Mel Tucker keeps missing his own words

I have no idea if Mel Tucker thought things were consensual – or if he even asked. I don’t know if Brenda Tracy had a motive. But what I and you know is this Mel Tucker admitted he did what he did – “Sexual comments” about Tracy “masturbating” during an “intimate late-night conversation” that lasted 36 minutes. It’s hard to play the victim when you’re literally caught with your pants down.

With the news that Michigan State University has announced that it intends to fire Tucker for cause – their head football coach, who signed a 10-year extension worth $95 million in 2021 – because the school knew about it Allegations since DecemberTucker is now playing offense and claims: “other motives play a role.”

“So we understand each other. I do not believe MSU plans to fire me because I admitted to having a completely consensual, private relationship with another adult who gave a lecture at MSU at my behest over two years ago held.” Tucker said.

“MSU has known since at least March 2023 of the information it allegedly relied on to terminate my contract,” Tucker wrote in his statement. “But only after Ms. Tracy and possibly others released the confidential investigative report to the press did MSU suddenly decide that the same information warranted termination.”

“MSU sent out its notice of intent to terminate just a few days after my email [Michigan State athletic director] Alan Haller is applying for medical leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act due to a serious health condition. I can only conclude that MSU does not care about my rights, the truth, or its future liability for monitoring the private lives of its employees.”

Regardless of the legalities that may come into play when it comes to how the State of Michigan has handled this entire situation, the rights that Tucker may have will prevail or possibly not – and whether they have been violated – or the allegations about who and why Tracy’s name was revealed to the publicWe know how this will most likely end. Tucker is about to lose the entire remainder of his contract because he had everything to lose and nothing to gain.

But let’s get to what it’s really about.

On the surface, this case is about a man and a woman and what they did or didn’t happen, and on whose side you believe in a he-said-she-said tug-of-war. But at its core it’s about race, because this is about a black man and a white woman. And in America, one has historically been portrayed as an animalistic savage lacking discretion and intellect, and the other has always been viewed as a pure, flawless, and credible victim/witness – most of the time.

It’s a very delicate situation. For example, Carolyn Bryant Donham died earlier this year at the age of 88. The woman whose Lies played a large role in the brutal murder of Emmitt Till in 1955 is a glaring example of how incredulous many black people are at a white woman’s accusations against a black man.

“Carolyn Bryant’s death marks the closing of a painful chapter for the Emmett Till family and black people in America,” wrote Malik Shabazz of Black Lawyers for Justice about her death — as he said her legacy “will be one of dishonesty and dishonesty .’Injustice.’ “The tragedy of Bryant’s death was that she was never held accountable for her role in the death of young Emmett Till, the martyr of the civil rights movement.”

“Sixty-eight years ago there was the unspeakable murder of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black boy from Chicago. “It comforted America to see this as a story about monsters, one of them,” wrote Timothy Tyson, who claims Donham told him “That part isn’t true” about the claim that Till had her by the hand and waist packed before he told her. He had been with “white women” before. “But the truth is that the unspeakable thing was the American social order that did nothing about Emmett Till or thousands of others like him.”

And then there is the other side, for example when both are the case Black and white people didn’t believe Antia Hill – a black woman.

“I had important information about an individual who has been selected for a life term on our nation’s highest court.” said the woman who testified that then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas sexually harassed her when he was chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 1991. She testified before a committee of 14 white men led by Joe Biden and was criticized on television. “Not only was it a professional duty as a lawyer, but I believed it was my ethical responsibility to represent myself as well and effectively as possible – and I did.”

“Hearing from them and just realizing that I wasn’t alone in this kind of scrutiny and actual hostility was validating.” Hill told NPR 2021 about the similar stories she had heard from others at the time.

To downplay or ignore the racial dynamics at play here means that you have chosen to view the entire scenario from an unrealistic perspective. There’s a reason some black people – and black men – are on Tucker’s side, and it has nothing to do with misogyny. And since the #MeToo movement was a long-overdue reckoning that exposed the extent of sexual harassment and assault that women have endured for centuries, there are people who believe Tracy’s accusations because they want it to be heard Women listens to or is involved in shoes.

But despite everything that is at play here. All of us – black, white, male, female, transgender or non-binary – can agree on one thing. This entire situation could have been avoided if Mel Tucker hadn’t picked up the phone that night and kept the zipper on his pants zipped up.