Getting long overdue justice and then having it all be invalidated is a bitter pill to swallow. But it might be worthwhile to scour for the silver lining in this instance:
It will be tempting to frame the overturning of Mr Weinstein’s conviction as a backlash against #MeToo. In a spiky dissent, one of the appeal judges, Madeline Singas, wrote: “Men who serially sexually exploit their power over women—especially the most vulnerable groups in society—will reap the benefit of today’s decision.” However, the various cases against Mr Weinstein have not been for nothing. Improvements to the justice system in several states, such as the abolition of non-disclosure agreements that stopped victims from speaking out, and the lengthening of statutes of limitations, can be directly attributed to the #MeToo/Weinstein legacy. Elizabeth Geddes, a former federal prosecutor who convicted R Kelly, a singer, of racketeering and sex crimes in New York in 2021-22, says one challenge that Mr Weinstein’s original verdict helped to overcome was “how to convince potential victims that this time law enforcement is going to take you seriously”.
The other day one former tech exec posted about good times at Hannover Messe. He was fired from his prior place of employment for being a racist, sexist, openly misogynistic and generally non-performing and overpaid exec. The company was sued, the man was let go and for a minute there was sense of vindication for those who he had wronged. He lay low for a year and emerged at the other end with a bigger and better job than before. It mattered nothing the circumstances that led to him parting ways with his prior employer. Even more notably his spectacular lack of performance at that job did not carry any penalty either - he had predictably failed up. Such are the miracles of privilege. My former colleague D is a sales guy and can be a bit obnoxious sometimes but he is known to say it like he sees is.
Last time we chatted he dropped this piece of wisdom on me "If you are white male in America you have won the biggest lottery of privilege. If you still can't be rich you are just a loser". A lot of people might take very strong exception with such bellicose statement but D is a white male, got off to a sputtering start in life, pulled himself up by his bootstraps and is doing very well for himself now, close to retirement age. Somewhere between the story of Weinstein, the guy strutting around at Hannover Messe like he is God's gift to humanity and D lies the truth about what privilege is all about. D is at the lowest end of the spectrum but his relative success emboldens him to call the rest of his ilk pathetic whiners and losers. Maybe that is the mentality that breeds bad behavior - people want to do better than be losers if blessed with the highest form of privilege so they make every effort - and we have outcomes like Weinstein.
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