Time magazine announced its person of the year on Wednesday and it is the women across various industries that have broken the silence around sexual assault and abuse. Though these women are not, by far, the very first to be vocal about this subject, the sheer volume of women, particularly in the movie industry and in politics, has created opportunities for more meaningful, widespread conversations.
However, not all women’s stories are elevated to the forefront of these discussions. Most of the stories we are hearing are about white men and their victims (at least as far as we know) have largely been white women. So what does that mean about the women of color who have also experienced sexual assault and abuse? Where are their stories? In an interview with NPR, Karen Attiah of The Washington Post talks about women of color who’s stories are often silenced in this larger conversation.
“You know, it's really interesting because I think of Lupita Nyong'o's New York Times article where she talks about her encounter with Harvey Weinstein, and it was one of the more moving and very well-written accounts of what it was like to have to deal with a man who was powerful yet charming yet fearsome.
And it struck me that ... it was her account that Weinstein or his team forcefully pushed back on. Not only is there a sense of we're excluded from the narrative, but even when prominent members of our community are in the narrative, that we're the ones whose stories are pushed back upon. We're the ones who are lying.”
And this is not the only way women of color are pushed back upon or relegated to the shadows. Just like Harvey Weinstein’s abuse of women was well-known in Hollywood, so too, do black male celebrities have open secrets that are overlooked because they are abusing black women.
Attiah points to the numerous accusations against musical artist R. Kelly. The claims against the 50-year-old R&B singer span a number of years and range from illegal underage relationships, child pornography and most recently, holding women against their will. [...]
She says a number of factors contribute to the apparent lack of national discussion about the R. Kelly accusations: His music has become a mainstay in black culture, many women accusing him aren't high-profile or powerful celebrities - and many of those women are black.
"Part of it, unfortunately, has to do with whether or not we see black women and girls as worthy of care and worthy of protection," Attiah says.
For decades, black people have been talking about R. Kelly’s relationships with high-school aged girls. In fact, many women of a certain age from Chicago (Kelly’s hometown) have personal stories about him hanging around schools trying to pick up underage girls. But his music is still wildly popular. And even though we all know he is a predator, he is defended by both black men and women who feel protective of him as a black man living in a country that has a long history of racism—and a special kind of fear and disdain for black men. And while it is absolutely true that black men are victimized in specific ways because of their race, it is also true that black men are not exempt from engaging in the kind of abuse of power that has been so widely reported during the #MeToo movement.
It is also not true that black women and women of color aren’t victims of sexual abuse or that we aren’t coming forward like white women are. White supremacy places a value on white lives—and white women have a special role that they are assigned in the racial hierarchy. Black women and women of color are often stereotyped as hyper-sexual jezebels. Millions upon millions of women of color could come forward with their experiences and, sadly, they would not be listened to in the same way that white women are, and that has everything to do with race.
Because again, what ties all of this together, regardless of income, regardless of status, regardless of color, really, is about the abuse of power. So, women of color who already have harder barriers in those professional circles [restaurant workers, domestic help], I think we absolutely do need to pay more attention to their stories, and part of that will be for us to start listening and to start taking women of color seriously.
Gender-based violence and sexual abuse is a problem for all women. And men must work to check themselves and other men in order to stop it. Just like we need to capitalize on this moment to have thoughtful conversations on this topic, we need to make space for the stories of women who are the most marginalized. This is not an either/or. But by ignoring the voices of women of color, we fail to have an intersectional conversation that recognizes multiple layers of oppression and vulnerability. Only when we do that, will we begin to come up with solutions that benefit all women and affirm the dignity of all people.