A Brutal Inheritance

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/virginiahughes/dna-test-rape-family-tree

by smollett • 7 years ago

89 18 7 years ago

xrd• 7 years ago

What an incredible story. These two men are such heroes for the way they have sought to make peace and take ownership for such a sad event in their pasts.

Simon_says• 7 years ago

This kind of stuff is atrociously common in our evolutionary history. Every single one of us has innumerable rapists and rape victims among our ancestors.

ptah• 7 years ago

when is the movie coming out?

Crinus• 7 years ago

Is this a low-key ad for 23andme?

CPLX2• 7 years ago

No. An advertisement is a paid placement created by a marketer. This is an exhaustively reported and fascinating piece of feature journalism.

fapjacks5• 7 years ago

Did I miss something? The whole article goes on like there was a conviction for rape, explicitly calling it rape. I mean I realize it's Buzzfeed, but "safe to assume" seems like a dangerous way to present something of this magnitude.

Veen• 7 years ago

How likely do you think it is that consensual sex occurred between a 21-year-old black woman in prison for manslaughter and the 57-year-old governor of that prison?

dsfyu404ed• 7 years ago

Define "consensual". I can definitely see it being transactional in nature. I'm not going to wade into the debate on whether the power imbalance between the two parties of the transaction precludes consent. So, to answer your question, I think the likelihood of it being consensual is certainly nonzero.

nkurz• 7 years ago

I was bothered by that as well. My guess is that current societal pressures make it difficult for the article to imply that any explanation but rape is possible. In the articles defense, there is an argument that the incarcerated are not legally able to give sexual consent, and thus any sex between the a warden and a prisoner by definition statutory rape. I don't think it's a clearly established theory, but I can see why it would be a desirable legal standard. Here's an article on the topic: https://www.abqjournal.com/1030674/law-says-inmate-consent-t...

fapjacks5• 7 years ago

There is also an argument that all penetrative sex is violent rape, but I don't buy that, either. As far as "societal pressures" to perform a certain way, this seems a very poor excuse for someone that likes to think of themselves as a journalist. But I suppose it's also why people think of Buzzfeed more appropriately as mass-media entertainment than some kind of journalism. As much as I wish there were a way to reliably communicate to readers that the source they're reading is a tabloid, I also am wary of gatekeeping in journalism. I'm not sure what the best way forward is, but I do worry about this new breed of yellow journalism, sites like Buzzfeed which are purposefully harmful, muckraking for profit as clickbait.

CPLX2• 7 years ago

It's a pretty common (though not universal) legal precedent that sexual relations between a law enforcement official and someone they are detaining is rape, by definition.

Of course that could be argued. Much as they often do with the more commonly known form of statutory rape (the one that involves minors) people can attempt to claim that there are exceptions to this rule, and that some version of consent is possible despite the situation.

I would disagree. Presumably the writer of this article does as well.

gerbilly3• 7 years ago

As if there ever could be a conviction of rape against a white prison warden raping a black inmate.¹

The standard of proof that you are demanding here is disingenuous.

Also, I noticed that on this site people have a profound misunderstanding of what journalism is. Journalism is first and foremost story telling.

The stories are based in truth of course, but the core of any news story in the story, it's right there in the name of it!

If we replaced this with articles based on raw 'data', as many on this site seem to suggest, then no one would read them.

1: In the south, during the 1920s, in a hard labour prison camp with whips displayed on the walls, no less.

fapjacks5• 7 years ago

Did you mean to reply to my post? I'm saying this writer has presented as fact things which no one knows for certain.

A Brutal Inheritance

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