By now we have heard of the disgrace that is rapist Brock Turner and the incredulous sentence he was given, along with his father's letter saying the young Turner's life "will never be the one that he dreamed about and worked so hard to achieve. That is a steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action out of his 20 plus years of life.” His 6-month sentence at county jail instead of federal prison, and the maximum 14 years he could've received will most likely turn into 3-months with good behavior. The victim, who has decided to remain anonymous, wrote a heartfelt and letter to her rapist, in which she tells him "You don't know me, but you've been inside me, and that's why we're here today", and then going on to explain how the assault has severely impacted her and changed her everyday life.

We live in a gender biased world, where women are expected to be subordinate to men and not have a say in decision making aspect of a problem. We are a sexist society and there is no better place to observe this than in this trial. Judge Aaron Persky, in charge of Turner's case, decided to give him less time behind bars because he believed a longer sentence would have a "severe impact" on him. Dan Turner, his father, wrote a letter to the court stating the many ways in which his son's life has been deeply altered, such as "not eating his usual big ribeye steak or his dad's favorite snacks anymore". His mom, Carleen Turner, wrote another letter begging the judge to not send him to prison because he is "the most trust-worthy and honest person" she knows and won't be able to coach for his future children or teach Sunday school. Mind you, the kid knowingly lied in court about his partying and substance abuse past, but that's just completely irrelevant to the judge considering he knew about it yet completely ignored it. Oh did I also mention he had been previously arrested in 2014? Yeah, but don't worry Mrs. Turner, I still believe your son is the most honest person to ever exist. Three people have thought about his future and the outcome this tragedy would have on him, now and in the long haul, but not once did they mention the 23-year old victim. Not once did they talk about the potential danger he could be to other woman. Everyone is protecting him, but they all fail to acknowledge that just because he is a white male swimmer and is a former student of a prestigious university does not mean we should feel sympathy towards him. Not only that, but they, especially Judge Persky, are sending the foul message that social class, gender, and race take part in the decision of sentence in sexual assault cases.

For thousands and thousands of years, racism has been a worldwide on-going battle. Here, we see rape and race culture combined together to create a very frightening and worrying outcome. As much as we try to mask the truth, we all know that if Brock were Hispanic, Middle Eastern, or Black he wouldn't have been questioned but rather automatically given the highest sentence possible. A 19-year-old boy sexually assaults an unconscious intoxicated woman an it is a horrible event, but it is a youthful mistake that he will never do and should be pardoned because it will affect his future, but when a 17 year old black men is falsely accused of rape he is told by his lawyer to plead no contest because he wouldn't get a fair trial due to his size and race and forced to save 5 years in prison for a crime he never committed. Many people argue that white privilege is a myth and all Americans are hard-working people who go through uphill battles to get what they want, but this issue is prominent now more than ever. When this case started being everywhere, more than half of the mass media outlets portrayed a picture of Brock in his Stanford yearbook instead of his mugshot, along with naming him as an "ex-Stanford swimmer" instead of the rapist he truly is. Yes okay I get it, he was a good swimmer who went to Stanford and could be a nice little fun fact if he hadn't committed rape, but the fact that he's a former swimmer doesn't define him and it sure as hell doesn't take away the fact that he violated someone else's life and completely belittled them. Now, do we see this in black people? No. Not at all. Yet when a person of color commits a crime, they are automatically labeled as thugs and low-life's along with having their post-arrested picture posted everywhere. They don't think about that individual's potential like they did with Turner. Their potential doesn't even cross the court's mind because to them, black people have no potential. To them, black people are just criminals. To us, Brock Turner is a living and walking example of what white privilege in America is.