*In a story posted Monday on The Daily Wire, writer John Nolte points out a racial double standard between the 17-year-old rape allegations that have befallen Nate Parker, and the 2010 sexual harassment lawsuits against actor Casey Affleck that don’t seem to have affected his reputation in the least.
In 1999, Parker was accused of raping a fellow college student at Penn State. He was acquitted at a trial, and has since led a life free of any scandal, noted Nolte. Still, the allegations alone took Parker from being a probable 2016 Oscar contender for writing, directing and starring in “The Birth of a Nation,” to a Hollywood pariah.
Affleck, also receiving Oscar buzz for his current film “Manchester By the Sea,” seems to have escaped such judgment despite “a number of very disturbing allegations from Affleck’s recent past.”
Nolte writes: “A few outlets have covered the [Affleck] story, but this is a lit match compared to the five-alarm fire used to burn down Parker.”
The [two] women who accused Affleck of sexual harassment worked for him on the critically derided Joaquin Phoenix mockumentary I’m Still Here in 2010. … Producer Amanda White and cinematographer Magdalena Gorka sued Affleck for $2 million and $2.25 million, respectively, alleging that Affleck verbally and physically harassed them throughout filming. At the time, Affleck was married to Summer Phoenix, Joaquin’s sister. …
White claimed that Affleck constantly discussed his “sexual exploits” during filming, and that at one point, he directed another crew member to show her his penis, despite her objections. White also alleged that Affleck once attempted to get her to stay in a hotel room with him, and when she said no, he “grabbed her in a hostile manner in an effort to intimidate her into complying.” Gorka described similar behavior in her complaint, including a disturbing incident in which Affleck allegedly crawled into bed with her while she was sleeping. … According to her complaint, Gorka woke up that night to find Affleck “lying in bed next to her.” He had entered the room while she was sleeping, she said, and when she woke up, “he had his arm around her, was caressing her back, his face was within inches of hers and his breath reeked of alcohol.” When she asked him to leave the room, he got angry. Gorka called her treatment on set “the most traumatizing of her career.”
After denying the allegations, Affleck settled both suits in mediation.
Brass tacks:
Black man acquitted of a single incident involving one woman 17 years ago (when he was 19) … has his entire career destroyed.
White man who settled two sexual harassment suits from two separate accusers that involve alleged behavior on a film set from just six years ago (when he was 35) … is well on his way to Oscar glory.
Read Nolte’s entire piece at The Daily Wire (here).
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