MANSFIELD: Morgan Freeman and “Reckless Eyeballing”

Time was, in the American South, a black man could wind up on the end of a rope for looking too long at a white person — especially a white woman. Custom dictated that blacks were supposed to cast their eyes downward, never to look a white person directly in the eye. And if a white woman accused a black man of looking at her a bit too long, or with real or imagined lust in his eyes, some cracker would quickly yell “Get a rope!”

One of Morgan Freeman’s accusers allegedly said that he looked at her in a way that made her feel “uncomfortable.” I’m not saying this incident didn’t happen, nor am I defending Freeman, who has publically apologized for his boorish behavior. For all means and purposes his decades-long career is over, and so be it.

In these sexually charged times, what Freeman and other luminaries such as Garrison Keillor admittedly did is no longer acceptable behavior, and that’s a good thing. But neither of them engaged in the type of behavior that Harvey Weinstein recently got indicted for, or that Bill Cosby was convicted of. They never raped or touched a woman in an inappropriate manner, nor were they accused of such actions.

So it’s a matter of degrees, a gradation of guilt if you will.

Men are pigs. I know, because I am one — a man I mean, not necessarily a pig. But I’m positive that some woman somewhere in my distant past would disagree. But “putting the mash” on a woman, strong-arming a female for sex, really never has been my thing, and I really have a problem understanding that sort of behavior. It’s disgusting.

But I pray that the pendulum doesn’t swing so far in the direction of sexual correctness that any man can be accused of merely looking at a woman the “wrong” way and get figuratively strung up for nothing more than “reckless eyeballing.”

From CoolCleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author at http://NeighborhoodSolutionsInc.

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2 Responses to “MANSFIELD: Morgan Freeman and “Reckless Eyeballing””

  1. Afi Scruggs

    You’re wrong about this one, Mansfield. Freeman’s offenses weren’t limited to reckless eyeballing – which can be quite disturbing (Ask Me How I Know). He made quite offensive remarks to the reporter when she interviewed him on a junket. That’s more than reckless eyeballing. And an offender doesn’t have to rise to the level of Cosby or Weinstein to be reproved.
    I’m disappointed, also, that you imply the Freeman is being lynched. He isn’t. He’s being justifiably punished.

  2. Afi Scruggs

    Shame on you, Mansfield! Freeman is not being lynched and shouldn’t imply such. He’s being punished for years of comments and unwanted touching. In fact, his comment toward the reporter – and Warner’s refusal to do anything about it – are what launched her investigation. A man shouldn’t have to reach the horrible levels of Cosby and Weinstein before boundaries are drawn.

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