News coverage over the past few weeks has put domestic violence and child abuse front and center in American consciousness. After the release of a video of Ray Rice, former running back for the Baltimore Ravens, beating his wife, every day a new NFL player is discovered to be abusive at home. The press is getting tons of business, and awareness of domestic violence is seeing a boom. While every case of domestic violence is destructive on a personal level, the media's daily barrage of new cases of the problem has forced thousands of people to realize how pervasive this kind of domestic violence is in our society. The issue is that it shouldn't take a high profile athlete committing violence at home to get the issue the focus it deserves. Aren't we admitting our violent nature by only paying attention to these acts when they are somehow involved with the most popular sport in the United States, in which every play involves physical punishment?
The public seems to be compartmentalizing the issue, using the NFL, as an organization, as a scapegoat for America's problem. Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the UN, said in 2006, "At least one out of every three women around the world has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime with the abuser usually someone known to her." Even NFL player Brandon Marshall said "There are a lot of alarming things. [But] it's not an epidemic in NFL. It's an epidemic in our world." Are we really helping people in the US by burning our Ray Rice jerseys? The department of justice showed in a study of 16,000 Americans that one in five women you see in the US have been abused in their life time. Why are we blaming the NFL when we should be blaming the aspects of out culture that promote violence and teach people like Ray Rice and Adrienne Peterson to be so violent? Instead of attacking the National Football League maybe we should fund education programs against domestic violence in schools. Our goal shouldn't be a blame game, it should be to kill the epidemic that is domestic and familial violence in the United States.
Henry I agree with you that the correlation between the NFL and domestic abuse cases does not imply causation; not all NFL players commit domestic abuse crimes. Domestic abuse is very common in america and the only way it gets any attention is through high profile cases like the Ray Rice case or the Adrian Peterson case. Just because the only domestic abuse cases you hear about involve NFL players doesn't mean that only/all NFL players physically abuse their family.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very complicated and serious topic. I agree with both Henry and David- the NFL should not be blamed, though in a twisted way, it is a good way to bring the issue of abuse to the front. However, what we are doing right now is not enough and will not bring abuse to an end. Children need to be taught at a young age never to abuse another person and what to do if they feel they are being abused.
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