behavior is.
7
I have found myself thinking about the fear and shame Diaz felt his entire lifetime after being raped: that people would think he was a horrible person if they knew what happened to him, that he was fundamentally worthless. And now I wonder, did his worst fears come to be? I don't think that is helpful for him or for a society in which sexual abuse of little boys is far more prevalent than we are aware. And we aren't aware because the victims are too ashamed to come forward. So what was the point of all this public humiliation and retribution...?
19
I appear to be a white male and have never been raped. Actually, I have a substantial amount of Latino heritage but this isn't obvious in my looks, so people assume I am "white".
If, in the past, I had expressed sexism or engaged in unwelcome sexual advances on women, (nothing as extreme as rape or assault, which could legally have landed me in jail) and if now, in the present, I was sincerely repentant for my past behavior, understood it was wrong, and was committed not to repeat it, I would hope that those close to me and society in general would forgive my mistakes and not punish me.
As a liberal minded person, I would like to live in a society that is largely forgiving.
1
J Jencks--Most evil doers publicly repent, only after they are caught. They are very sorry...that they were found out. Otherwise, it will be business as usual.
2
"Some might dismiss this letter, and the views expressed in it, on the grounds that its authors are too closely aligned with Mr. Díaz — as his friends, as Latina writers or as Dominicans." Well, yes. Some might. I might. And do. Come on. You can't have it both ways. Either the guy committed serious, soul-damaging offenses or he didn't. He gets off the hook if he didn't. He doesn't get off the hook because he's Dominican. Personally, I found Mr. Diaz's New Yorker confessional refreshing and left me wishing the best for him. I have always found his writing somewhat off-putting -- there was always something about him I just didn't buy. His New Yorker piece helped me understand what it was -- he was hiding. But, if his confessional is to be believed, now he's not. And we can only hope his coming out as a rape victim will improve his writing. As for the poet Shreerekha, she appears to specialize in gibberish. Here's a sample from her bio: "In racializing colorism and politicizing my own experience of antipathy witnessed toward the color of my skin, I crafted my own passport into marooned and shapeshifting black communities that gave credence to ontologies and a posteriori narratives over normative constructions of race, ethnicities, and nationalities." Go figure.
3
This conversation is worth having, but only after someone like Mr. Diaz has actually acknowledged what he has done - he has issued denials, and appears to have only written his essay about his own (horrible) abuse (with vague references to misbehavior) as some sort of defense because there were rumblings that these accusations were coming.
It's fascinating how quickly we move to expect women forgive (and forget?), before men even apologize, or acknowledge that they've done anything wrong.
Forgiveness may be an appropriate step in the process, but it's just that - a step that *follows* other steps in the process.
3
Punish them first, severely. Make them hurt. We can talk about redemption and forgiveness once they pay for the destruction they have caused
3
One of the big problems of #MeToo is the degree of misandry, which is on display. It’s seen when viewing the lengths to which people are willing to go to destroy guilty (or potentially guilty) others. Yes, sexual harassment and abuse and predation are all destructive. Want to know what else is destructive? Destruction!
This vast ocean of hypocrisy nevertheless goes unmentioned. If you are against destruction, then you should not make your goal to destroy. Just because someones’s flavor of destruction isn’t sexual doesn’t make it superior.
Exposure is one thing. Limit-setting is another. Charges are still another, and may well be suitable. But do we really need to have serial reputation assassinations without sufficient evidence?
1
It's brutal. There's carnage. Revolutions are messy.
2
To forgive a repentant abuser one must first have an abuser who repents. This is done personally and directly to people harmed, not by a public relations team.
60
Haven't we always known that we're supposed to separate the artist from his art?
1
In the letter, we make clear that we by no means dismiss these accusations — which include forcibly kissing the writer Zinzi Clemmons and verbally abusing other women — or the serious damaging effects of the sort of behavior of which Mr. Díaz has been accused. But we do object to what we characterize in the letter as “a full-blown media-harassment campaign” that has followed the accusations, in which the writer has been cast as “a bizarre person, a sexual predator, a virulent misogynist, an abuser and an aggressor.”
But in the article, you explain at length that he is all of those things, and that he should be forgiven because he has claimed to be raped as a child.
Are you arguing that all the women he abused should be ignored because he may have been raped as a child? You are not convincing.
1
I don’t understand this article. Is the author asking for mercy and understanding because the man accused of sexual misconduct isn’t white? Is she proposing that we have have one standard for judging white men who engage in sexual misconduct, and another for minorities?
2
"...we have a responsibility to think about the future — specifically, a future in which repentant sexists might have a place..." No, just no. Why do we have to think of a place for repentant sexists? On the list of priorities for myself or for the society in which we live, I am not sure that item belongs any where near the top.
Let's review.
For decades women were silenced, their stories unheard or ignored, ,many lost jobs, they were threatened with lawsuits, the men were promoted, given more power. Then a man (Farrow) told the woman's stories and hey were heard, some men were fired, one senator resigned, no woman was promoted, no more power was gained. The man who reported the stories got a Pulitzer (not complaining, it was earned).
But after only a season of #MeToo we need to dial back, we need to think of them men! Not the ones who were maligned or whose "violations" were petty and un tasteful but all of them!
Is that where we are now?
4
So much concern for perpetrators, most of whom have led double lives soaking up media rays of sunlight while conducting themselves badly in their private and professional lives, and now, they're left standing in the rain.
I don't mind people wanting to help this guy as much as I'm against them using the media to do it. It's like they're saying "hands off THIS #metoo perpetrator."
Isn't that what everyone does? There's a diehard supporter for every Roy Moore, Weinstein.
Redemption is an internal process. The redeemed survive, away from the media. Perhaps they shouldn't seek it so avidly. It does have a way, like standing in front of a mirror does, of showing off your flaws.
4
let me cut through all the philosophical pretensions of this writer and attempt
to decipher what she is really saying.
if Mr.Diaz were a white male, any
media outlet could say whatever
they chose about him,but because
he is a talented writer who happens to be a minority and because he was abused(as
have many others, myself included)
he gets to be "repentant. " I am all
for second chances, but they should never
come on the basis of race.
by that standard,Cosby could claim he was
charged because he was black or Weinstein
because he was Jewish or Levine because
he was gay.second chances, yes;
but only on the basis of true repentance.
6
This article equates "sexists" with sexual assault and misbehavior. They are quite different. This could lead to a situation where calling someone a "sexist' (with the term defined by the fringe feminist element) will be enough to destroy him economically and socially. Perhaps we're already there in this fringe-dominated country.
It is a melancholy truth, that among the variety of actions which men are daily liable to commit, no less than a hundred and sixty have been declared by Act of Parliament to be felonious without benefit of clergy; or, in other words, to be worthy of instant death.
— William Blackstone, 1776
I found Junot Diaz's story about his rape in the New Yorker repulsive. Also very manipulative. It reminded me of my own dad, a rageoholic who had gone to a neurologist a few years ago (because the family urged him to seek help), and instead of telling the doctor about his extremely violent daily verbal outbursts and other mental issues, he talked as calmly as possibly and presented himself as the victim of a nanny who had left him when he was 7. My dad left with a clean bill of mental health and the doctor's sympathy, and continued his abuse as before. He also impressed the doctor with his many accomplishments that he espoused at his leisure.
Ms. Alcoff effort to redeem Diaz reminds me of Gloria Allred campaigning for Harvey Weinstein. It is really sad that the New Yorker fell in Diaz's trap as well.
10
None of them are repentant until it’s on the front page and they lose something they feel entitled to. And what kind of reparations are they making without being forced to? Let’s talk about that first.
7
Seems to me that if a confessed but unapologetic torturer can be forgiven sufficiently to become the head of the CIA, then a confessed and apologetic Lothario can be forgiven sufficiently to be allowed to live in peace.
1
Would you feel the same way if Junot Diaz were a socially conservative Baptist pastor?
6
I have zero sympathy for predators, bullies or any sex criminal. None.
That said, not all offenses deserve a life sentence and if there is no longer a distinction between the gravity of crimes then expect no support for it's application..
"This week I signed an open letter, along with a group of Latina scholars and writers, that criticizes the media thrashing of Mr. Díaz that has taken place since accusations of sexist behavior and sexual misconduct against him became widely public."
Where was your letter for Al Franken? Do some people get a pass because of ethnicity?
8
Racism and sexism, seems as though women will always be sacrificed under the larger category of racism.
5
Where did this crowd obtain the authority to judge Mr. Diaz? I missed the swearing-in ceremony!
How well-informed are your opinions? What is the source of the information you’ve used to condemn him, and what steps have you taken to confirm or refute it?
This is not a a culture undergoing change. It is an extrajudicial blood sport and a form of demonic entertainment for a sadistic and careless public.
Another one bites the dust! And the crowd goes wild!
1
Sorry. I'm not buying it. This article actually makes me realize all the more the urgency for women to speak up and keep their voices loud against men who sexually (and otherwise) abuse women (and others), made all the more sickening when those who abuse (and so typically) are men in power (which means most men.) Undoubtedly, as this author so painstakingly details, there are MANY reasons a man sexually abuses a woman/en. Who cares? it is INEXCUSABLE. I just can't -- won't -- cough up a pity party for Diaz, nor can I feel sorry for all women have been sexually abused by men who have repeatedly gotten away with it, often through the endorsement of others and victim-shaming/crazy making by others (including me, in many more ways and instances than I can list here.)
3
Díaz deserves all the public thrashing he has received and more, even jail time if that were possible. It's painful to read women being protective about him. He is an abuser. Other abusers/sexual predators with no discernible talent are sent to prison for what this guy has done. He's a darling of the white establishment. That has been his ticket out of being held responsible. His painful past is being used as an excuse to be abusive. He's like that man who is charming to the world but inside the home, there's woman with a black eye and broken soul. Should he get to remain free as well? Maybe he and Díaz can get a café con leche, and compare notes about the women in their lives.
8
I thought if someone committed a crime, and did whatever punishment was alloted to them, we were supposed to forgive and move forward. Apparently, the writer and most of the readers providing comments do not agree. What the heck, why not just ostracize these criminals entirely?
If only whites showed the same level of concern about racism. But they don't. We are left to contemplate the hypocrisy.
This strikes me as nonsense, though predictable nonsense, having read Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery." Maybe people need to ask themselves exactly what the MeToo movement is about. Is it about highlighting and stopping the rampant incidents of disgusting, presumptuous, piggish and even predatory exploitation of the vulnerable by the powerful, or simply about replacing one form of cultural or gender immunity, sympathy and favoritism with another? Is it about justice or is it simply revenge, inconsistently applied?
4
How about they can return from exile when every one of the women they impacted has become free of all the effects of their behavior?
7
This is a perfect example of creeping tyranny masquerading as high-minded intellectual sensitivity.
I am as appalled by sexual predation as the author of this piece. As much as her, or anyone, I want to try to empower victims to be protected as they come forward, and for perpetrators to be brought to justice.
But I am not OK eroding our basic liberal civil liberties and protections, in the name of #metoo or any social justice warrior movement.
Innocent until proven guilty.
Equal protection under the law.
Due process.
Yes, even even Charles Manson gets all that.
Even Harvey Weinstein.
I have no idea if Junot Diaz is guilty of a crime. I am comfortable with law-abiding law enforcement agencies trying to figure that out.
But I will resist to the bitter end when self-righteous self-aggrandizing lefties claiming to hold some higher moral ground flirt with ...
Guilty until proven innocent.
Trial by media and accusation, not by equal protetction under the law.
No process.
Call me crazy, but those *used to be* considered leftie liberal views.
1
I have my own Junot Diaz story which I have not yet shared. He hasn't apologized for anything. To any of his many victims. This article by Prof Alcoff is more apologist nonsense.
13
It's going to take a huge cultural shift in which internal sexist attitudes can be understood and confronted. The bad behavior is prompted by these internal issues, which when go unchecked become monstrous.
But I don't believe the cultural shift has taken place yet. After having hard conversations with a bunch of really wonderful young men (I am a woman), their words and style of conversation conveyed that they are merely annoyed by #metoo and that they are not really willing to be serious. Most men are not harassers. Most men are good people. But also, most men have avoided taking a really hard look at their own attitudes.
I, for one, will continue to have the hard conversations, and to speak truth, even if I get brushed aside by the 'perpetually annoyed guy'. This needs to be confronted head-on and with NO fear.
4
While I agree with the premise, is Ms. Alcoff advocating for the same in regards to people who aren't in her group?
3
Quite an eloquent and intelligent analysis of a complex situation. Refreshing!
Alcott did not discuss forgiveness. No where in the article does the word appear. She uses words with care; so that is deliberate.
She is focused less on the direct victims and more on how we in the public should respond to the compexity of individual cases. We have no power to forgive; that is left for the victims. But we have considerable power collectively over how perpetrators in public life are treated.
Are we willing to consider the complications that can make individual cases hard, or are were to be absolute in our condemnations?
Those are serious enough questions without tangling with the one god-like power that humans have: the grace to forgive. Leave that hard decision for those who were harmed.
1
I'm sure there are a thousand people saying the same thing, but there is something to be said for the fact that it was Junot Diaz in particular, someone who perhaps makes "otherwise important contributions to the movement, even contributions against the oppression of women", as you describe, that makes these accusations and revelations worse rather than better. The fact that we all know Junot Diaz knows that these things are wrong, and that he has profited in many ways from positioning himself as a leading voice speaking out against oppression of all forms makes his behavior all the more unforgivable rather than somehow mitigating his behavior as the author seems to suggest.
9
Linda Alcoff is certainly no psychologist - she misses a big point in the cycle of abuse - those who are abused often grow up to abuse and be manipulative/violent and others who have been abused (often women) seek them out to mirror behavior they have known. It's well studied in the fields psychology and therapy.
Instead she focuses on identity politics misses that HUGE point at understanding -
"The manipulations Shreerekha describes may have little to do with Mr. Díaz’s own abuse; what her piece shows is how men can use their designation as literary geniuses to attempt to dominate vulnerable women, and how some men of color use racial solidarity as a tool to politically coerce these women into silence."
That is a prime example of where an identity politics "lens" can screamingly fail at seeing a plain truth.
10
Mr. Diaz’s story in the New Yorker was an amazing document in itself. I had never read anything like it. I think it needs to stand on its own, as personal, devastating, history.
4
The problem with these kinds of movements is that in seeking to redress one injustice, another injustice can be easily created.
Conflating the actions of Harvey Weinstein with those of others such as Franken or Diaz is unjust. It lacks measure and proportion. It reminds me of the reaction to homosexuality in the 1950's and 60's. At that time, the accusation of being gay was reason enough for a man or woman to lose their jobs and have their careers ruined. We really have to avoid heading down that path.
4
Diaz is a profoundly troubled man and equally talented. I hope his troubles can be addressed and his talent preserved; we would all be better for it.
He has taken responsibility for his actions which is neither atonement nor rehabilitation. But it is a step, and probably the most difficult one of all.
I hope his victims can show him the understanding which he never showed them, and which he has never shown himself; we would all be better for it.
3
This strain of feminism (a new form of difference feminism) is the movement of the Christian soldier, demanding "repentance" and "redemption," like the old Temperance League. Women (both progressive and conservative) have often been at the forefront of reformist social movements like this, often geared towards restraining what it conceives as immoral behaviors. But it is only one strain of feminism. There are others, where the thinking about the bases of such behaviors is much sharper and much less gender essentialist and free of this inherited high-handed moralizing as its sole purpose.
5
There is a larger question of whether society forgives at all -- whether it is possible to actually "pay your debt to society" and move on. The way that ex-cons are treated would say that it is not in fact possible -- that your history will be with you forever, and even more so in the internet age.
2
I think Junot Diaz's writing is repulsive. I can not read it. I too, am a writer of novels and short stories and I prefer the writing of Alice Munro, Louise Erdrich, Colm Toibin, John Banville, to name just four (two women, two men) who are far and away more talented, and better writers than Diaz will ever be.
12
I agree and have been saying so for years and have been ignored or insulted as a result, it's good that people are finally taking the blinders off.
4
Agree but I can't say I find his writing repulsive. I will say Diaz has always been outrageously overrated.
2
A well reasoned analysis of guilt and the need to acknowledge it, show repentance, and modify one's behavior accordingly; and, hopefully, avoid situations that may give even the appearance of abuse of power in the future. But allowing known abusers, once their condition is settled, a chance to redeem themselves and contribute to society's well-being, is akin to re-incorporating inmates into society, once their penalties have been paid by years in prison, community service, even pecuniary damage. 'Trust but verify' may need to be changed to 'Verify, then trust and verify'.
3
"Can we hold people to account at the same time as we acknowledged their own victimization?"
I come from a generation where it was considered the right thing for a parent to hit a child for doing something "wrong." Some escalated into severe beatings.
Of all the friends I've had that had been hit by parents, not one ever hit their own kids; they internalized their victimization in such a way as to do everything not to repeat the mistakes of their fathers and mothers.
I didn't have kids because I thought I'd follow the pattern set down by my father. By the time I realized I wouldn't have been that type of parent, it was too late.
Juno Diaz had plenty of time to work on his demons, but chose, instead to foist them on others, making money in the process.
17
Very well said!
2
If the debate is not about Mr. Diaz, but "the #MeToo movement as a whole," perhaps the author can explain how an inchoate, essentially leaderless group of survivors will take responsibility for guiding Mr. Diaz back to respectability and prominence. If this gibberish can pass for reasonable thought on the subject,it's clear that other, more durable forces--money, fame, male privilege--will fell the nascent movement, Take heart, abusers of the nation, nothing will change!
9
The outright dismissal of Professor Alcoff's opinions (and body of work) in many comments here is quite impressive. If this is what passes for debate in liberal circles, it's far easier to understand the criticism of it from the right.
4
There is nothing wrong with wanting to feel compassion for someone you know whose being attacked and whose character is being destroyed. There is also a great benefit for society in forgiveness. But this public trashing is something that they (the Harvey Weinsteins of the world) have brought on themselves. Forgiveness has it's limits and only should come after justified punishment. Not only that, but how many men found themselves in situations with people they truly liked and were attracted to, had power over, but never lost their respect for that person? Never groped, demeaned, grabbed, attempted to kiss or paraded themselves stark naked in front of a female subordinate without their permission! Men who have done this need to be punished to the fullest extent of the criminal and civil laws. Forgiveness comes much later. Men who behaved themselves are entitled to having their faith in doing what's right rewarded, slight reward though it might be. Women who are the victims of the aforementioned brutish behavior are entitled to seeing the perpetrator punished to the fullest extent of the law. No exceptions. You can send your letters of support during the sentencing phase of the trial.
81
JoeA--Lost trust is very difficult to regain. You never know if, or when, they will revert. This will take much longer than you seem to believe.
5
Withholding forgiveness does more harm to the withholder. The only limit on forgiveness is how willing the withholder is to carry their resentment.
1
Forgiveness is in the mind of the victim. The abuser goes on abusing or not abusing, whether forgiven or not forgiven. A change in the mind of the victim has no effect on the abuser/ harasser. It's the abuser who needs to change his behavior.
"what her piece shows is how men can use their designation as literary geniuses to attempt to dominate vulnerable women"
Yeah, I do this all of the time in my designation as a literary genius.
Translation of this opinion piece from the original Latinx into English: It's OK when our guy does it.
11
Lets have all rape kits be processed using the latest DNA database techniques, pass the Equal Rights Amendment, and close the loopholes that allow sexual predators to walk freely amongst us. Only then will we have the infrastructure that makes forgiveness possible. In the absence of justice, only anger is possible.
11
Then you condemn all victims to perpetual anger. Yes, it is a terrible injustice. No, abusers are usually never held to account or realize repentance. But part of healing involves finding oneself, irrespective of the state of enlightenment of the abuser. So many abusers are never brought to account and so many of those brought to account never realize or admit the depths and ramifications of their transgression.
But part of the healing journey involves coming to terms with the existence of the abuser and that one's healing doesn't depend on their repentance.
We all need to work to build a world free of abuse but while we're building, let's also realize that we can be free of the abuser, whether that abuser repents or not.
5
I appreciate and envy the quality of the author's mercy. I only wish I were capable of it.
I'm cynical re the timing of the news of Mr. Diaz's childhood rape, first of all. It's as if he saw the accusations coming, and he wanted to cover himself with a vivid, resonant, convenient message he's never shared before.
And this business about comebacks for repentant sexists reminds me of politicians who are going after repentant Trump voters for the mid-terms. Sorry, but anyone capable of abusing a woman, as Mr. Diaz has been, or voting for a monster like Trump, as tens of millions did ... I don't want to have anything to do with these people, personally. They're all dead to me. Cannot forgive, cannot forget. Sorry.
13
The author writes, “The letter I signed calls on all of us to think through the important issue of how to demand individual responsibility from abusers while also being vigilant about our collective and institutional responsibility, to develop critiques of the conventions of sexual behavior that produce systemic sexual abuse.”
Well, women have been critiquing sexist institutions and questioning the cultural structures that enable men to bully and abuse “the weaker sex” for a long long time. The results? Just look around.
I don’t believe Mr. Díaz is being vehemently criticized in large part because he’s a Latino. He’s an author. A successful author. He published a wrenching, lucid confession in the New Yorker, a prestigious magazine, that effectively asked all readers to recognize him as a victim of abuse. He mentioned, in passing, that he had hurt a few people and explained that this happened because he himself had been hurt as a child and kept it secret for so long. That secret ate at him ... he wrote. It made it difficult for him to love people.
And now he’s being judged for that, for his deceptive, lyrical public confession, which pretended to tell intimate personal truths establishing him as a victim while, at the same time, it concealed many ugly truths that would show he had long been a resolute, opportunistic victimizer.
A false essay. Lies. Hypocrisy. His birthplace and the color of his skin don’t matter. That’s bad behavior.
20
Alcoff is one of my favorite feminist philosophers and her points about conferring credibility and post-traumatic stress make sense.
But Diaz doesn't even appear to be all that repentant. Who was it that said that he was another example of women being collateral in male self discovery? That hits it on the head.
I have heard at least two very credible first hand stories about his targeted insistence on treating women like garbage. This was well before any of the latest came out.
12
It feels like the author had to work very hard to get her point across here. She knew every objection many of us would make. It was an exhausting read. Perhaps if Diaz himself had addressed his behavior before he was accused, then I might have room to ponder. He was forthcoming about being abused in the New Yorker article, why not the complete complex totality?
9
Aggression and presumptuous behavior are wrong and even can rise to the level of criminal, predatory behavior. The process whereby one group of cultural heroes and standard bearers is simply replaced by another group of cultural heroes and standard bearers who apparently inherit an equally odious aura of presumptive immunity strikes me not merely as hypocrisy. If the act is odious, then the actor is too.
34
Juno Diaz is capable of acknowledging the lacerations of shame that are the angry responses to knowing the responsibility for his actions. #Me too is too smug about their victories in an arena of possible moral enlightenment. It remains utterly powerless in dealing with Trump and his ilk.
2
I guess behavior embedded in the culture human beings share world wide and observable biological fact in almost all the animal kingdom count for nothing. Maybe we are at the post truth moment.
1
If it were biological fact that all men had to harass women, then all men would harass women. Instead, it is perhaps the five percent of men who are total jerks. And frankly, most women know who those guys are -- or figure it out pretty quickly, after some really upsetting or traumatizing incidents. Stop blaming culture and biology for bad people being bad people.
1
In short, yes, he behaved badly. But while we support #MeToo, and do not doubt the accusations of his victims, and need to hear more such accusations, we think he should get a something of a bye and not be treated as harshly as the other creeps, because he's a Latino literary genius and we need him.
We didn't speak up before, because, well, we had nothing at stake. But now, as Latinas, we do.
Understood.
9
good summary
Didn't Dave Chappelle said the same thing in one of his specials?
1
What is "a new imaginary of liberation." To ask the question illuminates the toxicity of academic writing and the ill effects of introducing same into the precincts of newspaper journalism.
Does the perp, Mr. Diaz, get points for having been abused as a child (if true), and does the writer also get points, and a boost to her cred because she, too, was victimized as a child. And how is it relevant, anyway, in judging or condemning or exonerating him.
Finally, where does she come out on Mr. Diaz, thumbs up or down, or is the answer to be found somewhere within the precincts of "imaginary liberation."
16
Agreed. The author is feeling a conflict that is correctly rooted in an understanding of individual circumstances along with culture, history, etc. And the fact that none of these get a voice in the metoo movement which, in a good faith attempt to emphasize the breadth of the problem, is too willing to ignore all of the factors that the author here is willing to incorporate in her assessment of Diaz.
2
May I suggest that repentant sexist males voluntarily wear a large red S on the front of their outfits for a period not to exceed one year. This would allow the public to identify sexist males without a prior acquaintance. It would also facilitate conversation between the sexist and the public where the sexist could present himself, or be presented, as a cautionary tale to others. Too much of what we now feel about male sexist behavior is verbal or written. Just as the A impressed itself on Roger Dimmesdale's flesh, so the S may impress itself on the conscience of males who, while not yet outed, nonetheless know themselves to be guilty.
1
Back in Dominican Republic Mr. Junot Díaz has been a fervent critic of politicians, specially about how they use power to use innocent people that believe in them (sexual exploitation of women included) and how they get economic benefits from their positions.Then, you find that in USA Mr. Díaz indulges himself in the use of power to sexually abuse women that trusted him, repeating the same kind of behavior that he criticized to the dominican politicians. Is a person that acts like this credible? Diaz's story about being raped when he was 8 years old came out "coincidentally" when it was needed to justified his sexual misconduct. Why should we believe in the first place this story coming from someone that obviously is not credible?, specially when the story comes out precisely when he needed most? With all the stories of sexual abuse coming out for a long time from many artist, Why was exactly before Díaz was acused of sexual misconduct that his account of being raped suddenly comes out?
10
Our sense of self can be devastated by negative sexual encounters that are abusive or degrading.
The memories of these experiences are hard to let go of. The mind persists in repeating the traumatic experiences.
Nobody teaches you that in Sex Education..
5
Many men have made terrible mistakes with women but we mustn’t do the same to these men behind the veil of social media and movements but instead allow them to redeem themselves through their talents. Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.
It would be nice to see real serial abusers get their comeuppance, including a woman who ran a hellish animal shelter in Newark for decades, and will not be punished for it, and another woman who ran her household the same way, torturing and killing over a hundred pets to terrorize her children. She cried in court, playing the victim, and got a slap on the wrist, and that's it. I feel sorry for victimized women, and I'm glad they're fighting back, but I wish someone out there would fight the same fight for the victims of real torture, most of whom are animals.
2
Because you are abused as an 8 year old (I also was abused at the same age) is no excuse to abuse others. I did not become one and neither did any one of my friends abuse others. What the abuse did to us was to have empathy for others who were abused.
Diaz, Weinstein, Spacey, and all the rest do not deserve our empathy or respect.
But what needs to happen is to discern what is boorish behavior from what is abuse. For instance, what Al Frankenstein did was boorish and juvenile and should have been treated that way.
What Diaz, Weinstein and Spcey did is predatory and abusive. They took gross advantage of their power and I doubt that they are truly sorry. They repent in order to regain their success
Let all of us learn the difference between juvenile and boorish behavior and sexual abuse first. Then work towards whether or not the behavior rises to abuse, harassment, or boorish behavior.
10
Right on, Jean! Well said.
"Clearly, we need to go beyond easy binaries."
The words I now write beneath that truism should, perhaps simply be written in Professor of Philosophy Alcoff but I place them here to see if they elicit any thought.
We see every day in the Times phrases like these:
"...and how some men of COLOR use RACIAL solidarity as a tool to politically coerce these women..."
"The #MeToo movement has sparked strong debates, especially among women of COLOR over these intersecting issues."
In other words, almost every American writer must use the American color binary and does not even try to find an alternative.
Philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah is one who has tried both in his books and in his BBC World Reith Lectures. There is only one race, the human, but it is, unfortunately, all too true that skin color does matter, especially in America.
Look again above - men of color use racial solidarity - what can that possibly mean and if it is true is it not racist?
If one is to argue that we must move beyond binary thinking in the field under discussion, so too must we and even Professor Alcoff consider ending classification by race in America.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Dual ciizen US SE (binary just because repliers used to tell me that as a Swede I had no right to criticize America)
All stories don't have two sides. They have at least three. My side, your side and the third, the truth. That's why we have courts.
1
Former gang members have served time in prison for many of their crimes. Referring to the pandemic of sexual assaults on women as "sexist behavior" is a literary diminishment of reality. What price has been paid by the assaulters? Almost none.
4
Oh, please. These men... all of them... will have a chance to redeem themselves. After an amount of they will quietly resume some sort of career. Maybe it shouldn't be what they were doing before. They may have made a choice that ruined that for them. But they will not starve.
4
Do we even know he is guilty? Talk about repentance seems weird when his trial hasn't begun yet.
4
Disturbing essay. Alcoff comes across as an apologist for Diaz' disgraceful behavior. She casts victims under the bus when she asserts that credibility should be questioned a priori, cautioning against "presumptive credibility," a galling turn of phrase.
Why? Because her sense of tribal affiliation is stronger than her sense of justice. She admits she cannot help but deeply identify with Diaz in areas of significance. They share a cultural commonality and a personal tragedy. He is a compatriot in a shared mission to bring attention to the lives and struggles of Latinos who has made "otherwise important contributions to the movement," and despite his egregious behavior, that should matter most.
Alcoff basically says Diaz is too important to be cast out in disgrace. No doubt, it casts a pall on the Latino arts and intellectual community to see a celebrity wunderkind vigorously, publicly denounced, but isn't it essential Diaz be held accountable in the same manner as all the men who've been called to account in the wave of public revelations we've seen this past year? Anything less would be hypocrisy or worse.
Alcoff's thoughts are all over the page. This piece reads like a confused freshmen essay by a student who doesn't really know what the prof wants and is throwing every arrow in her quiver in hopes of pinning down a convincing argument that might make the case for letting Juno Diaz escape the full weight of the consequence of his behavior. I, for one, am not convinced.
13
In the words of Carmen Maria Machado, one of the many women on the receiving end of Diaz's misguided vitriol (in her case during an interview in which she asked well-founded and reasonable questions about his work): "Today, please meditate on how easily we accept women's pain as collateral damage in men's self-discovery."
201
So then it must also be true then that today, we will meditate on how easily we philosophically accept men's pain and death as sacrificial to western middle-class self-fulfillment?
Sorry the body count is the responsibility of both genders. As is the election of Donald Trump.
Misandry is a word you ought to consider.
5
Yes. Yes. Yes.
3
Bravo!
3
This reminds me of when I attended a Quaker church service in Washington DC (right off of Dupont Circle); the talk was about forgiveness and the congregants were told that this church decided to be a welcoming place for sex offenders who are universally shunned. As I listened I looked at all of the families with kids sitting around me and thought how easy it is to be forgiving when others need to live with the consequences of such naïveté. I didn't go back.
5
I'm rather tired of hearing about the sex lives of allegedly famous men and the so-called "vulnerable" women who become their victims. As someone who has no such story to tell, I find this endless parade of dysfunction and debauchery rather revolting. At some point the victims become the abusers and the abusers become just pathetic characters in a trashy novel. And so we have Mr. Diaz writing about his alleged childhood sexual assault while being simultaneously "cast as “a bizarre person, a sexual predator, a virulent misogynist, an abuser and an aggressor.”
Well sure... I'm pretty sure I don't identify with any of this. I know... I'm a white man and can't possibly understand. That part is absolutely true. I don't.
This entire article (and the astonishing links to others) leaves me utterly... astonished. Then to read that I am called "to think through the important issue of how to demand individual responsibility from abusers while also being vigilant about our collective and institutional responsibility, to develop critiques of the conventions of sexual behavior that produce systemic sexual abuse."
Well sure... How do I do that?
3
It can begin with a codified truth and reconciliation process whereby the accused men can acknowledge their wrongdoing, e.g. by writing, signing and publishing or publicizing (and delivering to his victims if possible) his own version of a declarationof repentance that may include:
1. A guilty plea of misbehavior
2. An explicit apology
3. An offer to reconcile with each victim in the presence of a mediator if she/he chooses to
4. A vow to never make the same specified mistakes or engage in the same specified misbehaviors
5. A promise to adhere to a specified code of conduct that details respectful, honorable, ethical and moral behaviors to everyone, particularly women, both in public and in private
6. A course of corrective or punitive actions in case of a lapse of unacceptable conduct
7. A public gesture, possibly selected from a list of his victims' suggestions, to demonstrate that he is serious and genuine about his remorse
3
The range of violations discussed and debated by the #METOO movement requires serious debate and thought.
You cannot equate what Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein did to what Al Franken did. Moreover, Franken showed remorse, so I am not sure the country benefited from his resignation.
Of course, all of this is complicated and cannot be fully resolved as long as Trump, an admitted sexual harasser, is President.
5
Idealistic, but naive, given the world we live in.
As a clinical therapist who has worked with hundreds of sexual abuse victims, I am familiar with the devastation that abuse--in all its forms--can wreak. Do you think a simple acknowledgement of responsibility (apparent "repentance") guarantees a change in someone's behavior? You'd be foolish to believe that. Many people are physically and sexually abused, but only a select few choose to abuse others. And once a person walks that path, using techniques of dominance and intimidation, it is practically impossible to change (at least without ongoing, intensive supervision and therapy). Would you allow child molesters to return to their lives and jobs after an apology? Of course not. Junot Diaz has lived the life of an abuser, with all the changes that brings to one's life and being, and his "redemption" is far less important than ensuring the safety of others. Numerous victims (unknown to one another) do not create fantasy narratives out of thin air. The damage to these people far outweighs Mr. Diaz' fall from grace.
6
Sorry, but we now have a system for destroying men's professional and personal lives, and you can't undo that. I'm fine with truly misogynistic abusers going down hard. But social media is so quick to hate. Plenty of false positives, just like on the "other" death row. The idea of pseudo-Christian repentance bringing men back into favor--don't kid yourself. Don't attack a man unless he truly deserves to be down for the count.
2
Up to a point I can buy what is considered aberrant behavior as a kid even a young adult, but we are all exposed to much more good behavior and as a cosequence know the difference at a relatively early age.
Excusing lousy manners, bullying or simple rudeness among a host of other less than criminal behaviors is fine until one reaches his or her teens, but beyond that it just doesn't wash let alone pass the smell test.
Most all of us have functioning brains with the ability to reason and don't live devoid of human contact.
Making up an excuse as an adult doesn't make good fiction and isn't worth reading.
Mr. Diaz, regardless of culture, is a citizen and is entitled to a full presumption of innocence, which includes skepticism when the mob attacks.
1
Since we’re now moving beyond sexual assault, sexual abuse and sexual harassment to any “sexist behavior”, including commentary, needing to be condemned, it seems like some clearer definitions are in order. Especially if the punishment is going to be one-size fits all.
A woman recently told me that the global micro-finance community focuses much more of its lending efforts on women than men because they are better credit risks.
I have no idea whether this is true-it sounds plausible. But isn’t it a sexist comment?
If the genders were reversed and the commenter were a male speaking at, say, an academic conference, wouldn’t he likely be accused of sexism? And potentially subject to a “media-thrashing”?
2
At a certain point, we need to look beyond calling out individuals, and look instead to redefining how we as a society raise and treat our boys/men. Junot Diaz is guilty of mistreating women, just as many other men in my everyday life are. Sexism is not a result of fame and power, it is a construct that is so ingrained into our society that instances of it are unsurprising. We must ask ourselfs how this can be changed?
1
This is a meandering mea culpa and attempt to sympathize with Diaz. Most people can recognize the "cry wolf" syndrome, and rightfully castigate those who falsely accuse others. However, can we for example really compare Cosby to Emmet Till? Undoubtedly some areas of sexism and racism overlap, but I would hope sexism is one area that all races can agree needs to be ostracized and fought against (along with homophobia).
1
I struggled with this article. It raised a number of ethical questions regarding sexism and sexual abuse in general.
I found myself asking if one replaced the word "sexism" with the word "racism," would the author's argument bear scrutiny?
Should those who repent be given another chance? In cases of "virulent misogyny" and forced contact of a sexual nature, I'm not certain it should be the public's place to forgive. Forgiveness ideally ought to be reserved for the victims.
Should those who have been abused themselves be allowed special consideration if they abuse others? I would argue no. Being a victim and struggling with being a victim does not give one a license to treat others poorly.
Should one's positive actions be considered in light of morally reprehensible actions? Perhaps? Yet there is something ethically reprehensible in the hypocrisy involved with acting as a voice for women's rights while belittling the women in one's life.
Can repentance be complete without atonement?
Should one get special treatment because of skill? Junot Díaz is unquestionably talented. But it is difficult to reconcile the timing of the revelations of past abuse and the allegations made against him. Did he abuse his considerable gift to soften the blow of accusations? To lessen his public fall from grace?
I am not sure of the answers to these questions. I am sure that Mr. Díaz is not the idol in which many believed, but rather a deeply flawed human being.
84
Katiek--So many of those, who appear to have repented, are actually lying to regain their previous positions. What's the truth in this case? Is he lying, as a true sociopath would do? I'm extremely skeptical.
3
Half the country seems content to either celebrate or ignore grotesque criminality in their leaders, while the other half are conducting show trials by media. I certainly understand the latter group better than the former, but the two are not unrelated.
I don't believe that all Trump supporters are misogynists (or racists, or liars). But they're so consumed by impotent anger that they're willing to substitute inchoate political venting for political action. On the other side, many women are so frustrated that they're trying to turn the situation into an occasion for empowerment. But the future does not lie in trial by media & public shaming. These "victories" do not establish legal precedents. They don't protect us from ourselves, by requiring the protections that any of us would rightly demand if we were accused of crimes.
Both political sides are settling for substitutes for power. Women are tweeting their accusations, and the rest of us are joining in the shaming rituals, because women don't have access to more legitimate means of justice. As many people are supporting our criminal-in-chief because our political-media system does not offer them a means of expressing & advancing their own interests. I don't think we will make any real progress unless we recover a public sphere in which we can address our goals with minimal mutual respect. But the powers that control our political & media systems are determined to prevent it.
2
"Impotent anger": insightful and similar to my take on the Trump voters I know.
1
"because women don't have access to more legitimate means of justice."
I agree. Women should be allowed to sue, bring cases to court and call law enforcement when their rights are violated. There should even be women lawyers.
Then no one would have to resort to twitter mobs to get what they want. Maybe someday...
2
I cannot help but relate Mr Diaz words in his New Yorker confession as being more than that of an excuse. Blaming his lifelong manner and attitude toward women on events, traumatic as they were, which occurred in childhood as a lifelong pass for loutish behavior is only acceptable in a clinical setting.
Few of us have escaped varying degrees of abuse, whether sexual or otherwise as we grew up, yet rarely reach to those behaviors as an excuse for our own adult boorish manner. Criminals of every sort may use similar justification, but that doesn't lessen the harm they bring to their victims
By his own admission Mr Diaz has spent years considering his bedroom actions or lack of same and relating them to his childhood trauma. He isn't alone. Recognition of childhood trauma doesn't lessen the severity of later actions and the impact it has on those who suffer the response.
Talent is recognizable, but hardly unique. His voice is not the only one being voiced in the Latinx community. Men from all walks of life, sacred to profane, are being called to account for their actions and their reasons will undoubtedly fill volumes. There are also many more laboring with the same skill, talent and burden who are waiting in line to be recognized.
He won't be imprisoned, or suffer a life of penury and if he is sucio he is a man and as his New Yorker article proves he knows how to wash himself.
5
This defense of Diaz -- and yes, that's what it is, despite the author's protestations -- is suspect because it comes far too soon. How could he possibly have demonstrated whether or not he has taken responsibility? Both this article and many of the comments on it suggest that we need to worry about "ruining" the lives of the men who have engaged in this behavior. Fair enough. But Diaz's life isn't ruined. Weinstein's life isn't ruined. Alexie's life isn't ruined. These guys are having a bad few months as they begin to grapple with the consequences of their behavior. They are financially secure. Their books and movies will continue to sell. They will probably write and produce again. Nothing's been ruined here, except, perhaps, the careers of some of the women whose advancement they used as leverage to harass and assault them. The implication of the hyperbole of ruination is that the consequences of these men's bad behavior are too severe. The reality is, we don't even fully know what those consequences are yet, let alone how they will respond to them. But if history is to be any judge, our misogynistic culture will find a way to "rehabilitate" the men while it consigns their victims to obscurity.
6
Thank you. I have been waiting for someone to write this article.
If I stopped reading all the books by writers who were sexist, or sexually harassed women, my shelves would be half empty.
This doesn't mean men should get away with harassment, or worse--abuse and rape--and we need to make a distinction between harassment and physical abuse, between trying to kiss someone and trying to rape them.
We need a more nuanced discussion, like the one in this article, about some of the important issues the #metoo movement has brought up. Sometimes 120 characters just isn't enough.
As always, an action leads to a reaction.
Slowly but surely the actions and motives of those behind the #metoo movement are being questioned. Here we see an almost full-on defense of a male, as deftly handled as by the best Human Resources department, as we did when Aziz Ansari’s accuser went public.
One sees comments such as – shouldn’t the man be given a fair hearing? – shouldn’t he be judged at a trial? etc. What trial? Who among the latest round of miscreants is facing a trial? The litany of those accusing Bill Cosby of drugging and forcing himself upon them has reached almost 60, over a 40+ year period. He went to trial - but very recently.
Sadly, the ratio of the wrongly accused to the rightfully so, is abysmally small.
1
A few years ago, well before MeToo, our Congregational church went through a crisis. A long term male member sexually harrassed our young female minister and 2 other women in a vile incident. He was suffering from hypomania (it should be said he had refused treatment for several years prior). Our church is filled with many wonderful men but most of them had no idea how many women have been victims of harrassment.
Long story short, the harrasser was banned from our church until he apologized and got treatment, and when the women victims were ready to engage, the congregation went through a Restorative Justice process, that took a few months, and now the man is back in our congregation. It is something any organization should look into. Everyone learned ssomething who participated.
2
The debate about this letter has disappointed many younger feminists of color and the debate had torn apart this community. Why is Professor Alcoff addressing herself to this largely white audience and not addressing herself to her students and former students who feel betrayed by her and her fellow signatories? This piece here is very well articulated and thoughtful but the original open letter was not. It barely mentioned the women of color who have spoken out about Diaz, far more concerned did it seem with defending him. The voices of these women were swallowed up in an abstract invocation of the “white media”. But it’s clear Professor Alcoff is only interested in speaking to the white media as is evidenced here. I could take the points of the original letter and this one more seriously if it was grounded in conversations among senior and younger women of color feminists and did not ignore the voices of the women who spoke out — instead of this expression of authority, tone-deafness, and a blatant disregard for the anger and sadness that letter generated.
8
Mr. Diaz has not taken responsibility for his behavior. In his searing New Yorker piece he has taken responsibility for his serial infidelity, which stems from his inability to form long-lasting healthy relationships due to his horrific childhood rape.
But the allegations don't come from women who have long-term personal relationships. The misogynistic behavior was targeted toward woment that he knew professionally and often at the acquaintance level.
Diaza has to take responsibility for that behavior. Only then will I accept him as plausibly repentant.
And Ms. Alcoff, I do not think you can be objective on this one. You have too much invested.
103
This sober and compassionate viewpoint is a refreshing breath of fresh air after the rock-hurling and demands for revenge that has been the status quo for the past year.
We have to work with each other to evolve; we can't just keep up the cycle of atrocities and revenge.
6
Before "Me Too" there was Bob Packwood. You should read the Times coverage of his announcement of his resignation on the floor of the Senate by Katharine Seelye in an article called
"The Packwood Case: The Overview: Packwood says he is quitting as the ethics panel gives evidence"
In light of what we know will happen in the future it is one of the most surreal, only in America, you've got to be kidding me things I have ever read. The utter hypocrisy of all sides is amazing. Only Senator Dianne Feinstein comes out looking like a winner. Her words at the end are particularly poignant -
Mrs. Feinstein, who unexpectedly delivered a gracious tribute to Mr. Packwood, whom she said she hardly knew. She said her father always told her to remember a man by what he did best, not by what he did last.
"We do make mistakes," she said, "but it is a sign of a wise man and even a giant man who stands and does what needs to be done and goes on to fight another day."
1
1995! 19 women came forward to state Packwood had sexually harassed or assaulted them. Some had been members of his staff who were unsuccessful in keeping their jobs because of his harassment or retribution against them. Feinstein, who said she hardly knew Packwood and apparently was not victimized by him, was free to speak on his behalf and remember Packwood however she wished. The 19 women senate staffers who lives he damaged, some of whom lost their employment because of his behavior, were right to call for his removal.
1
This is an excellent piece, especially combimed w Diaz essay. For me though, it diminishes the reality of abuse to make it exclusively about gender and/or ethnicity. Abuse is abuse and hurts and has powerful repurcussions regardless. I am a white male who was raped at the age of 5 by my 16 year old brother. I had nightmares. I have struggled with suicidal ideation for47 years. I told my first wife, who was abusive and also happened to be Hispanic. I was looking for kindness. She added it to her repertoir of abuse, and used it within my family as a weapon of mass destruction. In our racist and sexist civilization white men are most likely to have the upper hand in unequal power dynamics, but not exclusively so. There is a whole universe of niches in interpersonal dynamics. Abusers like nature abhor a vacuum and take advantage of any opportunity.
41
I see the MeToo movement as PART of the necessary work that needs to be done to move women out of the 2nd century and into the 21st century.
This is only Step One. Calling out misogynists, stating what they have done and whom they have done it to, is only the beginning.
If it is NOT, then it is only relevant on a personal level, a specific satisfaction to only the handful involved. That has value, but my personal involvement at that point plummets and becomes iffy.
The end-goal of MeToo must be changing the legal system.
It's goal MUST be the Equal Rights Amendment, the full Constitutional inclusion and protection of women on the Federal level. If you think it should be LESS and women should be covered or NOT under the rule of states, then, yes, MeToo is just fine, utterly sufficient to cover legal needs. But if you understand that having 20% of every paycheck of every woman openly stolen every day, month, year and decade of that woman's life, which comes to one hefty haul! and MeToo does not lead you that way, then the narrow focus of MeToo needs to expand.
It needs to be linked to every LEGAL abuse that the women of this country suffer.
"Theft" is only one part of it.
Forced pregnancy is another.
Denial of legal abortion is another.
The criminal acts of men MUST be addressed - ALL of them!
That needs to happen in a court of law AND the court of public opinion. However, if I am to only have one - then I demand it be the court of law.
Me Too must lead there!
23
Tremendous wisdom in your words that we need to envision and work towards a future in which repentant abusers have a place. This was key to the success of our country after the Civil War - Lincoln made sure that the states of the confederacy were welcomed. It was key in Africa after apartheid - Mandela made sure of it. In Ireland as well. We do this with our children when we find bullies in the classroom.
Where a poor job of this is done - where we assign identity-branding labels - we find failure. Look at our politics - are you liberal or conservative - and the disaster of polarization that ensues.
Labels are important - they help to see, understand, respond and focus over time. And these things take time to overcome. But to overcome them, there needs to be a shared vision of a world in which the labeled person is welcome to return once well on the path to reform, and welcome to lose the label once back in the fold.
8
The #MeTo movement, still in its early phases, has often seemed more like a release of justified pent-up anger more than an attempt to justly punish those who have sinned. Little regard is given for the severity of crimes, and the perpetrators have experienced the modern equivalent of public shaming and exile common centuries ago. The same people who call for the reintegration of criminals to society call these men irredeemable. Just as with many criminals, some of these men are irredeemable, but many are redeemable and a few are truly innocent.
Part of the issue is society has always ignored this issue, thus there are few clear laws or protocols for dealing with it. There is also the inherent difficulty in proving the accusations. I am glad several activists have written op-eds for the Times acknowledging the importance of figuring out how to deal with this issue, the current system is not compatible with our system of justice.
17
I am in agreement with your points and identification of critical must do’s. One of the lead articles in today’s paper highlights the case of Mr. Cooper, a strong likelihood of wrongly being sentenced to death in California. The article goes on to mention, the percentage of people wrongly imprisoned, sentenced and executed. The early phases of #MeTo have bolstered the speaking out and public shaming part. The position to date however has been, if somebody said he did it, he did it. If that is the standard applied across our system of justice . . . A large number of falsely accused will continue to be executed. In the case of #MeTo, publicly executed.
2
To paraphrase Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes: one thousand generations of misogyny is enough. We can fix the “system” once everyone agrees that it is a problem to be fixed.
1
When this column started many moons ago I was thrilled. I thought it would be excellent to have a public forum for philosophical ideas with everyone commenting. Sort of bringing esoteric thinking to public life. What I have found is a column that's hard to distinguish from any other place in the Times. I don't know exactly what I expected. I enjoy the history of European and American difference in philosophy, post-modernism and its discontents, Richard Rorty and his engagement and contingency.
4
I would be more concerned about the future of these men if even one of them had come forward of his own volition to say, "I did this. It was vile, and I beg the forgiveness of those I wronged." But instead they stand fidgeting offstage, fingers crossed that they can escape detection.
If they can't admit they did wrong until they are outed by their victims, then they should stay offstage forever.
37
We are and have been in an era where people (and remember: corporations are people!) NEVER admit to wrongdoing. Even when paying a multi-million dollar fine, they never admit guilt. We are currently under a regime that wallows in offense, and lack a legitimate Supreme Court. Are you still hoping for justice?
3
Right on, Bonnie!
This essay asks the most importance question: is repentance possible? For some, it may be enough to say a few prayers after the confessional; for others a night in the stockade is needed. At this point, given what men have done (and continue to do) to women and children, the burden for repentance may fall heaviest on the perpetrator. Words are cheap, actions expensive. Show us your sorrow. Do something. Men, change social norms. When there is a leader who falls very short on morality (as we have now), there is tacit approval for all sorts of abuse. So, you be the change. Then we will believe you. Women are also at fault. Admit it. Change takes two. Women continue to give men power, freely, even in the little things. After all, who has the power in courtship, in love, and friendship? How about those dating apps? How often do women willingly forgo long standing female friends once they become "involved" in any "new" relationship?
15
The part near the end, where there is mention of former gang members going back to their friends and the young about to be inducted into gangsterism and explaining to them from personal experience why this is a dead end, could be a way that this works. Especially among those repentant abusers who are skilled in communication, and have the cloak of celebrity around them. More likely to be listened to by others aspiring to find that place in the world as special, or even to simply do well instead of being left behind by the more ruthlessly exploitive. Might start making a dent, if those powerful who have begun to understand the damage they’ve caused, could speak directly to those men who want to emulate them. First there’s more of an understanding to be demonstrated that those caught out and called out do realistically understand the consequences borne by the women they’ve treated as props to their legend or exploited as rewards for their success or automatically granted dominance. There must be some renewed faith in decency that drives us as humans forward to lives of fulfillment and dignity.
6
This is a thoughtful piece but it, like the open letter, appears to have been motivated by accusations against "their guy." The prudence and forbearance Alcoff advocates is widely applicable.
25
Can't Ms. Alcoff give women, who have been punched, raped, emotionally shed to ribbons, ridiculed, denied jobs, been the target of mass shootings, become the "property" of their husbands....for not decades but millennia, give women some breathing room and a chance to truly understand what has happened in our culutre, before she has to run to the aid of an abuser? Let him stand up for himself.
1
Does Díaz agree with his accusers’ accounts of what happened? The new media (and commenting) discourses seem to be all about consent, which is a good and interesting discussion, but also no longer includes the idea that stories have two sides. It’s as if we love narrative more than legitimate uncertainty. Isn’t that how religious behaviour tends to look? Talking of his guilt as a foregone conclusion is exciting, for sure, but so is a McDonalds burger when you’re five. Neither are necessarily good for our constitution.
13
I agree more is needed to help those who've committed harm see and understand the experience of the person they've harmed. On some level the perpetrator needs to get the impact. Our culture would shame the perpetrator and punish him in the name of justice. But how do we get to the other side to redemption and healing?
5
What is missing, and what we desperately need to see, is the narrative of how a man who wants to reckon with his bad, patriarchal behavior actually deals with it and comes to terms with it beyond an apology to the women he has hurt. And I agree--gigantic public shaming does not help here.
The challenge is, can the men and the media show that without turning all the focus away from the women, and the sexual violence inherent in male domination, into a "what a great man, he is so SORRY and he has CHANGED!" kind of thing??
I agree that we need to stem the angry, banning, shaming tides after accusations like this if we want men to be motivated to understand and change, but in order to get this, we NEED to see men like Mr. Diaz struggle, analyze, and commit to this publicly. We also need to see this presented in our movies and television, over and over. Since so many women (and boys) experience harassment and assault, it is clear that many "good" men (as opposed to pure psychopaths) commit harassment and assaults, and now we know that many of these men, in turn, have themselves been assaulted by other men.
Mr. Diaz' New Yorker piece was important and powerful. His having committed assaults on women in turn does not negate that. But now he has to write more about his journey connecting the two and devote significant time to helping other men understand this and helping come up with ways they can stop it.
36
"Clearly, we need to go beyond easy binaries."
Wise words. We need to come out of these momentous changes with a functioning society, not a culture of revenge. People must be able to rehabilitated, otherwise we're going to end up with the social equivalent of prisons, in which men are locked up in until they die, with no hope of release, no matter how their behavior has changed.
26
This article seems to use sexism and sexual misconduct interchangeably. Individuals may be guilty of one or both. What is required in the way of repentance and reform is also different for each. And even when repentance and reform have transpired, to the satisfaction of the specific victims and society at large, forgiveness does not require full restoration of status, respect, and rewards. Those must be earned anew.
45
Nicely written.
In complex situations, this is where philosophy can help shed some light, pause and action.
In this internet world, we are often struck by so much information, that info processing is often dismissed in favor of the safety of immediate judgement.
20
If one stands upon the glass ceiling and peers downward, like those glass bottom boats at resorts, what do the murky waters reveal? Thousands of women abused, molested, bloody, impoverished, broken, institutionally held back — never having the opportunity to be lifted up, healed, re-employed, promoted, or forgiven for being female while employed. Is it any wonder why so few women CEOs, heralded artists, revered authors, lauded scientists?
There are many of us human beings who were abused as children, who have not gone on to abuse others. Many of us have chosen to become healers and teachers and parents redoubling our efforts towards kindness and goodness. Those adults who have abused others, been caught, and then expressed remorse, may be forgiven. Then they may take their proper place, at the end of the line of redemption.
160
But what are women supposed to say, when the people who bullied us were other women? Pardon me if my personal experience makes me dislike women as much and sometimes more than I dislike men.
7
Patricia--
I've worked as a clinical therapist with hundreds of sexual abuse victims, and your words carry wisdom. Rehabilitation for serial abusers is a long, difficult road, and true inner transformation (repentance and refusal to re-abuse) is rare.
4
Your personal experience does not invalidate her comment. And no one is suggesting that women are incapable of being faulty parties.
I am completely comfortable with all of these abusers fading into oblivion while the thousands of equally talented women in every field assume their rightful place of recognition.
I am a huge fan of Diaz's writing, but he has had his day in the sunshine (and he blew it). Suddenly so much energy is being given to the issue of socially and culturally rehabilitating these folks when too many brilliant women (who excel in their work and, get this, actually know how to treat people with respect) are minimized or ignored.
Let these men go out to pasture. Our culture will be just fine without them.
215
Yes, look at what conductor Marin Alsop has done for the young people of Baltimore, giving them an orchestra. James Levine never did anything that great.
17
This calls for a general discussion on how society deals with crime and punishment. I do know that isolating and shaming people does not work in the long run. How charismatic men and women deal with power and fame is quite complex and a person with a history of childhood sexual abuse is not wel equipped to negotiate that territory. How do we support people like that? It is time that we stop idolizing talented people.
6
Our culture should stop rewarding diversity points and gain diversity by listening to and promoting the most interesting voices out there. If you are a fan of Junot Diaz, you should listen to what other non-annointed non-male writers are putting out...
“Trauma is stronger than any mask; it can't be buried and it can't be killed. It's the revenant that won't stop, the ghost that's always coming for you.”
Junot Diaz deserves compassion for writing about his childhood trauma with devastating honesty and clarity. The women he hurt also deserve compassion for calling him to account for his abusive behavior as an adult. In other words, the two are not mutually exclusive.
114
Compassion, or pity?
I don't know if he is just jumping on a victim bandwagon, but maybe he needs to tell his personal story to personal listeners and not profit or commercialize his... "childhood trauma."
I pity him.
It's not my place to "forgive" him.
I only read decent writers, and his stories are not my cup of tea. No apologies for that.
1
I agree with tthecht. Junot's apology and acknowledgment mainly means he wants the spotlight to move on to the next offender. This kind of behavior (rampant at writers conferences be literary stars) shouldn't be forgiven or 'understood' because he's Latinx.
I've taught Diaz's work for a long time, and it was always with the idea that he was pointing out piggish behaviors ("what a pig" being a common student reaction to some of his characters) from an more enlightened authorial perspective. But now, students have to come to grips with the fact that the author himself may well be a pig. It complicates things. Still, we look at Woody Allen's work or Hemingway's work and say "ah, I see the author is excited by this terrible impulse." It doesn't mean we should stop teaching them or reading them (unless you want to). But I'm not sure I'd rush to defend him either, because of some hegemonic injustice or supposed systematic oppression. That seems like special pleading, and a little hypocritical. And if I was a woman, I'd steer clear of him at writers' conferences.
101
I'm replying to myself here. I didn't mention that the students who quickly recognized the strain of misogyny in his work (and who still appreciated the work, and want to talk about it) were primarily Dominican women. They represent about 40% of my students, and they were familiar with the machista characters in DROWN and THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE HER. And they often commented that he was accurately representing behavior and the privileged position of the Dominican man that they were intimately familiar with.
1
The Me Too movement may be overdue, but it's sorely missing proportion. The crowd applies the same blunt justice to every offender irrespective of offense. Ruination may be appropriate for someone like Harvey Weinstein, but it's not, in my opinion, for people like Al Franken, Aziz Ansari, or, more pertinent to this article, Junot Diaz. It's in the interest of the movement's champions to develop proportion; without it people will tire of the mob justice.
270
Al Franken especially did not deserve the treatment he got. He asked for an investigation and was refused one. I believe that he was innocent and was framed.
107
He choose to resign; he wasn't expelled.
There was certainly something to Trump’s claim that Gilibrand would do any thing for his money. She did take $5850 2008 campaign contribution from him according to US News And World Report. Running Franken out of the Senate without benefit of an investigation, who was the toughest of all Trump’s critics, certainly sounds like the quid pro quo he seemed to be referring to. BTW, she has never acknowledged taking Trump money nor has ever returned it the way she claimed falsely that she returned Franken’s PAC money. I hope someone primaries her this year.
But your essay and the letter it references ARE just about Junot Díaz. You relate to him? Yes, and what of the women who have spoken of their abuse some of them survivors as well. If you are just realizing that many adult perpetrators were mistreated as children or have trauma in their past then wow, this metoo moment must be a mind bender. Many of us already knew that through and through- so we can take a moment to listen to women who are coming forward without rushing to write lengthy nuanced essays on their abusers. Again, many of us have suffered but haven't used our ground/power/survival to treat women like dirt/ assault/harass/bully.
Where is the NYtimes article researched, nuanced and from the perspective of the women who say he harmed them?
91
Halleluia! The outpouring of stories from #MeToo is invaluable, but we also need to look at what comes after a diagnosis of sexism: dealing with fellow sinners, assessing proportionate punishment, treating people as something more than the worst things they have done or suffered. Ms. Alcoff's essay doesn't take in all of this (nor does my comment here), but it's a step in the right direction.
17
"Making otherwise important contributions to the MOVEMENT?" the author says. Give me a break. By these lights -- "sexist behavior is sometimes enacted by individuals who are making otherwise important contributions to the movement, even contributions against the oppression of women" -- then Schneiderman should be given a pass as well, and countless other abusers.
99
Excellent essay. All Diaz did was one forced kiss. For this his entire career is being ruined (everything else he is being called out for includes things such as not doing a long Q and A after a reading or being rude). Before judging Diaz read all the threads and you will soon discover what a horrible injustice this is. This is not like Louis CK, Sherman Alexie, or others. The profound positive impact Diaz has had on my high school students and my own children makes me terribly sad that he will no longer be on school reading lists. It is so unjust. As a proud member of the Me-too movement I'm embarrassed by this. As I said just read the threads about what he did and it comes down to a single kiss and some rude behaviour. Thank you Alcoff for speaking truth to power.
56
Leslie,
Junot Diaz is being investigated by the universities and organizations where he teaches, and by the Pulitzer Prize committee.
Diaz abuse of women is an open secret in the literary world. It has been for years. There are many more much more serious allegations out there. It's not just about one forced kiss. Many of these writers, women of color who feel very vulnerable and are hesitant to come out against such a powerful man. Many of these women are aspiring writers, etc.
Remember, it took awhile before more women came out against Weinstein. Everyone in Hollywood knew about Weinstein- but the evidence was not there because so many women were afraid to come out against him.
I suspect that In the coming weeks you will hear much more serious allegations against Junot Diaz. What has been made public is only the tip of the iceberg.
10
By his own admission: Mr. Diaz is guilty of much more than one forced kiss. He has a long history of disturbing behavior toward women, especially young women. "On Friday, Junot Díaz, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,” let a lot of folks down. He let down a number of women who looked up to him, including those he admitted to hurting and those to whom he has yet to fully apologize over claims of sexual assault and harassment. He let down writers like Zinzi Clemmons, who says he forcibly kissed her, and Carmen Maria Machado, who said Díaz aggressively dismissed her question about the characters in his books."
3
It is more than one kiss. Much more. Read the article by the poet the author refers to and reports from other women. Not to mention Díaz himself, who refers to his own terrible behavior towards women
3
Hopefully Junot Diaz will come clean on his misogyny to become a better man, writer, and person. He is one of our most articulate, detailed, and “wondrous” spokespersons against racial oppression, while in his personal life, he was sexually abusing women of color. Since slavery and colonialization of people of color, men have fought racism, while women fought both racism and the sexism of the masters and of their own men. In all the Resistance demonstrations I've been to in the Bay Area, Latina, black, and Asian-Pacific Islander women have played the leading or major role as organizers and speakers. Trump and the commercial media are divisive. Racial and gender communication and mutual respect, minorities and whites, men, women, and LGBTQ form the basis for progressive change.
13
Even if you loath a person, for most of us, it is traumatic to annihilate a fellow human, along with their families, careers, reputation, and any good they do the world. It's a huge responsibility.
The demand that victims submit their abusers to one size fits all devastation and public shaming, is just more trauma, a fact which must certainly discourage some from coming forward.
Victims should have a say in moderating what happens to their abusers, including victims who are forgiving or wish to accept remorse. If this is about empowerment, then who, better than they, to measure?
Social media is certainly a clumsy apparatus with which to find justice. In fact, the internet is everything that law is meant to prevent: trial by an inflamed rabble.
40
Imagine if we could punish war criminals Cheney, Bush, Rumsfeld; imagine if we could punish Trump; imagine if we could punish animal abusers like Trezza, and Frist, imagine if we could punish the Walton family, Krocs, Bezos for exploiting their employees, the same way we destroyed Junot Diaz! And we're rehabilitating Vick, after he tortured and killed dogs. I'm sure a lot of the women who are crying "me too" are wearing leather and fur from tortured animals and eating them too.
It's about celebrity obsession as much as anything else. The women who work at the grocery next door can't send tweets about their boss & expect to have him shamed in the national media.
1
"Social media and traditional media are imperfect mechanisms for establishing truth or enhancing understanding."
They are not only imperfect, but are not even justifiably tools to establish truth. Social media isnt anything but a voice, true or false. Its not a place of proven facts. Traditional media has been a place of facts in the past, when traditional journalistic standards are adhered to. And in a public accusation, the only verifiable truth is that someone has made an accusation and another person has been accused. The details of that accusation arent truth until its been established through the justice system, using testimony and evidence. Until that happens, they are merely accusations. If I drag you into the public square and call you a thief because the man down the road has accused you of it and then I tie you to a post and tell everyone in the town to come to the square to see you, the accused thief, so I can call you the thief, does that make you a thief? The beauty of the American justice system is that it errs on the side of the guilty, as we prefer that a guilty person go free than an innocent person go to prison. Sometimes the bad people get away with bad things, but this is the price we pay for having the innocent locked away. And any one of us is vulnerable to being accused of a crime when we have not committed one, so this works in all our favors when we do not support a trial by public opinion.
20
"Traditional media" has been as harmful, perhaps more so, than social media. Traditional media has been used as a platform to do harm to other people and animals. In the early 21st century, it was used as - ridiculously - a platform for people to try to justify killing cats. (This is still going on.) I knew worse things were coming. It always starts with animal abuse. America has always been the land of cruelty and hysteria. Salem witch trials, genocide, lynching - mob injustice to keep certain people down. The real abusers generally get away with their crimes. Just sayin...
I wish we didn't have to use our own painful histories with child molestation as a passing note to strengthen our arguments. This should be something monumental to reveal, with a great deal of trust in the audience.
Not sure how exactly we achieve that trust in this climate, though; to say that someone came forward about their past because of an ulterior motive seems to go against all that #MeToo stands for. Survivors and abusers are not gender-specific, and for this to be a historical movement it should be as inclusive as possible.
Diaz has shown a clear pattern of behaving abominably toward women he's attracted to, one that he's been addressing in therapy, presumably for years. Of course the women he's hurt deserve an apology. But it should be for them, privately, not for his readership.
This does not mean, of course, that said women shouldn't take up a platform, as Shreerkeha so eloquently has, and give her own voice back to the story.
But where should the larger conversation go when so much of what we've heard (so far) is about intimate emotional manipulation between consenting, if mistreated, partners? Where do readers, and strangers to all involved, belong in this discussion?
33
Here’s the most interesting bit of information that is not discussed in this opinion piece: millions of sexually abused men did not end up doing to women what Junot Diaz is said to have done. The same can be said of Tom Brokaw, that millions of men didn’t do what he is accused of doing to Linda Vester. Millions of powerful men across America found a way to sexually control themselves. Are we really supposed to forgive Diaz and Brokaw? And if we do forgive them, what are we forgiving them of? The answers to these sorts of questions are morally obtuse. I’m not sure how I’d answer them.
55
The same arguments in defense of Junot Diaz can also be made in defense of Eric Sneiderman, and other abusive men, but we don't.
Just because Diaz is Latinx does not give him more of a pass than you would extend to other abusive men. It needs to be stressed that most of the women who were victimized by Junot Diaz were women of color.
Moreover, most men who abuse women do it because they are damaged in some way- otherwise how does one explain such behavior. Normal, healthy men don't abuse women. The damage could have been a childhood rape, as in Diaz's case, or some other emotional trauma in their lives. Eric Sneiderman, for example, is an alcoholic. Past trauma does not excuse abusive behavior towards women.
The difference between Diaz and these other predatory men is not so much that Diaz has some special claim to his own victimhood, but that he can use his gift for language - as in the New Yorker piece -to position himself as a victim in a way that the other abusers, without his gifts, cannot.
That Diaz did things to allegedly help the "movement," does not diminish his victimization of women. Sneiderman also did much for the feminist "movement", -prosecuting Weinstein and passing legislation in favor of women while strangling the women in his life. Progressive politics don't excuse either man.
Why is Diaz a repentant sexist? Because he says so? Haven't many of the others also taken responsibility after being caught? Should we come to their defense too?
136
Brilliant commentary, Zoe; absolutely brilliant.
I agree with you but there is a part that shocked me...
Why does it need "to be stressed that most of the women who were victimized by Junot Diaz were women of color"
Is it less of an offense if he forced himself on white woman???
What does the race of the victims have to do with this???
3
It is in response to Alcoff's opening sentence: "For those of us who have been fighting for decades against the oppression, emotional manipulation and brutalizing of women, as well as the murders, misrepresentations and wrongful imprisonment of all people of color...."
"But sexist behavior is sometimes enacted by individuals who are making otherwise important contributions to the movement, even contributions against the oppression of women."
This seems to be quite common.
"Unrepentant and repeated sexist behavior warrants condemnation and exclusion. Repentant sexists, though, should elicit a different response."
Repent and you shall be saved.
"Of course there is always the question of sincerity, but this is best judged by practice in the long term."
And until then? A little repentance seems to go a long way.
4
Thoughtfully written - this is why we need philosophers today, to walk us through the politics and ethics of contemporary problems. Thank you.
15
Philosophy is cold comfort to victims who are dealing with the reality of abuse.
2
until there's an actual apology or the words "i'm sorry" this article and all the empty calls for forgiveness are just that -- empty.
quite frankly, let's instead listen to the women who call him "a bizarre person, a sexual predator, a virulent misogynist, an abuser and an aggressor" instead of dismissing their claims outright.
138
This woman's comment was based on a brief interaction at a dinner party. We're going too far. If the student he tried to kiss was his student, that's a problem and it needs to be addressed by the academic institution. But if we follow this path few men will be left standing
57
Winnie, the author dismisses no claims, outright or otherwise. Please read with more understanding. Perhaps leaving La la land would help.
21
And after the apology, Winnie, redemption? In this environment of Guilty Until Proven Innocent (or more realistically, Guilty as Charged)? With your approach, why would any man bother apologizing?
2
Though I have seen numerous articles note Junot Diaz has "accepted responsibility" I have yet to see one where he actually apologized to those he's dismissed and hurt. Until he does even that, there can't be conversation about where his work lies afterwards. Acknowledging bad behavior is accepting responsibility and I have yet to see that.
89
I'm not defending him, but why are you entitled to a public apology. He should apologize but you are in no way entitled to hearing it.
This is a courageous letter and a courageous column. The allegations against Mr Diaz appear to be that he kissed one woman at a conference and got into an argument over substantive issues with another. These are hardly the things that the metoo movement should be about. Let's keep perspective.
46
Read Junot's own essay in the New Yorker for hos description of using and tossing women for decades as well his reason: his sexual abuse as a child.
1
Michael, instead of depending on what "seems" to be Junot's behavior, why not read the many articles online about what he actually did. You need perspective. This is #metoo.
Here in lies the problem. If predatory behavior, abuse, sexual harassment and/or assault are allowed to fester unpunished ––– the public response will always be swift and harsh.
Someone, perhaps this author or the cosigners of the letter knew this was going on, either saw it or felt it. I do believe that there has to be room for forgiveness and reconciliation but the author lost me at "presumptive credibility."
19
Predatory behavior and mass torture of both humans and animals is going unpunished.
Presumptive credibility was what captured me! This is what we need to give ALL accusers instead of dismissing them outright as liars or gold diggers. I think it’s an excellent phrase and concept.
There's a societal response somewhere between completely casting out chronic abusers like Mr. Diaz and restoring them to their previous levels of prestige. Giving him book tours, publishing him, or any kind of public platform negates the experiences of those he harmed – and this is unacceptable. It's another act of violence to those women. But if he can mind his manners and work at a library, fine.
42
Let’s get on this as soon as women have equal opportunity and are paid equal salaries.
82
"...I argue that all accusations should be taken seriously and pursued, but this is a way of saying we confer presumptive credibility on accusers...
"...Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence...
So which is it...
9
Both, of course. If you're really "in the Middle" you should appreciate that.
7
Spot on - kudos...
Junot Diaz is 49 years old, not some misguided youth. He's led a uniquely privileged life for over a decade since wining the Pulitzer Prize in 2008 and being named a MacArthur Fellow - an enormous monetary award - several years later. Neither of these accomplishments seems to have made Diaz a better, more thoughtful, epathetic and trustworthy person. Whether he will be now that he's been 'outed' as a louse remains to be seen.
81
Did you expect fame and money to make anyone a better person? I think they become, if anything, more of what they already were.
20
What money and fame can do for someone in his position is, for example, to permit access to treatment by outstanding therapists who specialize in childhood sexual assault and trauma, for as long as is needed to recover - which in some cases can be years. That kind of therapy long term by outstanding experts can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Most victims of sexual assault or child molestation never have access to that kind of therapy, open-ended in terms of time and intensity, with specialists in private practice or involving hospitalization. The kind of childhood trauma Diaz experienced can destroy a person, can ruin a life. He is in a unique position to access treatment, which would likely include realizing that recovery means not punishing other people for the pain he experiences.
3
So because he’s rich he can afford fancy therapists? Really? Wow.
When I lived in the US, I was constantly shocked by the litany of public figures who were disgraced then a formula to get them back into the limelight, kicked in. After only a month or so, there would be an confessional interview including "I am sorry" on say, 60-minutes, then it was like he was back in business. It was too much. It was a formula which, lacked integrity and sincerity. No room for true reformation. This was why Weinstein thought he could just check himself into a 'facility' and that would say everything to the public about why he should be forgiven. But it all lacks any genuineness or sincerity. A price must be paid. It must. It doesn't have to be forever, but at least make a genuine attempt to not pull the wool over the publics eyes and find out who is genuinely reformed and who is not. Thanks to social media the power is with the people.
72
Thanks for this realism. Yes, you're right. Maybe this time it will be different, but that routine is real.
Whadda ya say, Newt G.?
15
Spot on. Sometimes it takes an outsider to recognize a flawed system.
11
Ridiculous, EC. You leave no room for redemption. In your approach, everyone is guilty with no chance to prove his innocence. And when you say a price must be paid, how do you quantify 'price'?
This solid essay offers a nuanced alternative to much of what’s been written lately about sexual harassment and sexual violence against women and, in some instances, men. This issue demands lots of attention and discussion. What troubles me in this essay is the writer’s use of abstract terms that are meant to sound profound. What, for instance, does “imaginary of liberation” actually mean? I think it is important that this important issue be discussed in clear, plain English. That’s the beginning of real change.
62
This is a sad reflection of how pervasive patriarchal thinking is. In this article, women telling their personal stories aren't sharing their stories but sharing stories about Diaz as if they're bit players in their own lives. The victim in these stories is not the women mistreated by Diaz but the confused Diaz who couldn't help but mistreat women because of his personal issues. And ultimately the concern is for Diaz and just what can we do to help repentant men who victimize women but no concern for the women he victimized. Yes, we all have a lot of reflection to do, the author very much included.
218
The essay doesn't attempt to examine all the many ramifications for everyone involved. It is about one aspect. How much do you expect a Times op-ed to do in a few hundred words -- no matter how much the author might wish to discuss?
19
Repentance. Determine Repentance. Being Caught. Forgiveness. The basic problem involves two people who are involved at a moment in time, or through a passage of time in which one is an abuser and the other is the abused. Unless the abused is kidnapped or physically prevented from leaving, the abusive action needs to be shut down immediately, not internalized, not accepted as the nature of the abuser, not reported years, months, or days later; shut down immediately. The moment the abused comes to the decision to be silent in favor of rationalizing the behavior, appeasement, not alarming the children, or whatever the trade off is, is the moment the abuser is empowered. If the abuser is confronted immediately, and chooses to ignore or feign understanding the seriousness of the problem, walk/sprint/run away, or after fair warning is given put the abuser on notice and if need be call the spouse, call the employer, or the police, but report it and leave. The faster with which the issue is shut down then repentance, feigned or real, is unimportant, being caught is supplanted by being reported, forgiveness is not confused with acceptance or mollification and the abused's healing begins.
The key is to eliminate the words "long period of time" as much as possible from both sides of the equation. Otherwise healing becomes less likely, and the magnitude of the abuse increases. Shut it down and/or leave. Time does not all heals wounds.
10
Yeah. Easy to say.
1
Abusers did not abuse unconsciously: they knew they were abusing. As for redemption and finding a place in society for the most abominable past abusers, I agree: until we perfect the right robots, we'll always need ditch-diggers.
After that … well, there's always Soylent Green.
9
"Abusers did not abuse unconsciously: they knew they were abusing." You can't know that. Of course it's true sometimes. I doubt it's true of nearly every abuser. People are more complex and weird than such a declaration allows.
11
Thomas:
No, they're not. They're actually pretty predictable.
4
Richard: "Predictable" has nothing to do with "they knew". People are very often unaware of their own patterns.
Besides, I only object to the blanket description of all abusers as "knowing". I guess only that there are many, possibly a minority (I don't know), who are unaware of their own abusiveness. You must know of the capacity of people to justify themselves to themselves.
Let us really change the culture. Then let us see how these men rehabilitate. 5 months us not long enough. We need to see things change for the better over a long progression.
22
Unfortunately, internet justice lacks mechanisms for restitution, atonement, and probation.
76
While I have no desire to blame the victims, the change that I would like to see is the women in question taking at least a little responsibility for what happened to them.
As well-educated and financially self-supporting professionals, most of the women were hardly in the kind of helpless desperate circumstances that have caused women to silently endure.
At least some of their willingness to put up with the abuse was because they wanted access to opportunities or proximity to power/wealth/celebrity.
48
Actually, what a good many of these women wanted was to keep their jobs and to advance in their careers so that they could continue to be "self-supporting professionals." They were silent not out of "willingness" but because they felt they had no choice and that they would get no support. The alternative was to be thrown out of work and to give up their dreams. You are in fact blaming the victims.
172
If they had the same normal access to opportunities that men did they would not have to “put up with” abuse.
20
Simply on this note: many people in this country and elsewhere in the world have stood up to abusive behavior which assaulted their dignity and the dignity of others, who were not 'professional' women, or women of privilege, and who had a great deal more to lose than a job in publishing. They've risked their lives for justice.
If you do something because you want something (your novel published, say, or your movie produced) that's called a Faustian bargain.
There are others, who risked a great deal more, who knew that assaults on their dignity and their person were assaults were assaults on everyone. That's heroism.
In no way does this excuse the behavior of predatory men (or women), and there are countless situations, all over the world, where it is impossible for people to those choices, to resist, but the world of literary publishing isn't one of them. And every time someone acquiesces in abusive behavior, it makes it that much easier for the aggressor to continue that behavior.
1
As a psychotherapist, I was deeply saddened to read Diaz's account of his rape as a child, and concerned about his decision to go public with his story--particularly as he appears to be fairly early in the recovery process. The man deserves our compassion, even as those on the other end of his bad behavior call him out on it. Yes, it is important to be clear with ourselves and others about the boundaries of acceptable behavior, but there is no equivalency between rape and sexist behavior, "slight or severe."
111
Well articulated, Lynne.
Mr. Diaz is guilty of bad behavior, and deserves punishment that fits the crime, but he does not deserve to be excommunicated from decent and professional society.
I encourage readers to read about Mr. Diaz being raped by a family member when he was an 8-year-old boy to provide some background on the human being Mr. Diaz is.
It's a devastating read.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/04/16/the-silence-the-legacy-of-...
29
As the victim of hurtful behavior by someone who had been victimized as a child himself, I can not honestly find any compassion as this individual had a choice to seek help to learn how to cope with that experience without victimizing others. These people leave behind a lot of collateral damage without even an apology for those of us who were unlucky enough to cross paths with them.
38
Diaz's victimhood does not excuse his victimizing. He hasn't shown any indication that he has come to terms with his own behavior. Until he does, he doesn't deserve all this sympathetic attention. He turned his pain into abuse of others. That cycle does not end until perpetuators stop abusing. Commenters here are not taking into consideration the pervasive sexism that still exists, that furthers a culture that forgives men for their bad behavior towards women, but doesn't pay any attention to the needs of the women that have been harmed.
1
If a man (or woman) came forward on their own accord and stated that they had been abusive for a long period of time and that they are deeply sorry and are seeking serious change ad therapy, that's one thing. But people who seek forgiveness only after being caught, when they've had plenty of time to hold themselves accountable for bad behavior yet chose to not seek help or make personal changes are harder to forgive. They seem more sorry to have been caught then they are for their behaviors. That's why repentance seems questionable and why many are reluctant to give second chances.
Is redemption possible? Sure, but that's at the soul level. Society does not owe men new opportunities.
251
That's true for some, but I recommend not laying out a blanket rule. If we ostracize all who might not be honestly repentant, there won't be many men left to participate in society. Remember that personal, like societal, change is hard and doesn't occur all at once.
13
Don’t they, Anne? The underlying ivory tower principle of our criminal justice system is that people can rehabilitate and serve time in prison to atone for their misdeeds. Societally, we really have no choice. If we don’t find a way to reintegrate them into society, what then? How do they earn, and participate, and survive? An unwillingness to eventually reincorporate them into the group might end up being more harmful to us all than helpful.
7
So basically they get a life sentence, most of the time only after a trial in the highly imperfect court of public opinion.
That’s a far cry from the principles of due process, justice and proportionality that apply to all other crimes in America. In effect, you are exacting “justice” for violation of the accuser’s civil rights by violating the civil rights of the accused.
This is not a model for long-term success for the #MeToo movement.
As others have said, people will tire of the mob justice approach. #MeToo will not only achieve less than it otherwise could, it may actually set its own cause—the cause of better, more equal, respectful, dignified and humane treatment of women—back, by alienating people otherwise sympathetic to the movement.
More dangerously, it may also put women at increased risk by giving the bad guys more misguided, angry justification in their own minds to keep acting badly.
Anger in these circumstances is completely understandable. The consequences of acting solely on that anger are also completely predictable. It will lead only to more anger on both sides and no real progress will be made.
For an example of a leader who chose not to follow the path of “revolutionary justice”, despite immense justification, you might look to the example set by the man from South Africa—Nelson Mandela.
12
I agree with the author that we must develop critiques of the conventions of sexual behavior, especially of the ways we participate in patterns of domination and submission, even in the imagination--these "have to be radically transformed."
13
It's difficult to accept this indirectly forgiving viewpoint when we know it likely would not have been offered to someone of different race or ethnicity.
146
Nope Thomas, Take your advice and look at your own racism. It is on you that you would like to ignore/overtly deny how race intersects and informs this story, told by it's many members (mostly unwilling females participants, and one male admitted perpetrator of "pain and damage").
Race IS part of this story. Interwoven in abusive interaction with these women. Rampant colorism used to shame and ridicule students, young writers. And throughout this Opinion piece which immediately frames the difficulty as the problem between listening to women and wrongful imprisonment of men of color.
Diaz would be considered just another jerk worthy of condemnation were it not for his accolades as a literary laureate of the Latina community…the tendency to dismiss the dissolute conduct of those with a modicum of celebrity is juvenile and unworthy of every American
5
Exactly. I don't see this writer coming to the defense of Eric Sniederman- a white man- although many of the same arguments can be made in his defense, including a claim to emotional damage (he's an alcoholic) and progressive, "feminist" politics.
7
How do we determine that they have repented, and what position in society would be appropriate? First you can't know, and no position of authority are my answers.
22
there are so many talented people who found doors closed in the past by the likes of those who have disgraced themselves. no second chances. new first chances.
41
Sorry I don't buy this. He is repentant and takes responsibility for his actions because he was called out on it. The bad behavior would have gone on and on, and might still do that. He's a great writer but his behavior should be fully condemned.
223
Often, it is the calling out that causes the reflection. If that happens, with true repentance, then he deserves to move forward as do we all whether our transgressions are great or small. Make no mistake...I am calling for true reflection and repentance and acts of change. Mistakes cannot be rectified, but there can be action that makes it better for the now and the future.
21
His behavior has been fully condemned. What else do you want?
3