Teh One Who Knocks
05-05-2017, 01:03 PM
By Ian Miles Cheong - Heat Street
http://i.imgur.com/zlH7ZO6h.jpg
Brown Survivors Speak, an anonymous anti-rape activist group at Brown University that publishes the names of men accused of rape has quietly disappeared after it was revealed that the group had published the name of at least one innocent man falsely accused of rape.
The group, which was also accused of targeting minority men, posted an apology admitting its mistake. But the group absolved themselves of any responsibility and blamed a “rape apologist” for submitting a false report. The group published the name of an innocent man, declaring him a rapist, without any supporting evidence.
Brown Survivors Speak was founded three years ago to name and shame male students accused of rape and sexual assault. The group has taken efforts to call on Brown administrators to take action against the supposed rape crisis on campus.
According to the Brown Daily Herald (via College Fix), the group was inspired by a “rape list” published at Brown in 1990, and encouraged women to write the names the men they accused of sexual violence in women’s bathroom stalls in the basement of the Rockefeller Library as a warning to other women. The group has since grown from scrawling names in bathrooms to a full-blown Google Form, linked to on its Facebook page run by “Marie Turner,” a pen name.
Activists at other colleges have since been inspired to create similar lists, including at Columbia University, which was covered by various media following the publication of fliers containing the names of students accused of rape.
Last month, Brown Survivors Speak put out a statement saying it was “made aware” that a man named as a rapist by the group on March 9 “could not have committed sexual violence on campus.” Refusing to take the blame, the anonymous group claims that his name was falsely submitted on the “sexual outing form” by a “rape apologist.”
Brown Survivors Speak then proposed a new method of verifying submission claims by asking survivors to provide a non-Brown email so they could do follow-ups with them to confirm details. This would “strongly discourage rape apologists from trying to discredit or falsely accuse people through the form.”
Curiously, the student whom Brown Survivors Speak says was falsely named as a rapist defends the group’s efforts. “Survivor support is my utmost priority,” said the student in an interview with the Herald.
Critics of the anonymous group, some of whom are on the list, told the student newspaper that the group tends to target ethnic minorities and people of low-income backgrounds who do not have the means to pursue defamation suits against it. One of the students named by the group says being placed on the list is a “moral stain” on his reputation, even if the claims against him are proven to have no substance.
Following this incident, the group’s Facebook page has since been deactivated. It’s unclear if it’ll be revived any time soon.
http://i.imgur.com/zlH7ZO6h.jpg
Brown Survivors Speak, an anonymous anti-rape activist group at Brown University that publishes the names of men accused of rape has quietly disappeared after it was revealed that the group had published the name of at least one innocent man falsely accused of rape.
The group, which was also accused of targeting minority men, posted an apology admitting its mistake. But the group absolved themselves of any responsibility and blamed a “rape apologist” for submitting a false report. The group published the name of an innocent man, declaring him a rapist, without any supporting evidence.
Brown Survivors Speak was founded three years ago to name and shame male students accused of rape and sexual assault. The group has taken efforts to call on Brown administrators to take action against the supposed rape crisis on campus.
According to the Brown Daily Herald (via College Fix), the group was inspired by a “rape list” published at Brown in 1990, and encouraged women to write the names the men they accused of sexual violence in women’s bathroom stalls in the basement of the Rockefeller Library as a warning to other women. The group has since grown from scrawling names in bathrooms to a full-blown Google Form, linked to on its Facebook page run by “Marie Turner,” a pen name.
Activists at other colleges have since been inspired to create similar lists, including at Columbia University, which was covered by various media following the publication of fliers containing the names of students accused of rape.
Last month, Brown Survivors Speak put out a statement saying it was “made aware” that a man named as a rapist by the group on March 9 “could not have committed sexual violence on campus.” Refusing to take the blame, the anonymous group claims that his name was falsely submitted on the “sexual outing form” by a “rape apologist.”
Brown Survivors Speak then proposed a new method of verifying submission claims by asking survivors to provide a non-Brown email so they could do follow-ups with them to confirm details. This would “strongly discourage rape apologists from trying to discredit or falsely accuse people through the form.”
Curiously, the student whom Brown Survivors Speak says was falsely named as a rapist defends the group’s efforts. “Survivor support is my utmost priority,” said the student in an interview with the Herald.
Critics of the anonymous group, some of whom are on the list, told the student newspaper that the group tends to target ethnic minorities and people of low-income backgrounds who do not have the means to pursue defamation suits against it. One of the students named by the group says being placed on the list is a “moral stain” on his reputation, even if the claims against him are proven to have no substance.
Following this incident, the group’s Facebook page has since been deactivated. It’s unclear if it’ll be revived any time soon.