Dominique Sharpton
 

Latrell Peeks, 23, the boyfriend of Reverend Al Sharpton's daughter, Dominique Sharpton, 23, was charged yesterday in New York with punching her in the face and shoving her out of car.

He was released without bail after his arraignment on assault and harassment charges. He didn't enter a plea.

A story about a gang rape outside of a school dance that lasted for two hours as students watched stunned the nation. And of course Chris Brown and Rihanna brought the issue of dating violence among teens and young adults in to a media tailspin.

But let's not pretend that public domestic violence didn't exist pre-Chris Brown. I'm sure as the pyramids were being built there was some woman walking around with a frying pan of hot grits-just in case. When I was doing research on the state of Mississippi, I read about a law on the books in 1941 that said the only right a black man had was to be able to beat his wife without fear of retribution.

What's even more alarming is that in a time where dating violence is frowned upon and part of the public discourse, it happens-to teens, in public places, with public figures-seemingly without fear of retribution. Chris Brown isn't the poster boy for domestic violence, he's a symptom of a much larger problem-a society that still thrives and depends on the subjugation of women.

He's a symptom of boys not having mentors that will say, "A man that hits a girl is a punk," or girls not having fathers around to intimidate their daughter's partners on the FIRST date. Brown is symptomatic of a society and media that focuses on women "not having a man," instead of focusing on them having a life, a career and following their purpose.

What's worse is women are buying it like hot soup in a blizzard. My head was dizzy with how many comments I read and heard from girls and women defending Chris Brown as something that was "provoked" before AND after the evidence was revealed. I'm sorry, but is there ever a good reason to pummel a woman in the face, bite her, bang her head against a car window AND threaten to kill her?

According to statistics:
Females ages 16–24 are more vulnerable to intimate partner violence than any other age group, which is at a rate almost triple the national average.
U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Special Report: Intimate Partner Violence and Age of Victim, 1993-99 (Oct.2001, rev. 11/28/01).