Lack of Empathy for the ACTUAL Victim *Sickens* Me

Trisha Meili wasn't 'merely' *RAPED* she was tied, beaten, left naked, suffered brain damage, and ended up in a coma for 12 days. And yet, we NEVER really hear about her suffering. It's all about the Central Park Five. And yet, according to the doctors who treated her, and the presence of additional DNA, it's likely that she was attacked by more than one individual, even though only one individual, Matias Reyes, was ever ultimately convicted.

In view of how particularly horrific Meili's assault was, why has she been practically written out of her own story, and treated almost as some sort of 'inconvenience' to the 'heroes' of the story (i.e. the Central Park Five)? Is what they suffered worse than her brutalisation? Because they're Black and she's 'white'?

Of course, the Trump angle doesn't help (everything Trump does is laced with controversy, and his calls for the Central Park Five to be executed would have been moronic and draconian *even if* they had been guilty, and even if it wasn't Trump we were talking about; but, like I say, because of who Trump is, everyone has to take a militantly binary position whenever he's involved, meaning that anyone who's inadvertently on the 'same side' as him, is demonised as an unfortunate consequence).

But I can't help thinking that the lack of sympathy for Meilis comes down to a few factors:

Firstly, the Central Park Five angle. That five Black and Latino teenagers were falsely accused of this horrific crime has, alas, UNFAIRLY overshadowed the horror of the crime itself. And I can't help thinking that Meilis has been stigmatised for her victimisation, as if she somehow asked to be attacked, and was personally responsible for blaming the Central Park Five (she wasn't).

And, secondly, Meilis is a white ETHNIC woman. NOT a Black woman and not a blonde, blue-eyed Aryan type. She neither evokes the progressive sympathy reserved for the former, nor possesses the Aryan/WASP privilege that non-ethnic white people have, particularly if they're celebrities (just look at the way society falls over itself when a blonde, blue-eyed white celebrity accuses a man of slapping her, or of a 'date-rape' type situation; NOT to minimise such offences but they DO NOT remotely compare to what Meilis went through whatso-fucking-ever 😠).

Ethnic white people, like myself, whether they be Portuguese, Italian, Greek, Slavic, and so on, are caught in the middle. Progressives don't give a shit about us, and we don't fully benefit from 'white privilege'. We're seen as 'spics' and 'dirty/swarthy ethnics' who 'don't belong'. And the media doesn't bend over backwards for us like it would with a blonde, blue-eyed peaches-and-cream Anglo or Irish-American princess (i.e. the Missing White Woman syndrome).

But, if you think I'm exaggerating about the lack of empathy Ms Meilis received, just check out this NYT comment section following an interview with 'oh-so-precious' Oprah Winfrey:

https://archive.nytimes.com/cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/15/central-park-rape-victim-and-oprah-at-odds/

"she can’t expect to privilege her voice just because it was a sexual assault but complain that she is being blamed as the victim. it was risky to go running in the park without a friend that late at night, in new york city with its reputation. she was mad at oprah because she though oprah was resentful that the alleged rapists were black. and i am still mad at donald trump and the police and all the white people who jumped to convict those boys. they are victims too. let her address that."

"In NYC, sorry… in any place late at night, you should not be walking, jogging, etc. alone. That’s just common sense, and for her to think she’s invincible to the any criminal is way beyond stupidity. So yes, blame her for not knowing better. And shame on the sick people who would do something like that in the first place. This isn’t Pleasantville."

"If she wants to go into detail about her tragic night, she should do what Oprah did… write a book. Two years passed since this interview and now she wants to say something? Grow up. Times must be hard for her now and she thinks this is the only way to get back in the spotlight. HA!"

These comments are aimed at the VICTIM of a horrific RAPE that left this woman in a fucking COMA.

Imagine if the falsely accused men had been white, and if the victim had been Black. Would we still consider victim-blaming, and arguing that the victim should write a book if she wants to be in the spotlight' as acceptable messages to leave on a NYT forum?

Fucking Hell! Would ANY OTHER victim of a crime *this* horrific be treated with such CONTEMPT? Or is it only people of Portuguese/white ethnic ancestry that we're allowed to treat like shit, even after such BRUTALISATION? 😠