Florida Atlantic University's first student-run news source.

UNIVERSITY PRESS

Florida Atlantic University's first student-run news source.

UNIVERSITY PRESS

Florida Atlantic University's first student-run news source.

UNIVERSITY PRESS

Sex crosses racial boundaries

Former Student Government Treasurer Chris Ayala is charged with having sex with a 13-year-old girl — and she was black.

The reactions to Ayala’s charges have run the gamut from shock to denial. But as I talked with other students about this story and shared the only detail about the young girl, I was surprised to see the change in reactions when people heard her race.

While many people pride themselves on being color-blind, this incident made it blatantly obvious to me that race changes the way people see things. In this instance, learning the 13-year-old’s race changed the way most people I talked to feel about Ayala and the severity of the punishment they think he should receive.
“As an African-American man, the fact that she is black just hits me that much harder,” says Joe Adams, a senior music major. “Her being black brings up a racial context and leaves a bad taste in my mouth.”

Adams, who served as SG treasurer before Ayala, says he was shocked by the charges but even more surprised when I told him the girl was black. His jaw literally dropped when I shared this info with him.
“I was pissed off that [Ayala] would take advantage of a black girl that way,” Adams told me later that night. “I assumed she was just some suburban white girl, and the fact that she is black just totally blows whatever image I had of this minor.”

Yet others — who asked to remain anonymous — reacted differently about the biracial relationship and told me the fact that the young girl was black meant she must have been “more slutty.” To illustrate their claims, they uttered comments like, “She must have been asking for it,” and “I’m sure she came onto him.”

After reading the explicit details of the police report (visit owlwatch.wordpress.com/police-reports to read the three-page report), a white
male student told me he thought “she’s obviously had sex before.”

While I personally pondered all of these responses after I heard them, the fact that the young girl is black doesn’t change how I see the charges or the fact that she is still 13 years old.

Leave a Comment
More to Discover

Comments (0)

Do you have something to say? Submit your comments below
All UNIVERSITY PRESS Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *