While the decidedly progressive notion of uncritically believing all women continues to be pilloried by endless evidence, it remains very much in vogue among the Left. The most recent spurious allegations against Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh demonstrate this to a fatiguing degree. Due process has been thrown out of the proverbial window when it comes to accusations of sexual misconduct toward men with little hope of change in the foreseeable future, particularly in the increasingly progressive court of public opinion.
What these zealots fail to recognize in their uncritical witch-hunts is just how hard we, as Americans, fought to eradicate such false accusations. For reference, the most telling example in our recent history is that of Emmett Till and Carolyn Bryant.
In 1955, Emmett Till was a mere 14-year-old boy when 21-year-old Carolyn Bryant accused him of sexually assaulting her. A kangaroo court ensued. Till was murdered by a small mob, his body mutilated and dumped in the Tallahatchie River.
Historian Timothy Tyson states that in a 2007 interview Carolyn Bryant admitted to fabricating her accusations against Emmett Till. While historians can debate the details, what simply cannot be denied is that a young teenage boy was denied due process and brutally killed over an accusation.
While public figures often steal the headlines, countless men continue to face outright ruin over false claims of sexual misconduct as well. In 2010, Paul Joseph, an IT consultant from the UK, was accused of rape by his then-girlfriend. Though she was punished with three years in prison for the false allegation, it still destroyed Joseph’s life in the process.
Brian Banks was once a top football prospect out of high school on his way to attend USC. Instead, a false rape claim forced him to serve six years in prison. He was finally exonerated in 2012, but his dreams of playing pro ball were long dashed upon the rocks.
A Canadian teenage boy was falsely accused of sexual assault simply because he was disliked by a group of teenage girls. He was forced out of his job, had to be homeschooled for the remainder of high school, and suffered extensive psychological damage as a result.
Clarence Moses-EL was imprisoned for 28 years because his accuser dreamt he raped her. Though awarded a settlement, no amount of money can give back nearly three decades of his life lost behind bars.
The tragic story of Emmett Till needs to haunt the hashtag of #believewomen. The cruel, regressive irony of the murdered young boy amid the shrill, uncritical demand of progressives results in a suffocating kind of disbelief. Due process, the hallmark of American justice, remains under constant attack as progressives recklessly wield their hashtags with ineptitude and a complete disregard for actual principles. In doing so, they resurrect old ghosts from our past we once thought banished to the halls of history.
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