Nate Parker
"Birth Of A Nation" director and actor Nate
Parker, 36, is embroiled in controversy, as news surfaced he
was arrested, tried and acquitted of rape while in
university at Penn State. Parker's accuser later committed
suicide, unable to cope with what had transpired. Parker was
told to publicly apologize, lest his past ruin the ticket
sales of his film "Birth Of A Nation" but he refused to do
so. The movie flopped at the box office this past weekend,
taking in $7,000,000 in ticket sales on a $17,000,000
budget. This is in addition to $10,000,000 in marketing
costs.
In 1999, Parker asked an 18-year-old
classmate out. He invited her back to his dorm room and
tried to remove her underwear. She resisted, but offered to
and did perform oral sex on him. Parker asked her out
on a second date. However, while waiting 2-hours for Parker
to arrive, she began drinking at the bar. She became
drunk from consuming 4-5 alcoholic drinks.
Parker took the drunk woman back to his dorm
room stating she could sleep off the drunkenness. However,
while she was asleep, Parker began having sex with her,
which woke her up. Parker's roommate, Jean Celestin, had sex
with her as well. Parker offered a third friend who came by
the room the opportunity to have sex with the drunk woman,
but he declined. The doctor who examined her stated in
writing her cervix exhibited the signs of, "Infection or some
type of trauma."
Parker and Celestin were arrested for having
sex with the drunk woman and put on trial. Parker was
acquitted. His friend was initially convicted, but the
conviction was later overturned when the accuser refuses to
go through another trial. The victim, who was bullied on
campus over her claims of rape, was distraught.
She later
killed herself in 2012. Her brother later told Variety
magazine, "The trial was pretty tough for her." It is for
all rape victims, as defense lawyers ask hurtful
demoralizing questions, paint victims as whores and the
trauma of reliving and recounting the rape during the case
is damaging for victims.
The point that sticks with me in this matter
is a drunk person cannot grant consent. Parker and Celestin
should not have had sex with the drunk woman he brought to
his dorm after a date. It was an opportunistic rape. To
essentially pass the drunk woman around to his friends is
equally bad. The victim later stated she had no intention of
having sex with Parker, as she had just met him a few days
prior and only engaged in sexual intercourse during a long
term relationship.
