Terry Crews: Black men are only seen as victims “when you’re dead”

May 10, 2018

Terry Crews, the former NFL player turned movie and television star, is one of the most prominent black men in entertainment.

But the Flint, Mich. native and star of The Expendables and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, has also become one of the more unexpected faces of the #MeToo movement. Crews publicly accused Hollywood executive Adam Venit of groping him at a party in 2016.

His story gave a face and a platform to many other male survivors and served to remind the public that men are can be victims of sexual assault.

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“When I walk into a room, guys are split down the middle with me and my story,” Crews, 49, told the Huffington Post of his experience since going public. “But I’m OK.”

Crews pressed charges against Venit last December, but the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office dropped the case due to the statute of limitations. Crews is still suing him in civil court.

Crew’s stature as a black man makes things difficult. He has had to combat the stigma of not simply being a man but being black, and he’s often questioned about why he didn’t do more when the incident occurred.

“Masculinity can be a cult,” Crews said at the Women in the World Summit in April. “And when I say ‘cult,’ it’s no different than David Koresh. It’s no different than Jim Jones.”

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“The big thing I’ve encountered is that people expect a guy like me to always be tough,” he added. “But, the thing is, as a black man, the only time you’re really recognized as being victimized is when you’re dead. Otherwise you don’t get hurt, you don’t get tired … it’s like people think you’re supposed to jump through the air and dunk from one place to the next.”

Crews published his book, Manhood: How to Be a Better Man — or Just Live with One,in 2014. Since then, he’s regularly called out sexism, supported sexual assault survivors and advocated for feminism.

Crews was also chosen as one of Time Magazine’s “Silence Breakers” for the magazine’s Person of the Year issue. He is also being honored alongside #MeToo founder Tarana Burke at the anti-sexual violence organization Safe Horizon’s Annual Champion Awards Gala next week.

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“Men are scared,” Crew said. “Men are very, very scared right now. My thing is to concede. We need men to concede.

“We need men to say, ‘You know what? We’re wrong, we goofed that up,’” he added. “I tell people I think it’s gonna be messy. This is not gonna be a neat, clean transition.”