Heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson, 48, was a guest on a?Sirius radio show on Wednesday when he delivered a bombshell: he was sexually abused as a child when a man “snatched?him off the street.”
From ABC:
?I was a little kid, 7,? he said on The Opie Show. ?[It was] an old man, yeah. One time.??
Somehow, after the assault, he was able to escape the man and run away and he never saw the old man again.
He was talking about what he’s experienced as a famous adult.
“[People say] you’re great, you’re great, you’re great, but you know you’re a poverty-stricken guy living in a condemned building with your family, begging for money and food,? your family, and?they don’t see that. They don’t know about this.?I’m not great. These guys?bullied me and sexually abused me and stuff. If I told them that, they’d think ‘oh you fucking (unintelligible word that may be “queer”) this and that.”
He added:
“These people don’t know me.”
When asked if he ever told people, he said:
?It’s nobody’s business to know.? He added, ?That’s why a bunch of entertainers have egos, it buffers their flaws, their demons, which is a demon itself. But it buffers the one you are afraid of. Everybody else if afraid of your ego, but you’re afraid of the demon you’re afraid of.?
He pointed out that “your ego protects you from the demon you’re afraid of.”
The hosts of the show were taken aback and someone could be heard in the background mumbling “awkward” before hosts Opie Hughes and Jim Norton changed the topic to talk about depression and emotional trauma.
First of all, yes, it is awkward, but why did they say that? If a woman came on a radio show and shared this kind of revelation, would people in the room be saying “awkward”? This is a small part of the reason why men are reluctant to share.
They asked him if he “drastically changed after that day.” This is a well-intentioned but naive question by people who have never experienced abuse. Mike’s answer nailed it:
“I don’t know if I did or not.”
What people often fail to understand is that when you live in chaos, there is seldom one event that changes everything. It’s not like “OK things were totally normal before, then this happened and I changed.” It’s just another event in a really hard existence.
When asked if it’s something he always remembers, he said:
“No, I don’t always remember it. But…ummm…maybe I do, but I don’t.” He added “I’m not embarrassed or ashamed of anything from that perspective.”
Tyson said something else that we all know to be true:
“This is a dangerous neighborhood to travel by yourself.”
I had an epiphany many years ago?when?I was working in a lockup facility for adjudicated male youth. I was passionate about my work, but I never really understood what I was dealing with until I took an alternate route one day to avoid heavy Dallas traffic. I was driving through one of the poorest and most dangerous neighborhoods in Dallas and I was very low on gas. I thought “oh, man, I don’t wanna run out of gas here….” I looked around and could see small unattended children playing on the street corners and in a parking lot. It struck me that these streets are?where most of “my kids” grew up — on street corners, in un-fenced apartment yards, in sleazy convenient store parking lots…and?in some cases,?in less than optimal homes, behind closed doors. The streets are tough. The behaviors they exhibited daily were?the survival skills they learned in those streets.
Unless we grew up in that environment, how can we judge people who did? They have survival skills that most of us are blessed to never have to learn.
Many of my readers don’t like Mike Tyson because he’s a convicted rapist and they offer him no sympathy or empathy. They’d prefer I not write about him. Believe me, I get it. I really do. I just see him as a victim, too. Violence and abuse perpetuates violence and abuse.
Tyson’s spokesperson released a statement to ABC News:
?He is in a good place in his life with sobriety, family and career.?
Watch the video below.
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Tiffany Willis is a fifth-generation Texan and the founder and editor-in-chief of Liberal America. An unapologetic member of the Christian Left, she has spent most of her career actively working with ?the least of these? and disadvantaged and oppressed populations. She’s passionate about their struggles. To stay on top of topics she discusses,?like her?Facebook page,?follow her on Twitter, or?connect with her via LinkedIn. She also has?a?grossly neglected personal blog?and a?literary quotes blog that is a labor of love. Find her somewhere and join the discussion.
