“I’M A Democrat & a Feminist. And I Support Betsy DeVos’s Title IX Reforms.”
There is an uncomfortable truth in the current system. No one wants to talk about it…Betsy DeVos’s proposed regulations overhauling how colleges handle sexual assault, are far from perfect, but there is a big reason to support them. As a lawyer, I have seen the troubling racial dynamics at play under the current Title IX system and the lack of due process for the accused. Ms. DeVos’s proposals take important steps to fix these problems.
Consider this scenario: A young black man enrolls at a state university in California on an athletic scholarship. He’s the first person in his family to go to college. His teammate’s white ex-girlfriend matches with him on Tinder, comes to his apartment, has sex with him and, they both agree, returns three days later to have consensual sex. Weeks later, the young woman reconciled with her boyfriend and then claimed the Tinder match raped her during the first sexual encounter. The Tinder Match adamantly denies this. Her boyfriend, who is also black, says she is lying. There is no hearing, no chance for the accused to ask her questions. But the Title IX investigator concluded that he committed sexual assault…This happened in early 2018 to a client in the pro bono clinic I direct with my law students. We represent low-income students of color in California who face expulsion based on allegations of sexual assault… We have long over-sexualized, over-criminalized and disproportionately punished black men. It should come as no surprise that, in a setting in which protections for the accused are greatly diminished, this shameful legacy persists…“I’ve assisted multiple men of color, a Dreamer, a homeless man and two trans students,” Harvard Law Professor Janet Halley told me. “How can the left care about these people when the frame is mass incarceration, immigration or trans-positivity and actively reject fairness protections for them under Title IX?” We can fix this. I know my allies on the left will criticize my position, but we cannot allow our political divisions to blind us to the fact that we are taking away students’ ability to get an education without a semblance of due process. What kind of lesson is that?
nytimes.com By Lara Bazelon
