Dear Brock Turner,
Truthfully, every time I think of you and your shitty family, it is not easy for me to channel my inner Martin Luther King. And maybe that’s the paradox, your disgusting existence makes me try to be the best example of humanity I can strive for. If I am speaking as Tracey right now, I don’t think you or your entire gene pool has a place on this planet, except maybe in a petri dish to be studied by science. I don’t have love for you as one of “God’s children”, quite opposite, I would consider it an act of God if your house was smote or if you all died in a car accident. So this is not some pollyanna love and compassion type letter, this is me trying to figure out a way to contribute to the end of rape culture constructively, since women all over the world unequivocally saying, “I do not want to be raped” is, for whatever reason, not effective.
I am writing to you with the conviction that you know, deep down, what you did was unforgivable, inexcusable, atrocious, and that you were given a light sentence because of your race and class privilege. You cannot live with this knowledge. People cannot live with secret untruths, they come back to you, they will fester, and manifest and haunt you like a cancer or karma. The truth is there, except in your case, the whole world knows you raped an unconscious woman behind a dumpster, that you did not get a just jail sentence, and you will carry that with you until your grave.
I think this is an opportunity, not only for you to redeem yourself, but to contribute to the betterment of mankind as a whole. I am calling on you to publicly and fully take responsibility for your actions. In the most public way you must apologize to that woman you raped behind a dumpster while she was unconscious and you must acknowledge that you did not get a fair jail sentence and you should have been sentenced the full amount possible. I am calling on you to turn this tragedy into something else. Find an expert on rape and talk with them extensively. See how you can contribute, by going to fraternities, speaking at universities, educating your peers on women’s rights to be able to go to a party without being raped while they are unconscious and behind a dumpster and the issues of consent (the woman must be conscious). How can you fundraise for rape clinics? How can you influence change on college campuses to make them safer for women? We, women have been doing this all along, but clearly, there is still much work to be done.
Here’s the thing:
For women to exist peacefully and with human dignity on this planet while we are here, we cannot extricate ourselves from men. For one, 99.9% of us love men. Romantically, socially, in a familial way. We exist on this planet with you. Our liberation is bound to men understanding their actions and correcting them. We have done our part. We have opened clinics, begged for funding, made the most social impact with the little resources we have, we have marched, we have lobbied, we have declared and stood up, we have demanded justice. We are not the problem. The laws that are stacked against us are not our responsibility. The sexual and physical behavior of men is not our responsibility.
Someone is not a man because they stick their twisted little dick inside a vulnerable, unconscious woman behind a dumpster. A true man is responsible for their actions and owns their shit. Man up.
Tracey Noelle Luz
September 3, 2016
Tracey Noelle Luz 