>> A few years ago, we shared the story of a young woman who was only known as Jane Doe
at the time, who had been sexually assaulted by Brock Turner.
This was a Stanford University student who was caught by witnesses, assaulting this young
lady near a dumpster.
Now, Brock Turner did get prosecuted.
But as we all know, the consequences of what he had done were not, the crime and the consequences
did not match.
What he did was horrible, and now, Chanel Miller has decided, I'm gonna tell my story,
I'm gonna reveal who I am.
She's coming out with a memoir, and the memoir's name is Know my Name.
Over the weekend, she gave an interview to 60 Minutes.
And I wanna share some portions of what she said with you, because it's incredibly powerful.
She says, here are these young talented women, excited for their futures, who have so many
things to give and offer.
And something like this happens, and they go home, and they carry the shame.
And they swallow it up, and it eats them from the inside out.
She also says, and they think everything would be better off if I was just holed up in my
room.
Maybe things would be better if I didn't speak at all.
It's so sick that we let this happen and that we let them digest these negative ideas of
themselves, and let them be isolated.
So she's in essence describing how she felt, as this case went on.
She also talks about the details of the prosecution, including how the defense attorneys went after
her.
Tried to do character assassination, which is very typical of these types of cases.
And Brock Turner famously didn't even get sentenced to a year in prison.
His sentence was shortened, based on good behavior.
And the judge in that case famously said that, well, spending too much time in prison could
have a negative impact on him.
>> So the part that really got to me, among all these hideous things is, she said that
she wanted to write children's books.
One of the reasons she was afraid of coming out with her real identity was, she said,
well.
Are parents gonna be worried about buying a children's book from someone who was raped
behind a dumpster, and found half-naked and unconscious?
So the victim has to be worried about what happens, not just to them at that night, not
just the trauma of it for the rest of their lives.
But whether the rest of society will judge them, instead of the perpetrator, for the
rest of their lives, when they didn't do anything wrong.
So that's the reality of rape in America, and across the world.
And so it it takes some degree of courage, or a lot of courage, for Chanel Miller to
come forward.
But it's important that people do, so that others are encouraged, so that we can actually
fight back and get justice for victims.
>> This logic of, if you're not perfect, then you deserve anything that comes to you is
beyond evil, right?
And the fact that she should feel ashamed, that she had maybe even drink.
How many of us had been in a situation where we weren't perfect, and if things had gone
a different way, something could have happened?
It's out of control, how we put so much blame on the victim, and make women feel like they
should be ashamed of things that people have done to them, and it's gotta stop.
>> There's a new series on Netflix titled Unbelieveable, and it's based on a true story
of serial rapist.
And it starts with an 18-year-old girl, woman, who had been raped, right, and it destroyed
her life.
Because as you mentioned, Cenk, it wasn't just the rape itself, it's everything that
transpired after.
It's the way that she was treated by prosecutors during the questioning, it was how people
didn't believe her.
It was how her own friends and family abandoned her, and just brushed her off as a liar.
And luckily, two years later, there were prosecutors in a different, or I should say, investigators
in a different state.
Who wanted to catch this serial rapist so badly, that they finally did, they identified
him.
And they found evidence connecting him to the rape of the 18-year-old.
And so I bring that up because, look, a lot of young women, a lot of women in general
don't feel comfortable coming forward.
Because oftentimes, the prosecution, or the trial of the alleged rapist is just as bad
as the rape itself.
Because they make you relive it over and over again, they do the character assassination.
They make you out, they nitpick every little behavior that led up to it, and they place
the blame on the woman.
>> It's like when unarmed black men get shot, then they're prosecuted in the court of public
opinion.
He once smoked marijuana, he once had detention, etc., etc.
And so I was watching a Larry Nassar documentary, he's the guy who molested all of those gymnasts.
And one of the stories, I mean, you couldn't help but cry.
I mean, I can't imagine anybody watching that and not crying.
I mean, all the stories are horrible, but she said, that particular victim, her dad
didn't believe her.
And so for years, he kept asking her to apologize to Nassar, cuz he was a family friend.
And then when he found out that it was true, he committed suicide, the dad did, and you
can't ever get that back, okay?
And so, what we do in looking at it from a certain perspective in this country, for historically,
has been devastating to women throughout.
And look, I know it's uncomfortable, but I think I could prove it relatively easy.
She had a great quote, Chanel said, rape is not a punishment for getting drunk, and now,
you would know that that's true.
If you just thought about it, what if the shoe was on the other foot, right?
So what if you had gotten pass-out drunk at a college party?
And I know, I've been incredibly drunk at college parties, and a guy raped you.
Would anyone say, well, the guy was drunk.
So obviously, another guy raping him behind a dumpster when he's completely unconscious
was the fault of the guy who got drunk.
No one would say that, no right-winger would say it, nobody independent.
No one would ever say, well, a guy got drunk, so obviously, another guy raped him, and that's
fine.
He probably had it coming, he shouldn't drink that much.
So why is it okay when it happens to a woman?
And look, I know that they are technically not saying it's okay.
But when you give someone a six-month sentence, and they're out in three months?
That's exactly what you're saying, you're saying it's okay.
>> Just in response to that sentence, right?
Now, the judge looked at that suspect, who is now a convicted felon, he is on the sex
offender registry.
And thought, no, no, this guy looks like he's a good guy.
Okay, he made a mistake, but we're not going to give him a lengthy prison sentence.
And that really goes back to, there's so many different themes.
So there's the theme of of how sexual assault and rape victims are treated by our justice
system, and by society.
And the other theme is something that we go back to often, which is this two-tier justice
system.
And that two-tier justice system isn't just about money.
It isn't just about having the resources to hire the best attorneys to defend yourself.
It's also about how people perceive you, right, and the type of privilege you have, just based
on the way you look.
In the case of Brock Turner, he had that privilege.
And so, Chanel Miller writes about that as well.
And she says, privilege is not having to reckon with his own actions, to examine his effects
on someone who is not him.
I think what bothers me the most is that there's never the suggestion that the victim was also
busy having a life, before this happened.
We have our own agendas and goals, and don't appreciate being completely thrown off the
rails when this happens.
And when people say, why didn't she report?
It's like casually asking, why didn't she stop everything she was doing, to attend to
something that she never wanted to attend to in the first place?
I thought that was an interesting way of putting it.
And also, I think that it's incredibly important to report it, right, because that's how you
get justice.
But given how women are treated, I don't blame them for not wanting to come forward.
>> And look, this is a perspective issue, so there's three layers to it.
If he was black instead of white, everybody knows that the judge wouldn't have thought,
well, he was a good kid.
Otherwise, it just seems like a blip on the radar, right?
I know the right-wing will not acknowledge that, every other rational person in the country
knows that that's the reality.
But to get beyond that, if he was poor, instead of a Stanford student, goner, it doesn't matter
what race, goner, okay?
The judge wouldn't have been like, well, he seems like a upstanding gentleman.
He's poor, so of course he was raping that poor Stanford student.
So that's two-tier justice system, based on class.
I think even the right wing would admit that.
And then lastly is her gender, because there's no way the judge says, if he raped an unconscious
male student behind a dumpster?
It was an innocent mistake, we don't wanna ruin his good life over just raping a guy
behind the dumpster.
It would never happen, and you know what, everybody in the country knows it.
So we've got to shake ourselves out of the old ways of thinking, which are often disastrous,
but I'll give you the hopeful note.
Chanel also said, about people who came forward after she did her statement in court, about
what had happened to her.
And the wonderful things they said, and she said, it was really like medicine.
Reading these was like feeling the shame dissolve, bringing all the light in.
So I know there's a lot of terrible things on the Internet, and a lot of terrible comments,
but your positive comments actually do help people.
So understand, you can be part of fixing this, and bringing justice to this country.
And you could also be part of the light that she feels, and other people feel, when you
actually bring positivity in the world.
And yes, that's even possible online.
>> And also, working to call out injustice together.
I mean, being able to unite through social media, through the Internet, to see when injustice
is happening, and recognize patterns, and change systems.
That's what we have to be doing right now.