Dear Ella Baker,
They raped her not once not twice but seven times. They slapped her and forced her to her knees. She felt the knife pressed to her throat and she felt them turn her into a tool for their own pleasure.They didn't rape her because she was promiscuous but because she was a black women. They raped her to proved their white supremacy. They raped her like she wasn't a human but someone they own. Her name was Betty Jean Owens. Her experience was not just a special but it was one faced by many African-American women then and now. I know one of your most famous quotes was that in order for poor oppressed people to become a part of society in a meaningful way they must first think radically and change their current system but sometimes I wonder if that way of thinking is to late. I mean like today and before many African-American women started to speak out about this experience of being rape by the white men and even though it did make some progress it did not seem to do much because of deep the culture of dissemblance is within our society. Our silence before allowed for a whole world to ignore our struggles and seemed to silence every Black women in society in some form of way even when we attempt to speak out on these injustices. To me it just seems like there is no hope in a making a huge change for our gender and race unless this history is not only rediscover but talked about to the point where it no longer for African-American women to hide their rapes or sexuality today. I also do not know how I can make that change or the steps. I wish you around today to help with the taking of the steps but I also know that the foundation you have laid out so far for my generation is strong enough that with time we will figure out the right the method to make this change.
A conflicted student,
Tamara
I agree with your point that by black women originally being silent, we silenced our problems. Because we did not speak out about what was going on to us and seemingly accepted it and handled it, when it did come out, those women were seen as complaining or making things up. Because why was it not a problem for so many women before you? Presumable because they liked it, it was not a problem. Black women were seen to be promiscuous; black women could not be raped. For this reason, many cases of rape on black women are dismissed. And it is important to understand that the reason these white men rape these black women is not because these women are presumable "easy" and "want it"-they know what they are doing is rape. They rape us because they can. They rape us because rape against black women is not punishable for white men.
ReplyDeleteAnd on the other note, this problem has not gone away. In the reverse case, white women are still seen as naturally innocent. For this reason, when it comes out that a black man has raped a white women, he is immediately persecuted. Black women do speak up to now, but our cases are taken much less seriously because the mindset still exists that we are asking for it.
Overall, I do not think this is something that we can change ourselves because the idea is engrained so far down into people's mindsets, white and black, that it is almost a lost cause.