Because Microsoft Outlook destroyed the header information from all my e-mails when I used its handy "Import and Export" feature, I cannot give you the exact date that the e-mail below was sent to NOW (The National Organization for Women). I can say for sure that it was sent to the national office of NOW, and it was sent approximately a month and a half after I sent the initial e-mail to my local chapter of NOW, which is displayed below, in the e-mail, along with its header information.
Time is very important here, as the situation described in the my letter to the Boston office is an ongoing thing that can be stopped. If for whatever reason, NOW is not interested in dealing with this matter, I would appreciate it if you could write me back and tell me so.
-----Original Message-----
From: Edward Phillips [mailto:Undisclosed]
Sent: Wednesday, March 13, 2002 1:33 AM
To: 'bostonnow@hotmail.com'
Subject: Disturbing digital video from bangbus.com
A week ago I called your office twice regarding this matter. My phone calls were not returned.
I called because I was disturbed by a digital video shown to me, which is sold on the internet by a pornographic web site called bangbus.com. I am not a lawyer, but I believe a number of offenses were committed against the woman in this digital video, including rape, theft, and unauthorized distribution of video footage taken of her. There was money offered in exchange for sexual services (which later appears to have been stolen from her), but it does not appear as if the women had an option to decline having sex with these men. It appears to me as if she was threatened into having sex.
The persons responsible for this video distribute it on an internet service where they provide a digital video each week of a women they pick up in Miami and have sex with in a van.
Again, I am not a lawyer, but I implore you to act on this as soon as possible. If in fact these individuals are committing criminal acts, it may be possible to prevent other young women in Miami from becoming their future victims. If there is nothing you can do to help, can you suggest another agency which might be able to?
Ed Phillips
Undisclosed e-mail
NOW never responded to either one of my messages to them. My phone calls were never returned.
Before I say anything more, I'd like to make it clear that I am not on an anti-porn crusade. I fervently believe in the 1st Amendment. I am not against porn, I am against women being raped, kidnapped, and stolen from.
At the time I sent NOW this e-mail, a major focus of their website was the upcoming Tyson—Lewis fight. NOW was trying to derail this fight from being fought in Washington D.C., as they didn't like the symbolism of having Tyson—a man that was violent towards women, fight in our great capital.
I am kicking myself for not saving the racist horseshit they were spewing, so I could quote from it, but what could you do? The point is that NOW was conveniently overlooking the fact that, as evidenced by Mike Tyson's criminal record, Tyson is not any more violent towards women than he is to men. Tyson is just violent.
Tyson is uneducated, inarticulate, and black. And because of this, Tyson made a very good scapegoat for NOW. Papa Bush won the 1988 election by scaring the shit out of the American public with Willie Horton. Racists have been exploiting the stereotype of the "violent young black male" to scare the shit out of whites since reconstruction.
I mean, why should NOW expend all that time and energy taking concrete measures to protect women from being victims of predators like the ones I pointed out in my e-mail to them, when they could more easily "symbolically" advance the cause of women through racist persuasion tactics? NOW was in fact successful in their black bashing, just as the KKK had been for a 100 years: Tyson did not end up fighting in D.C.
A lot of NOWists are going to get bent out of shape by my having called NOW "cunts." I am willing to gamble that this is far more offensive to them then being compared to the KKK. All the NOWists really believe in is PC, symbols — and let's come clean here — equality for "professional" women. Poor women in Miami falling victim to rapists and kidnappers don't really fall into this category I guess. Perhaps it's not even a money issue. Perhaps it's an issue of how dark your skin color is.
The Bang Bus rides on. And nobody gives a fuck.