Know My Name: A Memoir

Miller transitions into a discussion of larger issues related to sexual assault. She explores the leaked Access Hollywood tape that featured Donald Trump, future President of the United States, admitting to sexual assault. Miller includes excerpts from the tape to connect Trump’s statements to the real and convicted actions of her own rapist. Miller condemns the impossible burden placed on women to protect themselves from assault while also being told, “You are overreacting, overly offended, hysterical, rude, relax!!!” (278).

Miller also discusses the murder of “Philando Castile, a young black man, who was driving home from the grocery store when a police officer pulled him over for a broken taillight and shot him seven times” (279). The police officer was not found guilty. Miller focuses on the dehumanization of Philando. She relates to the ways in which she and Philando are stripped of their humanity, judged by preconceived notions, and villainized despite being the victims in their respective cases.

Miller points out the hypocrisy of attacks against her character, as there was evidence of Turner’s excessive partying and experimentation with drugs. She also acknowledges the privilege of Turner as a wealthy white man whom Miller argues “was shielded inside projections of what people like him grow up to become, or are supposed to become” (281-82).

In contrast, Miller examines the limitations that hinder survivors from being able to seek justice. She explains the heavy burden of proof that significantly limits the number of cases prosecutors take up. Although she agrees that “serious crimes need to be handled by serious systems,” Miller details the actions that universities can take “to create safe environments, and inflict limited punishment by removing the perpetrator from campus” (283).

Miller unveils additional details from her case. Despite his claims of never getting in trouble with the law, Turner was apprehended on Stanford campus three months before the assault for underage drinking. He was caught after running from the police. Additionally, two young women reported Turner’s aggressive behavior six months after Miller’s assault. Their encounter with Turner occurred “at the KA fraternity the weekend before [Miller] was assaulted” (284). Miller shares that there is evidence that, on the night of her assault, Turner might have “photographed [her] breasts and sent [the image] out” (284). Neither those around Turner nor the media shared any of these details.

A year and a half after the sentencing, Miller receives the news that Turner has filed an appeal. Miller comments on how victims who report their assaults are unable to escape “the agonizing, protracted judicial process, where [they] will be made to question, and then forget, who [they] [are]” (287). Miller explains the sacrifices victims make “to fight outdated structures that were designed to keep us down” (288).

Miller ends Chapter 12 with a look into the power of the survivors who united in the Bill Cosby trial and the Me Too movement to offer relief to each other and claim “a chance to set the story down, to see what it felt like to walk around, breathe, shake your arms out a little, without it” (290). Miller disagrees that the movement is a witch hunt, arguing, “[E]very woman who spoke out did so because she hit a point where she could no longer live another day in the life she tried to build. So she turned, slowly, back around to face it” (290). To Miller, these survivors embody strength and hope.