Thread for my white #feminist friends (of all genders)
Content: Sexual violence, racism
There is a racial divide on social media regarding #SurvivingRKelly
Content: Sexual violence, racism
There is a racial divide on social media regarding #SurvivingRKelly
Most black folks I know have posted about the docuseries in the last few days (thankfully black people in my networks are expressing support of the victims of sexual abuse & coercion though their posts suggest to me that is not the case with their entire friends network)
In contrast, nearly all white folks I know are not even acknowledging the docuseries, the #RKelly conversation, nothing. This divide/contrast reminds me that white people are not required to know what’s happening to and among black folks.
Yet black folks always know what’s happening with white people—it’s essential for our survival. So to every white #feminist I know who posted, raged and bemoaned the events surrounded Dr. Blasey Ford’s testimony and the #Kavanaugh appointment:
Where is your outrage for the many black girls & women who have been victims of R. Kelly for years? If you don’t know what I’m talking about, ask yourself why. Why are you not hearing about these black women’s stories which we’ve been talking about for years (see #MuteRKelly)?
Why do we not have national rallies and speakouts for black women & girl survivors? Why is our pain less visible, less believed, less publicized, less cared about? And how are you complicit in this?
Here’s what I want white allies to do:
1. Go read about #SurvivingKelly or watch the docuseries if you have access (via @lifetimetv link below)
2: Stop listening to his music: hit skip on @pandoramusic, change the radio, delete him off your @Spotify.
mylifetime.com/shows/survivin…
1. Go read about #SurvivingKelly or watch the docuseries if you have access (via @lifetimetv link below)
2: Stop listening to his music: hit skip on @pandoramusic, change the radio, delete him off your @Spotify.
mylifetime.com/shows/survivin…
3. Talk to people in your networks about the docuseries and R. Kelly’s well-documented, long-standing & continuing abuse of black girls & young women.
4. Increase your exposure to black activists & intellectuals, especially black feminists on social media so next time something like this emerges, you’ll be part of the convo from the start. I recommend: @ProfessorCrunk @rgay @divafeminist @RaquelWillis_ @dreamhampton to start
Addendum: I want to respond to the multiple folks who have mentioned to me their fear of speaking against a black man as a white person & their fears of being #racist.
Is your fear of being called racist stronger than your desire to fight for black women and girls? Is your allyship about not appearing racist or about fighting injustice?
Many who have expressed this anxiety are folks I respect & consider on my “side” in the grand scheme of making this world better, but I think it’s worth exploring how liberal white guilt can impede action.
Many of the folks with this concern are people I’ve seen be vocal about sexual violence by white men so choosing to not be vocal about sexual violence by black men, leaving that to black women only (even as we speak out against sexually violent white men too) is concerning.
Your place is on the side of justice & if someone says “you’re being racist against this black man” you can pull all your receipts of continued engagement with #MeToo & the intersectional fight against all sexual violence perpetrated by all people (led by @TaranaBurke)
There are also ways we can speak out against this violence without demonizing perpetrators, by acknowledging the complexities of multiply marginalized lives & our own vexed positions, while still insisting that what’s wrong is wrong.
When you fear being called out/in more than doing/saying what you know is right (but maybe not knowing the best way to do it), complicity and complacency win over. I hope white allies read this as a call in, a conversation among comrades to challenge each other to be better.
I hope you would each do the same for me when I fuck up or miss the mark. Because I do. I will again. We have to be in this together, not for our reputations, not for appearance, but for actual radical change to #endsexualviolence.
