A Yale University student suspended for groping numerous students is suing the school for gender discrimination. According to the Yale Daily News the student, referred to as John Doe, was found responsible for both groping and “creating a hostile environment.” Numerous witnesses saw his behavior—and he even had such a bad reputation for sexual misconduct while drunk he was banned from parties by a school club.
Doe’s attorney, Andrew Miltenberg, has a history of defending college men disciplined for committing sexual violence—and suing the schools who dare do so. And he had no problem framing his client as a hero and comparing him to a major black civil rights icon: Rosa Parks. The Yale Daily News reports:
“We think there’s an argument to [be] made that Yale’s evidentiary guidelines are unclear and to the extent that they needed to be made clearer — which is something we think Betsy DeVos’ withdrawal of the Dear Colleague Letter guidance has tried to achieve,” Miltenberg said. “People like John Doe in this case I think are somewhat of a hero. This is a Rosa Parks moment for certain people and not everybody that feels oppressed has the ability to litigate those cases.”
This statement is a slap in the face of Rosa Parks and everything her work for true justice stands for. A series of lawsuits against colleges for punishing sexual assailants is nothing like her or her work.
Rosa Parks is best known for her role in the Montgomery bus boycott, but before that, she was a radical, anti-rape activist. Black women were being raped with impunity by white men—but Parks worked to get them justice. There’s a difference between a college kid “feeling oppressed” because he can’t attend classes at an Ivy league university for two semesters and the literal racial and gender oppression of being kidnapped and sexually violated and having that trauma ignored, covered up, or even committed by the people in charge.
When Rosa Parks refused to get up on the bus, it was the result of the systemic abuses and dehumanization that black people—and especially black women—endured taking public transportation. Black women were systemically being mistreated by bus drivers, white passengers, and the “justice” system, which was full of racist white men. Their everyday lives were full of injustice as their basic dignity was constantly undermined.
John Doe—or any of the punished assailants Miltenberg represents—is no Rosa Parks. Their school deemed that they committed harmful acts. The punishment is a result of their actions and the punishment only applies to that specific school. John Doe chose Yale and he harmed other people. His expensive crusade to get an Ivy League degree 2 semesters earlier is not part of any civil rights crusade.
Miltenberg has made a career out of defending sexual assailants and using it to erode the civil right to education for the students who are victimized by sexual violence. Miltenberg and his clients aren’t the Rosa Parks people in this situation. They’re the white bus drivers fighting for a right to keep abusing black women every day. They’re the police officers who arrest the black women who dare say they demand dignity from white people and then sexually assaults them in jail.
They’re not pioneers. They represent the status quo where the people who have the scales already tipped in their favor wield their power to keep the odds in their favor. Shame on Miltenberg for conjuring her name and legacy as he defends the men Parks would be working against.