Blue Star Chronicles

Marcus Dixon was convicted of the statutory rape of Kristie Brown while they attended high school together. He spent some time in jail, but became a cause celeb and now has NFL dreams while Kristie was run out of town and accused of racism and ruining Marcus’ life.

Kristie Brown (Photo)

In the interest of full disclosure, I will state up front that I have personal knowledge of this case and peripherally know some of the people involved. I also know the community very well. Lindale, Georgia is a community that suffered economically as a result of NAFTA. The cotton mill in town shut down leaving the community without an economic base and turning it into a bedroom community for surrounding areas. To some extent, the people there have used an exceptional football team as a central element that maintains a sense of community.

That being said, the entire case is outrageous and angers me at a very deep level. I know that I’m a cynical person and I have known that the news media slants things in whatever way they choose to slant it. This case was the first time I saw the slanting up close knowing that the way the case was being presented on the national news was just flat out not true.

I am compelled to write about this today because I saw an article that reports that Marcus Dixon is finishing up his college education and is hoping to get picked in the NFL Draft on Saturday.

I will pass on repeating everything that’s been written about Marcus Dixon and the incident that resulted in his being put in prison on a ten year sentence. He only served part of that sentence. His supporters claim that his accuser had claimed she was raped because she was afraid of her racist father when in fact it was consensual sex. She HAD claimed she was afraid to tell her father, but never claimed it was anything other than rape.

The facts that supported her claim of rape that are rarely, if ever, reported in the news are the fact that she was said to have been hospitalized following the attack on her at school because she was so badly beaten and torn as a result of the attack. From that perspective it didn’t have the appearance of a consensual act.

Another factor that supported the rape charge was that Marcus Dixon was alleged to have had incidents of sexual misconduct in the past. He was never charged and the incidents were not reported in the news reportedly because Marcus was a star football player. Do you think that sounds ridiculous? It does unless you know the mentality at that school. Football is everything there and a star player is well protected by his teachers, coaches and the administration of the school.

Two alleged incidents got him suspended from school for a total of 10 days. In March of his sophomore year, Dixon exposed himself in a classroom, and a year later he allegedly touched a 14-year-old girl inappropriately after track practice. Neither situation was reported to the Floyd County police despite his suspension.

The previous incidents weren’t reported because of the protection of his mentors. All of those people, as well as the adoptive parents of Marcus, jumped to his defense as soon as his behavior went too far for them to keep it under wraps. He had to face trial.

The first thing his defenders did was declare that it was an issue of race. Kristie Brown is white and Marcus is black. Kristie Brown’s father had made some racial statements. Even more incriminating, it happened in Georiga. It was a piece of cake to paint the entire incident as racially motivated and an attempt to keep a black boy from doing well by a bunch of white racists in a Southern town. After all, you know how we keep our black people down (that’s sarcastic - so don’t get all huffy on me!).

Bryant Gumbel came down and took Marcus’ part. He stood in front of an old raggedy barn with a huge Confederate flag painted on the side of the barn to do his report. I have been in that area a lot and have NEVER seen that barn. I have no idea how or where he managed to find a barn painted as a Confederate flag, but the visual point he was making was right there. This is the South and WE KNOW HOW THOSE RACIST SOUTHERNERS ARE!!! They will do anything to keep this gifted black boy from making it big.

The problem with that point is that there are a lot of gifted black people in the South who do quite well for themselves - so why did the entire State of Georgia line up to stand in the way of this particular black kid? Hmmm …. Its a mystery. But apparently we all stood in line to stand in the way of Marcus Dixon making it in football and getting to go to Vanderbilt University. It was a vast White Southern Conspiracy against Marcus Dixon. Meanwhile, please take a look-see at how many people at Vanderbilt or any other university are black and southern before you tell me that Southerners go out of their way to keep black people from being able to go to college. The accusation against the community was ludicrous and insulting. No one has every apologized for making such reckless accusations against the community.

Oprah Winfrey and Marcus Dixon (Photo)

Oprah Winfrey took up the cause of Marcus Dixon. The claim was that his ‘real crime’ was being black and having sex. That plays well with the rest of the country that thinks the South is full of characters straight out of Deliverance. The rest of the country eats that stuff up … and worse, they believe it. Oprah told Kristie Brown that Marcus had told her he forgave her.

Oprah: He says he forgives you.

Kristie: Forgives me? How could he forgive me if I didn’t do anything?

Oprah: What would you want to say to him if he were sitting here right now?

Kristie: I would want to know why he would even want to think about raping anybody.

At the height of the publicity of this incident there were rumors in town that Jesse Jackson was coming to town to stage a rally and march to protest the conviction of Marcus Dixon. His basic assumption appeared to be that the whites in the town were racist and keeping the blacks down and the blacks in the town were just too kept down to stand up for themselves. The black community insisted that Jesse Jackson stay out of town. They made it clear they didn’t want him here. One thing I heard frequently was that people were insulted that people seemed to think that Southern blacks were so ignorant and weak they couldn’t speak for themselves.

Did it ever occur to anyone to question whether or not MARCUS was lying? Did it ever occur to anyone that this girl who was badly beaten might be telling the truth? Apparently not. Her family ended up having to leave town because of threats against them. All the while, Marcus’ defenders claimed he was the one being threatened. Oddly, even with him being ’scared for his life’, when he was released from prison and returned to town he was given a big party. He went on to college on a football scholarship and now may get the opportunity to go on to play for the National Football League.

Please, tell me … who suffered from this incident? Who was the victim and who was the perpetrator? Who has gain notoriety and money from it? Who had to leave town due to threats on their lives? Who has been consistent in their story and who has had a history of writing off bad sexual behavior to the ever popular, ‘boys will be boys’.

There is a reason that the people in town were not as outraged about this as people from other parts of the country. Its a close community and people know the people involved. People here knew that the justice system had worked and that it wasn’t about race.

This entire case is NOT about race. Its about football. Pepperell High School in Lindale, Georgia is all about football. The football players there can and do get away with bad behavior. The students who are NOT involved in football there, in one way or the other, do not have the privilege of students who are involved in the sport. I’ve seen it up close and personal and I know it to be true. When a football player there is injured and is of no use to them anymore he is thrown into the heap with the other students who are not of value.

On the other hand, a football player that has the ability to play the game on a level that might draw the attention of universities and even someday the NFL is immune from consequences regardless of his behavior.

I once had a football coach at Pepperell High School tell me not to worry about my son’s grades or studying. I was told he’d get all A’s …. regardless. After all, he was breaking records for the school at the time and they had big plans for him. I protested and said I had big plans for him too. I wanted him to build his mind as well as his body. The coach looked at me as though he was confused. He said, ‘He’s breaking records, he doesn’t need to study. Don’t worry. We’ll make sure he makes A’s. We’ll take care of him.’

I suspect they took care of Marcus Dixon too.