The rape of Mike Tyson: Race, the press and symbolic types

“The rape of Mike Tyson”; offers two, quite different meanings. The 1992 trial and conviction resulting from Tyson's attack on Desiree Washington provided a site for the press to enact an even broader drama that violated, degraded and debased the boxer. This paper looks closely at press depictions of Tyson and argues that this larger drama of degradation shaped and was shaped by subtle racist stereotypes. The press coverage of Tyson then is used to consider the entrenchment of racist reporting in the news, the implication of the press in modern racism, and leads finally to a larger discussion of the symbolic types by which and with which the press portrays people of color.