Dr. Boyce Watkins wrote an article dealing with Black men and false rape accusations, here is the link.
Apparently, Dr. Watkins has been being attacked by some of my fellow scholars and academics, accusing him of woman bashing, no sympathy for rape victims, etc. So, I read the guys article and here is what I found:
Dr. Watkins redirected and qualified his statements ad nauseum. I do not see why people are giving him grief on this, he is not supporting rapists, he is not generalizing all women in any way he is talking about specific circumstances where men have be and can be falsely accused. I see that some feminist think because this doesn't happen as much as actual rape that it is an issue that should not be addressed or that if addressed the person doing it is somehow accusing all rape victims of lying, which Dr. Watkins is not doing. This is what happens when people cannot look holistically at Black issues and compartmentalize the issues and ignore of have no empathy for others or the issues of others.
In this I am reminded of visiting a church where a holocaust survivor was talking. The person told of us of his family being killed and he being smuggled to Norway then to the United States. It was a story that moved us all, horrible tale of Nazi evil. I spoke with him after the service, as a historian I talked with him about things I had learned about WWII, and the discussion was great, until I told him about the father of a friend of mine who was sent to Siberia by Joseph Stalin. This friend of mine is Polish. Well, this survivor, who is Jewish, had no sympathy for the Poles and therefore no empathy for my friend's dad. Now, let me redirect, in saying that this is in no way saying that all Jewish people feel this way, just this particular person. That's when I started thinking about my own thoughts as an African American, times when I was so into our own struggle I didn't or couldn't empathize with the struggles of others. It was a sobering experience, so now I try to consider to other as often as I can or at least be conscious of the struggles of others who I may not have experienced.
All in all, Dr. Watkins deserves some latitude here.
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