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Trisha Meili, the woman who was brutally attacked and raped while jogging in Central Park in 1989, is no fan of Oprah Winfrey's line of questioning. Five years after she gave her first interview to Winfrey's magazine O, Meili spoke to NY1. First, here is an excerpt of the 2002 interview Meili (who did not disclose her name at that time) gave to Oprah:
Oprah: When I first heard about you, I thought, why were you running alone in Central Park at night?During her recent interview with NY1, Meili said, "If she were to ask me that question now I'd say, ‘If that isn't a blame the victim question, I don’t know what is,’ because that's exactly what it feels like. So it’s like, okay so it’s my fault that I was out there? And what about all those young men who were out there at that time? I think that's still one of the most difficult battles that sexual assault survivors and those who support them need to fight."Central Park Jogger: You're not the first person to say that. For me, running was a release at the end of the day, and I had this feeling that, hey, I have every right to run where I want, when I want. I'd been running in the park for two years. It was not a smart thing to do. Yet that is absolutely no justification for what happened to me.
O: And believe me, I'm not sitting here trying to justify it. But the idea of running alone in Central Park is a foreign concept to me. You had to be the kind of person who either thought you were invincible or who was just nuts.
CPJ: I wouldn't say I was nuts, but maybe I thought I was invincible
An O Magazine spokesperson told NY1, "We’re sorry to hear Ms. Meili felt this way about her 2002 interview with Ms. Winfrey. Oprah Winfrey is and has always been an advocate for victims of sexual abuse of any kind." Hmm, not very good timing for Oprah, as she's dealing with the claims of sexual abuse at her school in South Africa.
CityRoom points out that Meili did other interviews with talk show hosts Larry King and Katie Couric who asked her very similar questions, but those interviews were in 2003, when Meili was promoting her book, I Am The Central Park Jogger. It seems that the question was fair - as it's probably a question that many people have - but that Meili has formed a clearer way to answer it and question society's response to sexually based attacks.
Meili, who lost 75-80% of her blood during the attack, recovered enough to run the NYC Marathon in 1995 and is now a motivational speaker and works with The Sexual Assault and Violence Intervention Program at Mount Sinai and the Achilles Track Club. Five teens were convicted, but their convictions were vacated when another man, Matias Reyes, claimed he was responsible and DNA evidence confirmed it. However, Meili still suspects the five teens were involved in the attack.
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Oprah, you bitch. She thinks the raped provoke the rapist.
Well, she got what she was looking for - don't know what the fuss is all about. BTW, if you can't trust Oprah's instinct, just who CAN you trust...?
And I betcha she had the same exact expression of satisfaction after her "ordeal"...
not that running alone in central park at night means you deserve to be raped. and to pile blame on the victim is terrible. but she's made herself into a public figure (and i'm sure made some money) speaking about her attack. so i think its a bit different. and to cut off an avenue of discussion by hiding behind victim status is unfair.
to think the world has your best interests at heart is foolish. there are mean people out there who want to hurt you, simple as that. it's not smart to put yourself in a position where they can. i agree that she shouldnt feel like she can't go places and do things just because she is a woman. but oprah has a point. run during the day, or with a friend, carry mace, a knife, a rape whistle, i mean do something to protect yourself. same thing goes for all these girls who go out and get so drunk they can't take care of themselves. there's probably as many bad people out there as good, if not more, and if they stumble upon you (or you stumble upon them) bad things will happen to you.
when you're the white yuppie jogger, you truly think you're invincible. master of the universe.
what a kunt. again, who cares.
only NY1.
Yeah, Oprah is right, what was she thinking? She probabaly wasnt wearing her burqua either, so she clearly got what she deserved. What are women thinking, that they can just go jogging anytime they please? Get real, this is America. She should have been at home in the kitchen waiting on her husband, or tending to her children or something.
Why would anyone go to Central Park alone after dark? And wasn't it northern CP? IDIOT.
how come people always look at this argument so simplistically? there's a difference between DESERVING to be raped (which no rational person is saying) and not taking necessary precautions to avoid a rape (or any other crime, for that matter).
if i walk through the south bronx with a bunch of twenties stapled to my shirt, do i DESERVE to be robbed? well, maybe out of pure stupidity but even still probably not. but can i honestly say i took responsibility for my own personal safety?
if anyone remembers the Pepsi challenge bike marathons held in central park should know not to be in the park after dark, especially in the northern area. not that anything happened but people knew.
Since Oprah herself was a victim of sexual abuse as a child, I HARDLY think it was her intention to play "Blame the Victim". She was asking a question that ANYBODY would have asked. People can't go around living in a bubble. What, is she trying to get a lawsuit out of this?
i run at night in central park all the time. and yes, all the way around. see you in hell.
but really, if more people did it, it would be less dangerous, right? have some courage.
C'mon, she was in Central Park at night - it's not like she was somewhere where a young woman shouldn't feel threatened by sexual predators.
Like a private school for underprivileged girls organized and funded by a billionaire media giant, for example.
Is she seeking publicity after sluggish sales? Come to think of it, this would make the perfect holiday reading...
I jog almost every night after dark in CP and see a lot of people out running, including a number of girls, and also a lot of police. It's preposterous to say that these girls are all asking to be raped. Some people have no choice but to run after dark and running through the park is a lot safer than dodging taxis and buses in the dark. Blame the woman for all the attention-grabbing maybe, but don't blame her for running in the park and "asking for it". That's sick. So is Oprah.
must be some sort of anniversary as NY1 mentions in their teaser. but you are correct freddyh, she's still on her publicity tour for this book? or, NY1 is running out of exclusives.
hmmmm, running after dark in Central park alone in 1989 may be a little less dangerous than running in the same park in 1983.
central park in 1989 is not central park in 2007. little different scene back than...
Yes, Mr Giuliani wasn't around yet to make this city safe for all of us...
maybe instead of picking on an ignoramus like Oprah!
she should look at the facts and admit that 4 minorities were coerced into false confessions and railroaded to appease the public!
(anyway i heard she was a real bitch before & after that terrible night...)
no can do, if you saw the report,
she thinks they had something to do with her rape.
even though her brain was mush soup.
An appeal court in Saudi Arabia has doubled the number of lashes and added a jail sentence as punishment for a woman who was gang-raped.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7096814.stm
But the victim was also punished for violating Saudi Arabia's laws on segregation that forbid unrelated men and women from associating with each other. She was initially sentenced to 90 lashes for being in the car of a strange man.
On appeal, the Arab News reported that the punishment was not reduced but increased to 200 lashes and a six-month prison sentence.
I'm amazed at the racism in these comments.
Why does it matter that the victim was white? Why does it matter that the criminals were minorities?
If she's a yupi that thinks she's invincible, point taken. Her being a WHITE one doesn't matter.
Suspects being coerced or "pre-hung" before trial, but them being minorities has nothing to do with this.
Oprah and other people who never jogged, and/or who never lived in New York, don't know that there are a LOT of people who jog in CP at night, and always have been. It's not like she was some rogue idiot. The Park is busy at night.
This is one situation where I think that she deserves to make a few bucks back. I don't see her manipulating or really TAKING ADVANTAGE, but fairly spreading awareness about rape...which I think is important.
Oprah the fat nappy headed ho has got a lot of nerve. Maybe if she ran at night in CP she wouldn't be so fat. Especially in the upper reaches where all her "N" people reside.
I like how all the commenters who say "I run at night" are dudes. I've run at night too and never felt nervous, but I'm a dude too, and its Prospect Park.
She was a former I-banker for Solomon Brothers, so I wouldn't be surprised if she was abit of a hard case.
Why are blacks so violent?
Surely, she has every right to run in Central Park. But we're talkin' about pre-Giuliani Central Park here! I don't think a soldier that got shot on Omaha Beach asks why he got shot. There are risks to running alone. Of course, what happened to her was wrong, but I think she is partly to blame. She took the risk. The harm was within the risk.
We all take measures to minimize getting killed. We wear our seatbelts. We drive slowly. But sometimes we get into auto accidents. It happens. And sometimes we don't have our seatbelts on. And we suffer the consequences.
What happened to her sucked. But wtf was she doing running in pre-Giuliani Central Park -- ALONE?
What happened after Giuliani? Did all the black punk ass pieces of shit leave the city?
Why do I get the feeling that it's usually the "Midwest transplants" that resent the city's black presence the most...?
To Snoopy -
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/12/nyregion/12census.html?ref=nyregion
...'the number of black residents declined in every borough...'
Hey, thanks for the link to that article! That is great news to hear that blacks are leaving NYC! Not having to deal with hippity hopping ghetto trash in the subway alone is worth it! Imagine how much better this city could become without those people?
Sorry, I should have made a distinction between dark skinned people and Afro Americans. There are way too many dark skinned individuals that suffer prejudice because too many Afro Americans made it tough for them.
Again I apologize.
i don't think opera meant that she deserved it. but i dunno, i don't jog in certain parts of chicago at night either. why? cause it's dangerous.
*shrug*
why is this mush for brains still news? Look at that face, she wanted to run in the park and lookee what happeneee. head smashee.
Yes, with time obviously not on her side, she might be wishing for a second going around...
It's preposterous to say that these girls are all asking to be raped. Some people have no choice but to run after dark and running through the park is a lot safer than dodging taxis and buses in the dark.
Are you telling me she couldn't run on a tread mill at a gym? She could easily afford a gym membership.
She doesn't deserved to be beaten and raped but she certainly was asking for it. Like swimming in a river known to have pirahnas because you believe it is your birth right to swim whereever and whenever you felt like it.
Fuck Oprah
will anyone please agree with me that Oprah is the antichrist?
ms meili, you are a brave and beautiful person. if everybody showed your courage, the world would be wonderful.
although you suffered terribly, your courage has already made the world a better place, beginning by making central park much safer for all decent people.
i'm appalled by the viciousness and stupidity of several of the comments in this thread, and hope you don't take them seriously, since they're obviously just the bitter vomit of warped losers.
as for oprah, whom i've never watched, she apparently comes from some hellish community where she was raped as a child, poisoning her spirit and creating underlying animosity toward anyone like you who trusted the world to be decent.
thank you always for your trust in human decency, which encourages every good person to try to match it, and when we do, how wonderful life will be.
what courage? mush brain courage?
I think its horrible what she went though.
I also think its horrible that the cops pretty much rounded up anyone they could at the time (who were all black) and sent them upstate. Ahh yes, I remember, as a kid, in my middle class household hearing the adults talk about how the darkies destroyed their great city and how this poor woman would get justice now that the (white) cops have found the niggers who did it.
I remember that sentiment being echoed quite a few times.
That was a real morale boost, being a kid of mixed heritage, looking back..
Anyhooo..all the blacks are being chased out of the city because they're too poor to live here. I suppose that's a good thing according to other posters here.
She doesn't deserved to be beaten and raped but she certainly was asking for it. Like swimming in a river known to have pirahnas because you believe it is your birth right to swim whereever and whenever you felt like it.
What's the difference between "deserving it" and "asking for it"? Either way you're blaming her. All I'm saying is that running in the park after sunset today is not like swimming in a river known to have piranhas. It's much safer. The more people in the park, the better. If you're nervous, be social and run with a group or partner: http://www.nyrr.org/resources/partners/index.asp
How could she sleep at night?
FUNNY nobody seems to care that in $uadi Arabia
rape victims are jailed & whipped!!!!!!!!!!
they dont go on Oprah!
Amazing that this "victim" goes on Oprah!
Oprah is GARBAGE!
she is a diusgusting fat human being!
How Oprah ruined the marathon
America's competitive spirit has been wrecked by feel-good amateurs like Oprah whose only goal is to stagger across the finish line.
http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2007/11/03/marathon/index.html
**********
An appeal court in Saudi Arabia has doubled the number of lashes and added a jail sentence as punishment for a woman who was gang-raped.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7096814.stm
But the victim was also punished for violating Saudi Arabia's laws on segregation that forbid unrelated men and women from associating with each other. She was initially sentenced to 90 lashes for being in the car of a strange man.
On appeal, the Arab News reported that the punishment was not reduced but increased to 200 lashes and a six-month prison sentence.
does Oprah still have credibility anymore?
Hey O, p.s. you hire dudes to work around teenage girls in pleated skirts you're asking for trouble.
O & CPJ, the unedited version:
CPJ: Jogging was my outlet
Oprah: But girlfriend, what was you doing joggin in the park like that? don't you know da men folk go crazy seein a young woman, runnin all around, lettin her milk sacks flippity-floppity everywheres? esp when dey aint no sun out. dats when the freaks come out, girl. don't you listen to no wycleff? that's another thing wrong with you jogging-in-the-city-park-at-night--fools. ya'll wouldn't know sweet music if hit you upside the head wit a candy stick.
you haven't seen Oprah's favorite things episodes,
she can make or break you.
and, people will kiss her black ass to get into her empire. even white people.
today's Oprah episode appealed to the younger crowd.
they too, drank the oprah grape kool aid.
show was about hannah montanna and some american girl doll.