(ThyBlackMan.com) The sexual harassment allegations against Herman Cain continue to grow larger by the day with the most explosive news to date being released this morning. One of the women that has accused Cain wants to break her 12-year silence and come forward with her side of the story. Apparently, the confidentiality agreement she signed to not discuss such matters has been broken since Cain has been discussing the matter and not always in the best of light toward the accuser. Only time will tell if the woman will be able to come forward and respond to the attacks made by the Cain campaign in effort to defend the GOP front-runner with a shoddy memory.
As the allegations of what did and did not happen are made more clear and the case against Cain — at least the one in the media — deepens this story is seeming to me less like a slow news day story and more like the ultimate collision course of race and sex which often creates scandal.
Immediately after the Politico report was released, the Herman Cain camp released a statement saying the claims were unsubstantiated. Since then 
Herman Cain has backpedaled from that initial bold response to say, “Yes I do remember an incident. I was talking to the lady about my wife’s height and remarked that she came up to my chin.” Herman Cain also initially denied that the women were paid off and now is having new revelations that “Yes they were given hush money to go away and have a nice life.” Cain says these flip-flops and backpedals are not because he is actually flip-flopping and back-pedaling but because it’s been 12 years and so much has happened. At the end of it all, Cain does not blame his possibly mannish behavior of 12 years ago or the fact that the accusers may have been oversensitive. Instead Herman Cain blames the media for being on a witch hunt to derail his rising political star. Cain’s Super Pac has said we the members of the media are engaging in a “high-tech lynching” harkening back to the rhetoric used during Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s rocky confirmation following the sexual harassment allegations made by Anita Hill. Cain himself says he believes race is a factor he just can’t prove it.
Sexual harassment is a serious claim. Not only that, it along with rape, is one of those claims where the truth of what happened is rarely known, opinions are formed and the accusers or the accused are convicted before a trial can ever begin. The case against former IMF chief, Dominique Strauss-Khan, earlier this year proved how quickly people take sides when such allegations are made. The same goes for Herman Cain now and Clarence Thomas before him. The difference between Khan, Cain, and Thomas is that Khan is foreign and a diplomat so he can blame his behavior on an open and liberal upbringing when it comes to sex and claim immunity (which kind of worked) whereas Cain and Thomas are U.S. citizens and the very rare yet prominent Black conservative. Thomas and Cain have made their careers by saying race and racism is no longer an issue “I’m proof of that.” Cain especially, like Congressman Allen West earlier this year, has gone to great lengths to court or split the so-called “Black vote” by criticizing Blacks for still by and large voting Democrat. Cain’s calls of Black democrats as those who have yet to leave the plantation does not bode well for sympathy nor does it help him make his case that these accusations against him are racist. You can’t be post-racial and then blame racism for your new found problem Naw Bruh.
Furthermore, Black men caught up in sex scandals of any kind in this country has always been a hot and controversial topic since D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation. While we don’t know the race of Herman’s accusers whisperings among the Black blogosphere have made it know that if the women are white Herman Cain will not escape this scandal alive. If the women are Black this may prove to be a brief ripple in what is becoming a successful bid for the Presidency. Black men in this country have long been characterized as hyper-sexual and well-endowed. The term “mandingo” is a compliment and phallic imagery is a quickly drawn picture in any conversation whether there are sexual overtones or not. When race and sex have collided into scandals before we’ve seen mixed results. There was Tiger Woods who escaped unscathed except for the fact he was off his game for a year and some change. Then there is O.J. Simpson whom many believe got away with murder and that is the reason he is sitting in a Nevada prison convicted of stealing his own stuff back and oh yeah… kidnapping.
Tiger Woods and O.J. Simpson’s cases are both markedly different from Herman Cain. But the parallels that run through all three is that the Black man accused in the sex scandal is always on defense and never on offense as was seen with Dominique Strauss-Khan. Khan was allowed to be innocent until proven guilty whereas Herman Cain, Tiger Woods, and O.J. Simpson never received that common courtesy of the American justice system.
But no matter how much race plays or does not play a factor in the unfolding of these allegations against Herman Cain, what is certain is that he can still turn this scandal into a “teachable moment.” If he chooses to address these allegations openly and honestly — obviously after being briefed on what happened since he can’t remember — Herman Cain can give that speech or statement justifying his flip-flopping positions. He can give that speech or that statement that says America is post-racial on every issue except miscegenation (in the case the accuser is White). He can do more than point to his marriage of 43 years and say he had no reason to speak or act inappropriately with the women accusing him. He can do more than attack the left for sending him through the vetting process and instead offer a speech and or statement where blame is not placed but understanding disseminated.
No matter how much I or Mr. Herman Cain wish this was a non-story it is not going away. It is Herman Cain’s “Jeremiah Wright” moment and sooner rather than later he will have to make the case for himself that is not rude, insulting or disingenuous to Blacks, conservatives or liberals, or women.
Herman Cain’s position is a precarious one given our country’s history but that does not mean he can’t emerge from it relatively in tact.
At the end of the day I’d personally rather see more discussion of what he will or will not do for this country if elected President than dwell on what he may or may not have said or done to a couple co-workers more than a decade ago when the Presidency wasn’t on his mind, our economy not in the crapper, and many applauding our “first black President Bill Clinton” for being an ol’G pimping ugly hoes in the Oval.
Do you think race is a factor in Herman Cain’s unfolding scandal or is it just his flip-flopping on the subject?
Staff Writer; Nikesha Leeper
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