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What was surely expected to be the most important year of Nate Parker's career, has now become his most damning. At this point, everyone knows the screenwriter, director, and star of The Birth Of A Nation was charged and acquitted in 1999 of raping a classmate while attending Penn State.
As the film's October 7 release date approaches, Parker continues to make the usual press rounds in support of the project. His most recent appearance was on the Steve Harvey Show, where he blamed his rape scandal on the media. He said the "salacious" headlines were used against him, and that the journalists writing them had no interest in the "tragedy" or those involved. He poses a question, somehow confusing reporters with therapists: "Are we in the business of headlines or are we in the business of healing?"
Harvey also brought up the suicide of the victim (her sister recently wrote an op-ed calling out those supporting Parker), saying that the media unfairly tied Parker to an event that happened 13 years ago. The "event" he is referring to is her actual suicide. Which was, as her brother has said, directly linked the physical, emotional, and sexual attack on her in 1999.
Pouting and pointing fingers is an easy cop-out, and a total 180 from his original stance on the media's coverage. Ahead, let's compare one of his earlier interviews to his Steve Harvey appearance.
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