November 28, 2007
Tawana Brawley, 20 Years Later
November marks the 20th anniversary of the start of the Tawana Brawley affair--an incident that inflamed racial relations in New York and across the country after a teenage girl alleged that she had been sexually assaulted and abused by police. The ensuing media circus thrust Rev. Al Sharpton into the limelight and established his bona fides as a community spokesman. It also tarnished the reputations of the people she accused of raping her and, later on, Brawley's own reputation after her truthfulness was called into question.
Brawley was found near an apartment where she once lived in the town of Wappingers Falls, NY, about 70 miles north of NYC. She was discovered partially nude, smeared with feces, and had racial epithets scrawled on her body. Brawley claimed that she had been abducted by a group of white men who raped her repeatedly and that at least one of them identified himself as a police officer. District Attorney Steven Pagones was eventually accused as one of her assailants. Police investigated the incident, but no charges were ever filed when conflicting statements and physical evidence seemed to contradict Brawley's account of her ordeal. (Brawley has since insisted that she is not a liar and was telling the truth.)
The Brawley affair became a flashpoint in an era of inflamed racial tension. The girl herself became a public figure, supported by celebrities like Bill Cosby and appearing in a video by the rap group Public Enemy. The accusation of sexual violence by white cops against a black woman further infuriated people already enraged by the 1983 death of Michael Stewart, a graffiti artist who died after being put in a chokehold by police in NYC. Both events were alluded to in Spike Lee's "Do The Right Thing," with a major character dying the same way as Stewart and one scene showing graffiti that reads "Tawana Told The Truth!"
And now, two decades later, Tawana Brawley is a graduate of Howard University and lives in rural Virginia. Her parents still maintain that she was gang-raped by a group of white men. They spoke to the Daily News about what they consider a serious miscarriage of justice when the accused crimes against her are described as a hoax. Sharpton has transformed himself into a major player on the national stage of the Democratic Party and continues to advocate on behalf of victims of racial injustice, with the Brawley incident sometimes haunting him. Pagones successfully sued Sharpton and others for defamation, winning a judgment of $345,000 (Sharpton's share was paid for by Johnnie Cochran, among others).
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The Tawana Brawley case established Rev. Sharpton's bona fides not as a "community spokesman," but a race-baiting fraud. That he is now a "major player" in the Democratic Party says more about the sorry state of our political system than it does about any miraculous "transformation" he has made. No, Tawana Brawley did not tell the truth; and it's sad that there are facets of the media that are taking this rubbish seriously.
God, I remember this. What a nightmare.
The worst things about this case were 1) how easy it was to believe at first, since I was living upstate at the time, 2) how much focus this took from the real issues at the time, like the Stewart issue, and 3) how much damage you can do when you tell a lie that touches everyone's fears, and tell it over and over and over again.
There are more than 500 articles related to Tawana Brawley in the NYTimes archives. I don't think it's overstating to say that the woman was the fulcrum of race relations at the end of the 80's. Only OJ Simpson displaced her as an embodiment of the legal system's hangups about race. And like a woman who falsely calls "rape!", I think she ultimately did a huge disservice to victims of legit police violence.
Plus, I grew up in that area. Sharpton, Mason, and Maddox did their best to portray it as a racist jerkwater hillbilly 'burg. Nothing could have been further from the truth, and residents still loathe the trio for that.
apologize, apologize, apologize
I am still not convinced.
"how much damage you can do when you tell a lie that touches everyone's fears"
Very true. "Guiliani Time" is another lie that lodged into the public consciousness, just because it seems so apt (and the truth of the incident was bad enough.)
First, Al Sharpton represents no one but the people who follow Al Sharpton, and that's not as many as you'd think. Don't lump all the Democrats in with him, he's a self serving ass, and its a shame..
Second, what a fucking tragedy that whole affair was. I was too young to really grasp it now, but my dad was still on the force and people had some strong words about it..I remember that clearly..
I was never convinced of the Tawana Brawley situation. Maybe it me but she never seemed to traumatized "if" it did happen to her. That incident happen during the hype of the racial war in New York and I think she did it for attention.
The Brawley circus was one of the darkest days for race relations in New York. It set back whatever small progress that had been made 50 years. Frankly, I think it created a permanent mistrust and suspicion on both sides of the color line that continues to grow. Fortunately, Mason and Maddox have been disbarred & cast into oblivion but it is too bad that Rev. Al is still on the scene. I do not know where Dave Hogarty gets his information from but Rev. Al has no “bona Fides” and does not have any creditable influence on the Democratic Party. He is and will always be a fat-pomaded self-serving media whore.
you've come a long way rev. al.
from sitting on the subway tracks as a protest in your medallions to being inside the beltway.
I'd hit that - sans excrement...
I was there during that disturbing and finally disgusting time. First, I BELIEVED Ms. Brawley. because it seemed (sad to say) like something that could happen, but is was PROVED (to my mind) that this poor, misguided and messed up girl told what she thought would be a small lie and everything snowballed from there.
It was awful.
I wish I still had that issue of National Lampoon
where gilbert gotfried had a tawana brawley kit spoof, it included a trash bag and corn.
i really want to believe her.
and at the same time, it seems like such a poorly thought out scheme that its almost unbelievable.
if you don't leave some evidence of semen and what not, you have to be a little beat up and malnourished. there was nothing proving that she had been taken away for 4 days and that evidence would not have been that difficult to create yourself.