AP has a story about how FOX edited part of Kobe Bryant’s acceptance speech at the Teen Choice Awards that might tangentially relate to the sexual assault charge against him.
That’s not the part that concerns me though. Am I the only one who thinks that it’s highly disturbing that Kobe Bryant is such a role model to teenagers that they voted him Favourite Male Athlete?
The voting may have taken place before the sexual assault charges.
And being charged with an offense is substantially different than being convicted of an offense. This is especially true in sexual assault cases, where the truth is usually difficult to ascertain one way or the other.
We have to weait to see the evidence, especially when a Black man is charged with raping a white woman in the United States. While the coverage seems for the moment seeks to lack any race-baiting, images of Kobe Bryant juxtaposed with the complainant’s young white friends on CNN brings up the spectre oif the “black beast rapist” that has so long haunted the political unconscious of U.S. society.
Obviously he’s innocent until proven guilty, but, you know, not everything is a race issue. Although I bet Bryant’s legal team is discussing how to play up that angle as much as possible. Hey, if it worked for O.J. …