Gender Violence and the Black Female Body: The Enduring Significance of “Crazy” Mike Tyson

Abstract

Using Black feminist thought (Collins, 2009) as critical public pedagogy (Giroux, 2000), this article confronts the everlasting public pedagogy (Giroux, 2000) of State of Indiana v. Michael G. Tyson as a consequential wellspring of sexism and racism. As a communicative phenomena, the public pedagogy of the trial coupled with Tyson's sustained celebrity status is argued to constitute Black female survivors as deserving of gender violence and unworthy of protection. In addition, when Tyson is positioned in the public eye time and time again as a “crazy” individual, society at large is excused for ideologically perpetuating violence against Black women via dismissal and indifference. Throughout this article, the precedent set over 20 years ago by the discursive treatment of both Washington and Tyson is discussed in relation to contemporary understandings of men's violence against women.

KEYTERMS:

• Black female survivors
• Black feminist thought
• Desiree Washington
• gender violence
• Mike Tyson
• public pedagogy

Acknowledgments

I extend sincere thanks to the Editor, reviewers, and Dr. John T. Warren for providing insight that enriched this manuscript. This manuscript is dedicated to Desiree Washington in honor of her fierce courage.

Notes

In terms of the notoriety of the case, contextually it is important to recognize that this trial took place in the aftermath of the Clarence Thomas senate hearings (October 1991) and the Kennedy Smith rape trial (December, 1991). See E. L. Bell (2004), Freeman (1993), and Lawrence (1995) for further discussion.

According to Randy Roberts and J. Gregory Garrison in Heavy Justice: The Trial of Mike Tyson (1994) and the documentary Tyson (Toback & Bingham, 2009), which shows a clip of this rehearsal session; the initial meeting between Washington and Tyson entailed a brief conversation and quick hug after Tyson was told by someone off camera to “play with the girls.”.

These two sources are relied on extensively at times because the trial transcripts provide exact testimony and Heavy Justice: The Trial of Mike Tyson (1994) was co-authored by J. Gregory Garrison who served as the special prosecutor for the trial.

According to trial testimony and Roberts and Garrison (1994), Washington described what happened leading up to when Tyson suddenly became forceful and violent as “no hand holding, no kissing, no signs of affection, just a friendly talk about Rhode Island, foster children, pets, pigeons, families, life” (p. 223).

It is important to note that Tyson himself narrates his longstanding abuse and objectification of women in the film.

It is important to recognize that racism toward Black males is prolific in contemporary U.S. American society and the U.S. American criminal justice system in particular. See Black (1997), Jackson (2006), A. Y. Davis (2003), and National Urban League (2007) for further discussion. Likewise, as a critical scholar I believe without question that Tyson has endured racism as a Black male professional athlete. However, I do not believe that the merciless racism that he has endured in any way excuses his sexist behavior. Furthermore, suggestions that Tyson was “raped” by the press (Lule, 1995) are exceptionally problematic in that they discursively trivialize his choice to rape Desiree Washington. Lastly, I want to acknowledge that the steady stream of high-profile cases involving Black males as the accused, tried, and/or convicted insidiously implies that White men do not hurt women, which is flagrantly untrue and rooted in the constant labor to position Whiteness as innocent and Blackness as evil. See Chancer (1998), Enck-Wanzer (2009), and Hutchinson (1996) for further discussion.

Although the manuscript was written by O. J. Simpson with co-writer Pablo Fenjves, the Goldman family successfully acquired legal rights to the manuscript and decided not to change the content of the existing manuscript but rather “to add to the book, to make it our own and to introduce some sense of integrity to what was deemed, by almost everyone, a horrific and disgusting piece of profiteering from the double murderer” (The Goldman Family, 2007, p. xv). Also, although I am relieved as an anti-gender violence activist that Simpson did not financially profit from this book, I am sadly convinced that the book would have become a bestseller even if Simpson had maintained the copyright and the ability to profit.

This example is not to minimize the importance of animal rights but rather to note that the rights of women should be considered equally as important.

For the purpose of this article, I am primarily focusing on race and gender; however this is not to discount the salience of additional identities such as sexual orientation, class, ability, nationality, religion, and so on. For rich discussions of how multiple identities, history, and power impact the lives of Black women, see A. Y. Davis (1981, 1985), hooks (1981), Lorde (1984), and Wallace (1999).

According to Sports Illustrated (1993), Donald Washington (Desiree's father) was offered $250,000, $500,000, and $1,000,000 by Reverend T. J. Jemison as payment for Desiree to drop the charges.

It is important to note the strength of this support—at this time, the National Baptist Convention U.S.A. Inc. was estimated to have approximately 8.5 million members as reported in The New York Times (Berkow, 1992).

This point is made not to discredit the skill, intellect, strength, and endurance that boxing requires but rather to highlight the ways in which the sport is inherently violent given its premise.

Interestingly, in direct contrast to his sentiments toward Tyson, Trump spent $85,000 in May 1989 on advertisements in New York newspapers to advocate for the return of the death penalty in the Central Park Jogger rape case in which the survivor was a White woman named Trisha Meili (Daughtry, 2012).

Although this celebration was intended as a welcome home event for Tyson, there were protesters present. See Coleman (1995) and Ransby (2001) for discussion. According to Ransby (2001), “Black feminist activists in Harlem took the principled but unpopular position that rape was both a feminist issue and a black community issue and that, racism within the criminal justice system notwithstanding, rapists could not be celebrated as heroes in our community” (p. 1216).

For rich critiques of the Thomas-Hill hearings, see Morrison (1992).

Illustrating the ongoing nature of violence against Black women, Hill was recently contacted by Virginia Thomas, the wife of Clarence Thomas, when she left a phone message in October 2010 requesting an apology and an explanation for “why you did what you did with my husband” (Savage, 2010).

For various accounts of how the case proceeded, see Mangum (2008), S. Taylor and Johnson (2007), Seigel (2009), and Yaeger and Pressler (2007).

Several news reports provided intimate details about Mangum's life that severely undermined the likelihood that she would be taken seriously as a survivor of sexual assault including references to previous rape allegations, her mental health and sexual history, and her dissolved marriage. For examples, see Fox News (2006), Park (2007), and Wilson and Glater (2006).