This past Friday, the public learned (at least the public that was paying attention on a steamy August Friday) that Nate Parker, the most recent Sundance Institute Vanguard winner, and writer and director of the much heralded Sundance-winning film “The Birth of a Nation,” had been tried for rape for an incident that occurred when he was a student at Penn State in 1999.
The details, as I understand them, are that Parker and his fellow wrestling team member Jean Celestin (who has a co-story credit on the film) were accused of sexually assaulting an intoxicated female student in Parker’s off-campus apartment. The woman said she was unconscious. Parker and Celestin said that the sex was consensual. Both men were arrested and tried.
Parker and the accuser had previously had consensual oral sex. He was acquitted. Celestin was found guilty: his verdict was then thrown out and the case was not retried, even though Jane Doe was willing to testify again.
Bear in mind that one in five women are sexually assaulted in college, and according to RAINN, out of every 1,000 rapes, 994 of the perpetrators will walk free.
According to a complaint filed against Penn State by the Women’s Law Center in 2002, the school was negligent in not protecting this woman after she filed the rape charges. This civil complaint (which according to WTAE in Pittsburgh was settled for $17,000) states the following:
In the section titled FACTS:
“On or about August 21, 1999, while Jane Doe was unconscious, two Penn State students, Nate Parker and Jean Celestin, raped Jane Doe at Parker’s off campus apartment.”
“Commencing at the time of Jane Doe’s report to the police, Parker and Celestin began an organized campaign to harass Jane Doe and make her fear for her safety.”
Women and Hollywood contacted The Women’s Law Center. They will not comment on the case.
But what we know from the complaint is that Parker and Celestin hired a private investigator, circulated pictures of their accuser, stalked her, shouted at her, stood outside her dorm and where she had classes, and on the night they were held over for trial, Parker showed up in the common area of her dorm.
This woman did not feel safe anywhere and the school did nothing to help her. Their harassment made her life miserable. She tried to commit suicide twice in that period. Sadly, it was reported yesterday that in 2012, at the age of 30, this woman took her own life. Her brother, Johnny, who spoke with Variety, said the rape changed her: “If I were to look back at her very short life and point to one moment where I think she changed as a person, it was obviously that point,” he said. Variety writes that he said that “prior to entering college, his sister was an outgoing, popular girl who loved animals and school.”
How many times have we read about athletes — both of these men had wrestling scholarships — treat women with impunity? All the behavior in this document verifies that. This is yet another shameful example of college sports taking precedence over women’s safety. (For more information about the college campus rape epidemic and how institutions prioritize athletes over other students, check out the 2015 documentary “The Hunting Ground.”)
Here we are 17 years later and Parker is now about to embark on the biggest moment in his career. But it is tainted and that taint grows with each new revelation. He gave an interview with Deadline and spoke about his daughters, and how much he has grown from that experience in 1999. I’m sure he has grown– it’s been nearly two decades. But how much has he changed since then? Gina McCauley of What About Our Daughters has announced that she won’t see the film — and by extension, support Parker — until she hears more from him. She wrote, “If Parker wants my money he needs to prove something TO ME!”
I have seen “Birth of a Nation.” It is a movie that will make all of us uncomfortable, especially white people. But this is a time when we need to be uncomfortable in confronting issues about race. While “Birth of a Nation” offers an opportunity to have a much-needed conversation about race in this country, Parker’s past gives him the chance to talk about another blight on our nation — the number of rapes that occur on campuses, and the rape culture that plays a part in these statistics.
What Parker was accused of doing is truly horrible. But if he was to acknowledge that — not talk around what he did, but to address it directly and take accountability — he could make a difference.
If we are to believe this quote below he gave to Deadline, then he needs to talk to Jackson Katz, one the leaders working with men to prevent gender violence.
“The reality is, this is a serious issue, a very serious issue, and the fact that there is a dialogue going on right now around the country is paramount. It is critical. The fact we are making moves and taking action to protect women on campuses and off campuses, and educating men and persecuting them when things come up. … I want women to stand up, to speak out when they feel violated, in every degree, as I prepare to take my own daughter to college.”
If Parker is to be believed that he has changed he needs to reach out to Annie Clark and Andrea Pino of End Rape on Campus, the women who are leading the charge against campus rape who were featured in “The Hunting Ground,” and ask what how he could affect change. He could start by agreeing to give all the money he makes on the film to help stop rapes on campuses.
Deadline reports that in a conversation secretly recorded by Jane Doe, Parker told her, “I’m not try, trying to be mean, but, I felt like you put yourself in that situation, you know what I mean?” He added, “I really felt like I didn’t do anything wrong.”
Nate Parker has a chance to re-craft his narrative. But that is up to him. If he is to be able to speak from a moral place regarding his film, he needs to revisit his problematic past. Parker has said, “[I want to] live my life with the most integrity that I can, stand against injustice everywhere I see it, lead charges against injustice against people of color, against the LGBT community. That’s me. The black community is my community, the LGBT community too, and the female community. That is my community. That’s me, it’s who I am.” Right now he has no moral authority. He took to Facebook last night to address the death of his accuser. More comments about changing and not hiding from his past, but no real honest acknowledgement of his deeds.
And let’s not forget the woman whose name we do not know at the center of this. She is the aggrieved party. Not Parker. Her sister, Sharon Loeffler, told The NY Times that her sister always believed there were other victims and that she urged them to come forward and that “these guys sucked the soul and life out of her.”
It’s also worth noting that “Birth of a Nation” includes an extremely brutal rape scene. Everything about the movie is brutal, but it’s impossible not to look at that particular scene through a new lens now that I’m aware of Parker’s history.
Hollywood has never been good at holding men accountable on these types of issues. It’s always been a boys club where male behavior — no matter how egregious — is accepted and at times lauded. And add into the mix that he is a man of color in an industry that has been historically racist, and remains so.
Fox Searchlight is betting that this industry feels worse about being racist than it does about being sexist. They are probably right. But it’s a long way to the Oscars, and people will have a hard time separating the movie and the man.
