Friday, October 08, 2010

Student-athletes and domestic violence

Saw a very good article today by Jerome Solomon in the Houston Chronicle about the spate of alleged and actual violence perpetrated by male student-athletes against women. It was inspired by the allegations against Baylor student and basketball player LaceDarius Dunn. Dunn allegedly punched his girlfriend, with whom he has a child, in the face possibly breaking her jaw. Solomon notes that while the justice system, in such a case, might see this as a misdemeanor and issue a fine and/or community service, Baylor has an opportunity to send a message about what it thinks about domestic violence and suspend Dunn for the season. I'm a little doubtful the administration (and, hello? when did Ken Starr become president of a university???) will take such a (what I am sure they see as a) drastic step.
Solomon reminds us that October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. I know, you probably forgot what with every woman on Facebook telling you where she likes it in an attempt (I guess?) to titillate men into caring that it is Breast Cancer Awareness and Prevention Month.
It would be a good time for Baylor to step up and make a statement. What Solomon does not mention, that I will, is that Baylor University is a Christian university. Not so Christian-like to hit someone last I checked. This is the same university that is not so down with gay people. If Baylor fails to harshly reprimand Dunn for his actions, it would be like saying (t0 me) that it's okay to hit people but it's not okay to have same-sex relations. Hmmm....non-procreative sex between consenting people in an overpopulated world versus hitting someone. It's a tough call.
Guess I'm going to have to wait to read the latest version on the Starr report on this one.

5 comments:

Jeany said...

It is a concern if they don't take some action against him, especially as he has such a high profile. It doesn't send out the right messages at all.

Anonymous said...

I love how you jump on the bandwagon on this hetero DV issue but didn't have a thing to say when Oklahoma women's basketball star and WNBA draftee Roselind Ross was murdered last month by her lesbian ex-lover. Kind of a head scratcher as this would have been the perfect time for you and / or Pat to really rally the GLBT community against lesbian DV. Unsurprisingly neither of you had anything to say. This is in spite of even pro-GLBT sources admitting that DV is at least as big an issue in their communities as it is with straights and many objective third party studies indicating that in fact DV frequency is significantly higher in the GLBT community than the straight world. Trying to cast DV as a hetero issue is disingenuous at best. Similar to most of your prior missives, you don't let reality intrude into your thought process.

You seem to present yourself as somewhat of an authority on sports. If you are familiar with Baylor programs over the years then you know they have an unbelievably poor track record of selection of their student athletes. If a program puts thugs and criminals on scholarship then they are going to have problems. Not hearing about too many of those issues coming out of Stanford or Cal are we?

As long as we're talking about Baylor programs I also don't remember you or Pat commenting about their freshman woman's basketball star Brittney Griner's blind side cheap shot punch last year that broke the nose of a Texas Tech player, putting her out for the season. You know, the one that her coach only suspended her for a game for so she wouldn't miss the NCAA tournament. Another missed opportunity I guess.

You lack of objectivity and fairness are painfully obvious and should be embarrassing to you, that is if you are capable of being embarrassed.

Anonymous said...

I have to wonder if you're capable of being courteous.

Anonymous said...

Right. I should be courteous on a blog in which your friend Ken can be credited with many things although being courteous has never been one of them. As you know she's pretty proud of that fact.

But maybe you other geniuses can educate me on something. Since the Patriarchy is clearly to blame for all of the problems in your alternate reality I was wondering how it was responsible for Ms. Ross's girlfriend squeezing off a few rounds into her as she sat in a car at a Popeye's Chicken and then watching as the life drained out of her? You'll have to excuse my inability to recognize the signs of the Patriarchy at work in this evil deed, but then I haven't spent my entire adult life blaming everyone but myself for my issues in life like you folks have. Consider it a teachable moment.

I'm sure if I listen closely eventually I'll be able to rationalize that I'm not responsible for anything that happens in my life. Then I can be an honorary member of the GLBT community. It'll Rock.

ken said...

Whoa! I take a long weekend and things get heated.
A few things...
I did not hear the story about Ross's murder. I will find out about it. I do not have a blind side when it comes to domestic violence among queers. I have supported friends who have experienced it. I have seen it happen in my community. I have read the studies and I have supported the groups who address DV among gay people.
I did not cast DV as a hetero issue; I saw Solomon's article about male basketball players who hit their female partners and I blogged about it because I thought it was an important issue.
I have never claimed to be an authority on every aspect of sport and I have said in the past that men's basketball--at any level--is not one of my greatest interests. So I have no idea what Baylor's recruiting history is. I didn't need to know to applaud Solomon's raising of the issue.
I did comment on the Griner situation last year--in the New York Times. I linked to it.