Discussion List for campus-based and allied personnel working to end gender-based violence on campus.

["Irene Weiser" <>]

PLEASE FORWARD

 

The following essay is from acclaimed filmmaker and activist Aishah Shahidah
Simmons in support of the National Day of Truthtelling. Please read her
powerful words, forward this email to everyone you know, and JOIN US IN
DURHAM ON APRIL 28 AS WE TELL THE TRUTH AND BEGIN TO CREATE A WORLD WITHOUT
SEXUAL VIOLENCE!!!

For more information, visit our website at
http://truthtelling.communityserver.com
<http://truthtelling.communityserver.com/>  and do the following things.

1) Register to let us know that you are coming

2) Get your organization to endorse the event

3) Contribute funds to help us reach our goals for the day. Your
contribution is tax-deductible.

Thank you

Day of Truthtelling Organizing Committee

But Some of Us Are Brave-In Support of the April 28, 2007 National Day of
Truthtelling in Durham, North Carolina
By Aishah Shahidah Simmons

While there are many folks who are rejoicing that Imus was fired, I fear
that we may have won a battle but could have *temporarily* lost this
relentless racist/sexist war against Black women in the United States. While
most eyes were focused on the outcome of Imus' fate, the accused members of
the Duke Lacrosse team were exonerated. Very, very tragically, many of the
same Black (overwhelmingly male) voices who were demanding the firing of
Imus, haven't said a peep about the recent dropping of charges against the
accused members of the Duke Lacrosse team. Additionally, in the ongoing
mainstream media discussions about Imus calling the predominantly Black
women's basketball team at Rutgers University "nappy headed-ho's," there
hasn't been any mainstream media correlation/analysis/commentary/discussion
about the fact that:

1. Some of the (White) Duke Lacrosse team members called the two (Black)
women "niggers" and "bitches";
2. One of the (White) Duke Lacrosse members threatened to rape them with a
broomstick;
3. Another (White) Duke Lacrosse team member spoke of hiring strippers in an
e-mail sent the same night that threatened to kill "the bitches" and cut off
their skin while he ejaculated in his "Duke-issued spandex;" and
4. Another (White) Duke Lacrosse team member shouted to the (Black woman)
victim as she left the team's big house, "Hey bitch, thank your grandpa for
my nice cotton shirt."

Instead there were subtle and not-so subtle racist implications that hip-hop
is the cause of Imus' racist/sexist comments; and that the Black woman
stripper/whore (not daughter, not mother, not college student, not sex
worker) lied on/set up the innocent White Duke Lacrosse team members (who
hired her and her colleague to perform for them).

So, in this very direct way the corporate owned media message to the
American public is that Black people, especially Black women, are the
perpetrators of violence against White men (and I would argue Black men
too).

Based on the overwhelming deafening silence from mainstream Black
(predominantly male) 'leaders' and organizations about the documented
racist/sexist comments made by the White Duke Lacrosse team members, it's
clear to me that no one will speak for us- Black women-but ourselves. It
doesn't matter if you're a rape survivor, a child sexual abuse survivor, a
domestic violence survivor, a stripper, a prostitute, a lesbian, a bisexual
woman, a heterosexual woman, a single mother (especially with several
children from different fathers), on welfare, a high school drop out,
college educated, working in corporate America, working at a minimum wage
job with no health insurance, or working in the film/music/television
entertainment industry. Yes, I placed what some people would view as very
different/distinct categories of Black women in the same category because I
firmly believe that if any of the aforementioned Black women are at the
wrong place at the wrong time (which could be at any time), we, Black women,
will be left to heal our very public wounds alone.

I was the young Black woman who in 1989, at 19 years old six weeks shy of my
20th birthday, said "Yes", while on a study abroad program. I was the Black
woman who broke the rules of the university where I attended by agreeing to
sneak out, after hours, to meet the man who would become my rapist. I was
the Black woman who after breaking the university enforced rules started to
have second thoughts but was afraid to articulate them and was afraid to
turn around because my friends were covering for me. I was the Black woman
who paid for the hotel room where I was raped. I was the Black woman who
said to my soon-to-become rapist, "I don't want to do this. Please stop." I
didn't "violently" fight back. I didn't scream or yell to the top of my
lungs" because I was afraid. I didn't want to make a "scene." I blamed
myself for saying, "Yes" for breaking the rules for paying for the hotel
room.

I am one of countless women, regardless of race/ethnicity/national origin,
age, sexual orientation, class, religion who experientially learned that the
(often unchallenged) punishment for women who use poor judgment with men is
rape and other forms of sexual violence. And the reward for those same men
who perpetrate the sexual violence that we (victim/survivors) experience is
the opportunity to perpetrate again and in turn say "WOMEN LIE."

"For all who ARE survivors of sexual violence. For all who choose to BELIEVE
survivors of sexual violence. For all who KNOW WE CAN end rape culture."
come to Durham, North Carolina on Saturday, April 28, 2007. Join the
numerous individuals and organizations from across the United States who
will come to Durham, North Carolina on Saturday, April 28, 2007 to
participate in "Creating A World Without Sexual Violence - A National Day of
Truthtelling."

This mobilizing event is organized by a coalition of organizations including
North Carolina Coalition Against Sexual Assault, Ubuntu, Men Against Rape
Culture, SpiritHouse, Raleigh Fight Imperialism Stand Together, Southerners
on New Ground, Independent Voices, Black Workers for Justice, and Freedom
Road Socialist Organization/OSCL).

For more information on the National Day of Truthtelling, visit:
http://truthtelling.communityserver.com/
http://iambecauseweare.wordpress.com/
www.myspace.com/ubuntunc

Aishah Shahidah Simmons is a Black feminist lesbian documentary filmmaker,
writer, and activist based in Philadelphia. An incest and rape survivor, she
spent eleven years, seven of which were full time to produce/write/direct
NO! (The Rape Documentary), a feature length documentary which looks at the
universal reality of rape and other forms of sexual violence through the
first-person testimonies, activism, scholarship, cultural work, and
spirituality of African-Americans.
www.NOtheRapeDocumentary.org <http://www.notherapedocumentary.org/> 
www.myspace.com/afrolez
*******************************************
Following is a non-inclusive list of books by Black feminists who address
Hip-Hop and Feminism 
(There are many more books than those that are listed):

Pimps Up, Ho's Down: Hip-Hop's Hold On Young Black Women by T. Denean
Sharpley-Whiting
http://www.amazon.com/Pimps-Up-Hos-Down-Young/dp/0814740146/ref=sr_1_1/104-7
242712-0915962?ie=UTF8
<http://www.amazon.com/Pimps-Up-Hos-Down-Young/dp/0814740146/ref=sr_1_1/104-
7242712-0915962?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1176220047&sr=1-1>
&s=books&qid=1176220047&sr=1-1 

Prophets in the Hood: Politics and Poetics in Hip-Hop by Imani Perry
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0822334461/ref=sib_dp_pop_toc/104-7242712-09
15962?ie=UTF8
<http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0822334461/ref=sib_dp_pop_toc/104-7242712-0
915962?ie=UTF8&p=S009#reader-link> &p=S009#reader-link 

When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: A Hip-Hop Feminist Breaks It Down by
Joan Morgan
http://www.amazon.com/When-Chickenheads-Come-Home-Roost/dp/068486861X

>From Black Power to Hip Hop: Racism, Nationalism, and Feminism by Patricia
Hill Collins
http://www.amazon.com/Black-Power-Hip-Hop-Nationalism/dp/1592130925/ref=pd_b
bs_sr_3/104-7242712-0915962?ie=UTF8
<http://www.amazon.com/Black-Power-Hip-Hop-Nationalism/dp/1592130925/ref=pd_
bbs_sr_3/104-7242712-0915962?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1176220157&sr=1-3>
&s=books&qid=1176220157&sr=1-3 

Gender Talk: The Struggle For Women's Equality in African American
Communities by Johnnetta Betsch Cole and Beverly Guy-Sheftall
http://www.amazon.com/Gender-Talk-Struggle-Equality-Communities/dp/034545413
8/ref
<http://www.amazon.com/Gender-Talk-Struggle-Equality-Communities/dp/03454541
38/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-7242712-0915962?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1176219973&sr=1-1
> 

 

 

Irene Weiser
Stop Family Violence
331 W. 57th St #518
New York, NY 10019

607-539-6856
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www.StopFamilyViolence.org
the people's voice for family peace
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