Ray Rice was a player for the Baltimore Ravens until a video surfaced of him and his wife in a fight that culminated in him hitting her so hard he knocked her ?unconscious.
Now, Janay Rice, the wife in question, has spoken out, demanding privacy and a little bit of slack. While I question some of her reasoning, frankly, I don’t find it to be a bad thing.
This was not the first time Ray Rice was in the hot seat for domestic violence. He was suspended from two games when the video first surfaced, depicting him dragging Janay Rice across a floor before hitting her.
Ray Rice’s actions aside, Janay Rice has been lashing back. She said her husband’s indefinite suspension from the NFL was cruel and that her family needed privacy.
There has been some speculation as to the NFL’s own reaction to the ?scandal.
The NFL did change their domestic violence policies when the video initially surfaced. However, they did not suspend Rice indefinitely until when TMZ got a hold of the footage, and the video went viral.
I can’t fault Janay Rice for defending him, and while it is clear that she has been abused, I want to call on media outlets and general public opinion when I say that her relationship with her husband is not what we should be focusing on.
Abusive situations are delicate and tempestuous. Laws are faulty at best.
To point out what seems obvious is not the best course of action simply because for abuser and abused, the problem does not immediately present itself.
More than that, overt speculation and rumor-mongering could irreparably damage Janay Rice and/or anyone else involved in her private marital ?problems.
Janay Rice is not doing anything that is not expected. And there are patterns of behavior we will probably see from her that don’t make any sense to us.
We need to take the focus off of her so that she can move forward and so that we can take a serious look at domestic violence policies wherever they are needed.
Whatever the Rices’ marriage ultimately becomes, the fact that it has forced the NFL to take a look at the domestic violence policies in its system is not a bad ?outcome.
Granted, it seems dodgy that NFL officials only changed their policies and suspended a player after there was a public outcry for it.
You would think helping another human being would be obvious. Regardless, a public institution revising domestic violence policies will hopefully inspire others to do the same.
That is what we need to be focusing on right now, not their marriage or “saving” Janay Rice.
Its not our place. It is her ?family’s and her decision.
But we can make sure that abusers are punished, public figures remain honorable and we work to ?protect the next victim.
ewenning@indiana.edu
