Separate but Not Equal

by Karen D. Swim

Yesterday in Michigan, the Wayne County prosecutor, Kym Worthy filed charges against current mayor of Detroit, Kwame Kilpatrick and his former chief of staff, Christine Beatty. As I watched the prosecutor deliver the news via live press conference, I was struck by her steely eyed determination to keep the focus on the process of Law.

Her rousing delivery took a stand for the freedom of the press (hooray!), truth, accountability and the justice system. Kym Worthy never wavered from doing the right thing. Amidst public and I’m sure private pressure to make a decision, she and her staff plowed through thousands of documents and took 59 days to thoroughly investigate prior to deciding to move forward with charges.

All of this is of course troubling but the gender issues are equally troubling to me. Beatty, a childhood friend of the mayor resigned as Chief of Staff soon after her affair with the mayor (and the steamy text messages) went public. The mayor referred to her only once and not by name, but as “the former Chief of Staff.” Sound familiar?

Beatty was married at the time of her torrid affair with the mayor and like the mayor she has children. We have been repeatedly asked to have sympathy for his wife and children while no one has offered he same for Beatty’s family. The mayor’s attorneys argue that he should not resign until he is proven guilty in a court of law. Beatty apparently did not deserve the same treatment.

Beatty had an affair with her boss. Yet in an eerie parallel to the Monica Lewinsky case, she is vilified while he is free to continue his job. To date, Lewinsky has not been able to shake her infamy. Does the same fate await Beatty?

Interestingly enough if you are not a woman in power, your role in a scandal is viewed quite differently. The woman at the center of the Eliot Spitzer case, Ashley Dupree aka "Kristen" is gaining her fifteen minutes of fame. The aspiring singer has had her song , What We Want downloaded about 400,000 times for $0.98 each. She has also received offers to pose for Hustler and Penthouse. I suppose if you are a prostitute, a scandal helps rather than hurts your career?

However, being in a sex trade is not an advantage if you are the victim of foul play. Exotic dancer, Tamara Greene was gunned down in Detroit. Greene was at the center of a scandal with the Mayor of Detroit, and 5 years ago was shot to death. Police officers that tried to solve her murder were reassigned or ousted from the force. To date, her murder remains unsolved. Apparently, the flowing robes of justice did not apply to Miss Greene.

I do not blame these inequities on men. We all share in the responsibility to acknowledge the problem and do something about it. Women too are guilty of judging their own gender by a different standard. Isn’t it time to put an end to these double standards?

Image taken from wxyz.com, read full story here

Sexy Text Messages Sink Mayor’s Credibility

It’s been quite a week in Detroit, Michigan. A series of steamy text messages between Detroit Mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick and his Chief of Staff, Christine Beatty were made public. Both the Mayor and Beatty had vehemently denied an affair under oath, during a whistleblower trial last summer.

In the racy text messages Beatty and Kilpatrick had much to say, but since the story broke on Wednesday there has been an eerie silence. Considering that each can be indicted for perjury, one can assume they won’t be texting each other anytime soon.

In our technology driven society we don’t give much thought to what happens to the words we text, IM or post in cyberspace. This case is a chilling reminder that words can come back to haunt you.

When it comes to texting, email and cyber communications there is really no such thing as privacy. Before you press enter, consider how your words will be viewed and more importantly, how would you feel if they were plastered on the front page of a newspaper?

Job seekers are often surprised when I ask about their online identity management. Your Facebook or MySpace profile or comments in forums are discoverable by employers. It’s worthwhile to make sure that like the clothes you wear, your words are presenting the right image.

Should we simply never text or IM? Of course not. We should however practice self restraint. I’m sure that Mayor Kilpatrick and Christine Beatty now wish that they have saved those steamy love messages for in person conversations.