Accountability

On Thursday in class we were having a conversation about people, specifically celebrities, being accountable for their actions. Someone mentioned the rape case against Kobe Bryant many years ago. One of the young men said "Man, you think Kobe would rape someone?! As many women Kobe can get, he don't gotta rape nobody. She wanted it."

What was interesting in the conversation was that they didn't bring up the fact that if he didn't have her in the room in the first place it wouldn't have happened. The only way he was "set up" for that is if someone else placed his penis inside of her. No one else did. He did. No matter how many other lovers she had actually didn't matter to the case.

Included in this conversation is the truth of what no means. Even if a woman is agreeable to one type of sex, she does get to disagree with another type, as in anal. And guess what, her "no" has to be respected. Yep, these are the hard conversations we have to have with our youth. But they are not hard when we are not skiddish. The young people are ready with their words. Ready. They need willing adults to have these conversations with. These talks that may keep them out of jail, even save their lives.