What the alleged sexual assault on Michael Rainey Jr. says

In addition to James initially downplaying what happened on camera, Power: Book IIalluded to the belief that men cannot be sexually harassed or taken advantage of in his own response to Rainey’s allegations. Jackson wrote on Instagram: “Wait a minute, sexual harassment from a male perspective that was an aggressive approach. LOL he’s fine. No charges will be filed.”

After the justified criticism he received for this post, Jackson published another post about the incident on the

platform. “I took it as a form of flattery. I’ve accepted this from female fans my whole career, but OK, guys, (you’re) right. Put her in jail! Whatever you like,” Jackson wrote.

James and Jackson’s answers are what happens when men buy into the lies of patriarchy, a sociological system designed to limit women’s freedoms but also traps men by creating expectations that men should not express their feelings or emotions. In this situation, men in patriarchy are rendered incapable of becoming victims of sexual assault because men are expected to be hypersexual beings who always desire sexual gratification, even if that desire remains unspoken. Through patriarchy, men are also taught not to ask for help, to suppress their emotions, and to avoid being vulnerable.

According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, this type of socialization disables men from being victims by ascribing femininity or weakness to any man who says he is a victim of sexual assault. The worst thing a man can be in patriarchy is femininity or weakness.

In 2020, Mychal Denzel Smith wrote a commentary for NBC News about the experience of an NFL player who was sexually harassed on a United Airlines flight. According to a report on the incident to Bleacher ReportSeveral men complained to flight attendants about a woman’s behavior during the flight. The woman refused to budge until she ripped off Smith’s face mask and grabbed his penis. Smith argued that black men should not be victims of sexual assault in this case. It seems to be the same with Rainey.

“Black men have a difficult time being viewed as victims, whether of police or sexual violence, because centuries of social programming have conditioned the world to see black men exclusively as perpetrators of violence,” Smith wrote. “In particular, the widespread stereotyping of black men as hypersexual, uniquely violent sexual deviants means that when black men themselves are sexually assaulted and recount their attacks, they are met with either disbelief or rejection. The disbelief faced by male victims of sexual violence often comes from other men, particularly black men, who have themselves accepted certain ideas about black men, sexuality, masculinity and violence.”

According to a 2021 study from the University of South Carolina, there is a disturbing lack of scientific evidence on the topic of sexual assault against black men.

According to study author Jordyn Livingston, “the conclusion is that black men are not socially perceived as victims due to negative associations with race and gender. As a result, they are denied access to the same safe spaces in which to express their victimhood, are not the focus of research on sexual assault, and do not have the same access to resources to process their trauma as other groups.”

So when Jackson denies that Rainey was attacked, he is actually expressing his agreement with

the perception that black men are never truly victims of sexual assault. Jackson missed the opportunity to publicly validate the star of his show’s brave move to come forward and spark a broader discussion about black male victims of sexual assault and the perception of those assaults. Instead, Jackson proved exactly why many male victims of sexual assault choose to suffer in silence: They know they will either not be believed or publicly supported by other men.

In my opinion, we as black men must correct the narrative about black male victims of sexual assault if we want issues like men’s mental health to be taken seriously. We have a responsibility to create spaces where men who are or have been victimized can be men and victims simultaneously. Men therefore have a moral obligation to take other men’s sexual assault seriously, and until we do that, we will need to continue to rehash public discussions about how men manipulate other men who are victims of sexual assault.

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