I’m sure both the Atlantic and Harvard Law have adequate resources to find the evidence but, of course, that’d undermine Yoffe’s argument. It doesn’t take a lot of work to find a history of research and discussion around race and sexual violence in relation to campuses. It’s just that Yoffe and Hailey don’t like what we have to say. There’s even a whole chapter dedicated to thorough critiques of sexual assault policies and how racial inequality may be perpetuated by them. I’ve been writing about it for years-the most notable and recent example is the book foreword I wrote made specifically to discuss campus sexual assault at the intersections of race, gender, and sexual orientation. I’ve traveled to colleges and conferences, led workshops, and been as a keynote speaker on this topic. That is simply untrue. I’ve been talking about it.
Harvard Law professor Janey Halley told Yoffe that “No one is talking about it.” Yoffe positions herself as some sort of trailblazer in this conversation, but don’t believe it. Well, not the ones who are victimized-just the ones punished for sexual violenceĬue the Columbusing-the old racist art of “discovering something that is not new- of race and campus rape. The subheadline says “is the system biased against men of color?” but it isn’t about men of color. The title implies the piece addresses any of the various racial politics at play when we talk about sexual violence (a very important topic that I’ve worked hard to raise awareness about for most of my adult life). Yoffe presents a very limited and biased view into campus policy at the intersection of gendered violence and race.
EMILY YOFFE THE HUNTING GROUND SERIES
I regularly use the “save for later” service Pocket and, to my dismay, every piece in the series is labeled “Best Of.” She closed out her three-part series from last month on the topic with “The Question of Race in Campus Sexual-Assault Cases.” She pretends to care about racial injustice-and people have been fooled. Yoffe takes it up a notch with her latest tirade against protections for campus sexual assault. She lamented a Black man being treated unfairly by the system as if racist discrimination is a new and unique injustice in America thanks to hysterical survivors-not a reflection of our racist society as a whole. The piece about The Hunting Ground gave us an early glimpse into Yoffe’s exploitation of race to uphold rape culture. She’s shamed advice-seekers for drinking, told women that abstaining from drinking would end campus sexual assault, and tried hard to undermine the Emmy-nominated documentary film The Hunting Ground about campus sexual assault. Instead of focusing on the people committing the violence, Yoffe has had a peculiar hyperfocus on the behavior of survivors and potential victims (read: women as a whole). Before her current gig, she was Dear Prudence over at Slate-and during that time, her problematic politics around rape got quite (un)popular.
Take, for example, Emily Yoffe-contributing editor at the Atlantic. It can be hard to see the little insidious ways that we may perpetuate this injustice but for others, their contribution is a lot easier to see. While rapists are a small fraction of our society, the vast majority of us have made it a paradise for them to harm with impunity.