Bash For Tyson Sends Repulsive Message
In some communities, a convicted sex offender can expect to be ostracized.
But if the offender is a former heavyweight boxing champion and the community is Harlem, he can look forward to a gala welcome-home celebration.
A so-called “welcoming committee” has been formed to take part in a program planned at the Apollo Theater next Tuesday for Mike Tyson, the famous rapist, bully and longtime tormentor of women. Among those listed as members of the committee are U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel; the former Manhattan borough president and chairman emeritus of Inner City Broadcasting, Percy Sutton; Assemblyman Al Vann; singer Roberta Flack; and the Rev. Al Sharpton.
“Harlem plans big Tyson welcome party,” said the lead headline in the weekly Amsterdam News.
The story quoted Sylvester Leaks, identified as chairman of the committee, as saying, “If the initial response is any indication, the turnout will surpass anything ever accorded any sports figure in New York or the entire nation.”
I don’t know how many women Iron Mike has to molest before he is seen by all the pillars of the Harlem community as a bad guy and an inappropriate model for children, but whatever the number, he hasn’t reached it yet.
I don’t know how many times he has to turn his raging misogyny loose before it becomes clear to one and all that his mere presence is an affront to women, but whatever that number is, he hasn’t reached it either.
It hasn’t been for lack of trying. Once, while receiving an honorary doctorate at Central State University in Ohio, the irrepressible Tyson enthused: “I don’t know what kind of a doctor I am, but watching all these beautiful sisters here, I’m debating whether I should be a gynecologist.”
The writer and former boxer Jose Torres, in a Tyson biography, quoted him as saying that the best punch he ever threw was one that had hit his former wife, Robin Givens. “She flew backward,” said Tyson, “hitting every wall in the apartment.”
According to Torres, Tyson also said, “You know something - I like to hurt women when I make love to them. … I like to hear them scream with pain, to see them bleed. … It gives me pleasure.”
None of this was enough to turn off some of the pillars of the Harlem community. Nor was Tyson’s conviction for raping Desiree Washington enough. Nor were the endless complaints of women who said they have been groped and fondled by Tyson against their will.
So the welcoming bash goes on as scheduled, at least for now. Rangel, who has the most to lose, said last week he did not realize he was part of any committee, although the complete list of committee members had been published in The Amsterdam News. He said he merely had been asked by Sharpton to identify worthy charitable groups to whom Tyson could give money. He said he opposes any “celebration” for a convicted felon.
Whoever knew what and when, this bash for a man who has a long history of abusive behavior should be shunned by anyone who believes women and girls have a right to respectful treatment.
“This sends absolutely the wrong message to everyone,” said writer Jill Nelson, who lives in Harlem. “The message to boys and girls is that abusing women is OK, that crime pays and that bucks equal redemption - that whatever you do, if you have enough money, you can buy your way out of it.”
For black women in particular, any kind of celebration of Mike Tyson is an act of contempt. It gives comfort and support to the idea, expressed so frequently in the rap culture and acted out so tragically often in the real world, that women are here primarily for two reasons: to serve men as vessels of pleasure and to be mere objects to be brutalized.
Sharpton said Tyson should be permitted to show that he is atoning for his sins. I agree. But let him do so quietly.
When the big shots of Harlem hold a gathering for Mike Tyson, they are putting an official face on the repulsive sentiment I heard so often from black teenagers when Tyson was on trial: “Oh, man, he ain’t done nothin’ wrong.”