When You Think About Brock Turner, Please Stay Angry

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As of late, it’s not unusual to see the public get worked up over a fight for justice.

The Stanford Rape case is no longer breaking news. We’ve seen it on our Facebook feeds, we’ve tweeted our opinions. It’s coming up in conversations at work, and at the dinner table. This rape case is swirling around us, and everyone has their own take, their own opinion.

Almost everyone can agree, however, that it’s corrupt, and justice was not done. And they are pissed. Rightfully so. It was a terrible thing that happened. I have to wonder, however,

How long the interest in one woman’s body being violated will last?

And is anything going to change because of this? Are we going to start learning from the mistakes and tragedies that are befalling others?

Will the public be as outraged at the next rape that case? Will fathers finally begin to talk to their sons on what it means to be men of honor? Will American culture begin to shift in favor of protecting women? Will the church have a discussion on how we’ve helped perpetuate a culture where men believe that they can take what they want from women?

Will anything even happen to Brock beyond his puny, six month sentence?

Frankly, I’m worried.

I’m worried that in a few weeks, no one will remember Brock, and no further consequences will come his way. The public, rather than crying out for justice for a woman who was raped while unconscious, will simply cry foul at whoever is selected as the fake love of JoJo Fletcher’s life on The Bachelorette. The world will go on turning. No one will remember the letter written by one strong woman who dared to face her rapist with the whole damn world looking on.

Here, friends, is where I urge you to stay angry.

Don’t stew quietly. Don’t post one powerful, carefully crafted Facebook status and then proceed to forget that this all happened, and let Brock Turner slowly slip away from all of our minds.

And please, don’t be angry for just this one Stanford woman.

Be angry for all of us.

Be livid for all the women who have been brave enough to face their attackers,
Who have had to recount traumatizing experiences to strangers,
Who have had their motives, and actions picked apart, only to have a judge, or a university tell them that what they had to go through was not worth jeopardizing “the potential” of their attacker.

Be angry for the women who have not received justice.
Be angry for the women who never will.  

When I was in college I was assaulted by someone I knew. Someone I was close to. I pressed charges through my university, and I had to sit there and recount every vivid detail of my experience. I sat under close scrutiny as I was asked some of the most personal questions of my life. And at the end of this experience, my attacker wrote an essay.

A damn essay.

That was his punishment for violating me. He wasn’t even removed from his fraternity. My case is still under review with the office of civil rights.

He graduated.

I dropped out.

There was no justice.

So I urge you, please, stay angry.

Stay angry for me. Stay angry for the Stanford woman. Stay angry for all of us. We can’t carry the weight of the injustice alone. We need you to help us.

Stay angry.