After seeing people alleging that Stiviano
abused #Donald Sterling’s trust and is cunning and manipulative to have leaked
that recording, I want to point out that while it is tempting to crucify this
woman, doing so only exposes our own misogyny, classism and compliance with
domestic abuse. How unfortunate that misogyny blinds us to the abuse this woman
suffered in the hands of this insecure, manipulative and controlling older
boyfriend. Manipulation and isolation from loved ones by a significant
other IS emotional abuse. Now I know you would argue that she could leave him
if she wanted but studies have shown that the power dynamics between partners
and their abusers are often pretty complex. Now add that to the fact that this
man is a billionaire who wields lots of power in the circles that they interact
in-that makes it even more complicated. You say you hate the set up and the
abuse of trust on her part? Well, how about the set up on his part and the
abuse of trust. He also set her up-. he bought her lots of material things then
subsequently thought that he had BOUGHT HER FREEDOM AND AUTONOMY and could not
only dictate her actions but also limit who she interacts with. I suspect that
he is an expert abuser because at the slightest hint of her non-compliance he
threatens and blackmails her with his leaving her. That is an abuse of trust he
is purposely choosing to hurt her, by insulting her very core of being and heritage-make
her feel that as a black woman she is inherently inadequate and has no value in
the society and can only be of value when she has a white God father bestowing
value upon her and continuing to affirm that value. That is an abuse of trust-a
partner who feels so inadequate in your eyes but instead of working on himself
chooses to break you down, lower your esteem so that you can stay with him
thinking you can never do better and he is all you deserve is an abuser. A
partner who tries to control you by making you feel inadequate without them is in
fact abusing your trust. What this comes
down to is the fact that this man is just plain insecure, manipulative and
abusive. I suspect that he did not want her to associate this those super star
athletes because he was perhaps worried that she would eventually leave him for
one of them and if this was his worry, he should have faced her like a man and discussed
that issue openly rather than trying to manipulate her. Through his own trust
issues his racism is exposed because he is so prejudice against Black people
that they essentially have no value, beyond the economical in his eyes. Essentially
he couldn’t fathom how his girlfriend would ever want to associate this “those”
people yet he is still threatened by them.
Stiviano exposed her emotionally
abusive older boyfriend. As a society, we cannot continue to urge abused women
to seek help and leave while holding some abusive men above reproach. No man
should ever afford to buy the right to abuse their partner. It doesn’t matter
how many cars, houses or diamonds they have bought for her. Whichever way we
choose to view this, either through the framework of a utilitarian philosophy
or in a Kantian way, his actions are still reprehensible. The bottom line is
this: is the emotional abuse of a partner wrong? YES. Surely we don’t even need
fancy moral philosophies to help us arrive at this conclusion.
Now this man was set to receive an NAACP life time
achievement award and has had very close ties to that organization. I would
argue that exposing a live recording of him was the only way that this woman
would have:
1. Proven that he
does indeed hold the racist views expressed in the recording
2. Is an abuser whom she can finally leave and live her
life.
Given our society’s tendency to question women who expose
their abusers, I would say that this woman is very brave.
Donald is not only racist but also an abusive partner.
Mahatma Gandhi once said
that “The measure of a
civilization is how it treats its weakest members.”
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/closeread/2014/04/donald-sterling-nba-clippers-owner-revealing-racism.html?utm_source=tny&utm_campaign=generalsocial&utm_medium=facebook&mbid=social_facebook