Listen to Tarana Burke and her interlocutor Benise Beek. Consider the situation on which the blog is commenting. Absent the ideal process the blog wishes for, I see likely victimizers and unlikely.
- A single claim against someone is less plausible than multiple claims. Patterns of behavior count.
- Multiple claims by a victim against diverse victimizers (not necessarily claims of sexual violence) are less plausible than a single claim. Patterns of behavior count.
To say that there are no other plausible claims against Joe Bide is not saying that Joe Biden is a “good guy.”
To say that Tara Reade had made claims against many others is not the same as refusing to listen to her in her claim against Joe Biden. There has been enough time to examine Tara Reade’s history. Tara Reade has made many claims:
-
- Against her father. In her own words: “The first powerful man who abused me physically and emotionally was my father”
- Against her ex-husband: After telling her story, she received custody of her daughter, made her ex-husband a target of two missing person’s cases, and helped her get into the Seattle University School of Law. Her ex-husband continues with his business in the Dakotas.
- Against the YMCA of Monterey (CA) YWCA and, in particular, Office Manager Jaqueline McNeely and Executive Director Patricia McFadden. The claim by Reade and several several others was reverse racial discrimination by the African American women and discrimination against them on religious grounds.
- In Santa Cruz, a workplace complaint of harassment and physical violence against Krystal Rojas. This was a civil case and Reade (then known as Tara McCabe) represented herself.
- Against Edward Franklin Walker (stage name Frankie Knight) who was her partner in an internet show, This was an abuse complaint against a man who already had an assault complaint, but the name of the complainant has not been found.
Do we live in a culture of abuse? Or does Tara Reade have a pattern of making accusations?
Sometimes ordinary behavior gets distorted. My wife said she was glad, in my career, I had had no accusations. I agreed. A few days later I remembered. There was one. I had interviewed a young woman for a secretarial position. And did not hire her. Because she was one of a few finalists, I wrote her a note (or making spoke to her om the phone, I can’t recall) and told her I would not hire her. I said, among other things, I thought she was “able.” Her dad called, irate. I had commented on his daughter’s body, said she was able-bodied. What I had said or written was, somehow, transformed into something I had not said or written. That happens.
I accept Joe Biden’s denial. I do not ask him to unseal the records at the University of Delaware.