(TRIGGER WARNING)
The simple fact: sexual-violence perpetrators and their victims are usually of the same race. So, since I’m talking about Black people in this case, then what I’m saying is those Black people who commit sexual violence usually create victims who are Black, too.
There. I said it.
And statistics back this:
—According to a 2000 report, in 93% of sexual assaults, the rapist and the victim are of the same race. (Source)
—According to 2005 US Department of Justice, out of approximately 36,600 Black sexual-violence victims reporting this crime, 100% reported that their perpetrators was Black. (Source)
I know that I’m not the first—or only—one to make this plain: The Combahee River Collective was founded partly due to Black women fighting sexual violence within some Black communities. Ntozake Shange and Alice Walker—among a few Black female writers who wrote about intraracial rape–caught just about all nine circles of hell for “making Black men look bad” partly because they dared to name that reality in For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf and The Color Purple, respectively. Aishah Shahidah Simmons’ No!: The Rape Documentary—through poetry, testimony, and oral history—does an incredible job on examining the realities of Black men raping Black women.
That’s what no one is saying outright about what Too $hort’s said. That’s what hurts about his advice, and that’s what hurts about Very Smart Brothas’ fauxpology. Though Black communities may be going through identity shifts of what “being down for the race” means, there’s still a clinging to the socio-political idea that Black folks are each others’ keepers, each others’ “fam,” each others’ “brothas” and “sistas,” as a buttress in this racist society. So, when there’s an online recommendation from a celebrity seen as an “old enough to know better” and there’s a lack of responsibility for victim-blaming rhetoric under the guise of “rape prevention,” it’s a two-generation, cross-platform exercise of rape culture remixed with Black male privilege that Black women have been traumatized with for several generations.
And we need to say that loud and clear. Again.
Andrea (AJ) Plaid (that’s me!) on Too $hort, Very Smart Brothas, and why some Black folks still don’t quite talk about intraracial sexual violence—and why that dialogue is so vital—on the R today. (via racialicious)
This reminds me of how some black ‘feminists’ on Tumblr got mad when a black blogger post a quote from a black writer about Jay-z’s hypocrisy and misogyny and how I lost about 30 followers at once for making a post on the creator of a horrendous anti-black women blog.
The reality is that many black feminists would refrain from denouncing black male privilege or even side with them black misogynists in the name of racial unity just like many white feminists welcomed Hugo Schwyzer with open arms.
(via dreams-from-my-father)
Personally, I think it’s difficult to acknowledge things like this sometimes (and when I first heard about statistics like this I responded defensively like somebody was talking straight to me)
… because of how ingrained the idea of “racial solidarity” (even when it means supporting black patriarchy/ the exploitation of black women) has been throughout my life.
This is literally my only weakness to fully supporting black feminism. BUT I am trying to get better.
Step #1: reblogging things like this.
(via daniellemertina)
This is the reason why so much violence and sexism is in our community. Sexism is a HUGE part in why this shit gets covered up. Add in the fact that we’re too damn scared to actually attempt to solve our problems because we don’t want to look a certain way to whiteness, and we got a whole lotta shit that goes unchecked.
(via sourcedumal)Wil Wheaton (via tutubean)
That all of us ‘liberals’ are not peace loving
And that some of us ‘nig-nogs’ don’t give 2 shits about playing into a violent, angry stereotype.
When I need to kick some ass, I will tear that shit up. Come at me with some neo-Nazi, ‘curbstomp’, flick-comb bullshit.
That is your dumbass bringing a knife to a gunfight, bitch.
I mean, really. Cranky ass I.
what is the appeal behind
being severely oppressed
I just wanna know
like who wakes up one day and just says ‘GOSH I WANT TO FEEL EXTREMELY DISPLACED BY SOCIETY BECAUSE OF MY CULTURE.’
-Me, after having my own personal frustrations come to a head while browsing Look At The Fucking Gadje (which you should check out).
But, seriously, gosh.
Harriet Tubman (via mixedbyziggy)
but Ziggs, I was told, by ppl on Twitter and a few students at the middle school that Martin Luther King freed the slaves
(via unleashedafter25yrs)
he also created the cotton gin, traffic signal, peanut butter, was the president of south africa, he was all the tuskeegee airmen an never lost a plane when he flew them at the same time.
(via barrack-opendatbrama)
Oh NO. Jesus. Happy Black History Month, y’all.
My (now-not-so-)best friend to me as we were discussing whether Rihanna or Taylor Swift was more attractive
That awkward moment you want to punch a person you love in the face and never see them again. One of those times. Apparently, I was being too sensitive and not seeing that he wasn’t being serious. Not that it would have made a difference but there was definitely NO laughter anywhere near that statement. I dunno, being told by your best friend that you are fucking ugly is pretty hard to swallow, bro. I didn’t understand I was supposed to take that.
(via iamanelfchild)
Slap him in the GENITALIA.
ew is that a feeling
I feel like Comic Sans
Like someone is using that font
and typing “HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA” over my face
and then using papyrus to write “silly bitch”
emotions
UUUUUUUGH It’s STILL happening. Christ help me.
Me (via greenbrowngirl)
JESUS
and drinking hot cocoa and being a crybaby bitchass. This is me. Am I seriously doing this? BITCH PULL IT TOGETHER.
