[Wamvan] Open Letter from Black Women to the SlutWalk

[Natalie Hill]

http://www.facebook.com/notes/blackwomens-blueprint/an-open-letter-from-black-women-to-the-slutwalk/232501930131880

*An Open Letter from Black Women to the SlutWalk *

*September 23, 2011*

* *

We the undersigned women of African descent and anti-violence advocates,
activists, scholars, organizational and spiritual leaders wish to address
the SlutWalk. First, we commend the organizers on their bold and vast
mobilization to end the shaming and blaming of sexual assault victims for
violence committed against them by other members of society. We are proud to
be living in this moment in time where girls and boys have the opportunity
to witness the acts of extraordinary women resisting oppression and
challenging the myths that feed rape culture everywhere.



The police officer’s comments in Toronto that ignited the organizing of the
first SlutWalk and served to trivialize, omit and dismiss women’s continuous
experiences of sexual exploitation, assault, and oppression are an attack
upon our collective spirits.  Whether the dismissal of rape and other
violations of a woman’s body be driven by her mode of dress, line of work,
level of intoxication, her class, and in cases of Black and brown bodies—her
race, we are in full agreement that no one deserves to be raped.



*The Issue At Hand*

We are deeply concerned. As Black women and girls we find no space in
SlutWalk, no space for participation and to unequivocally denounce rape and
sexual assault as we have experienced it.  We are perplexed by the use of
the term “slut” and by any implication that this word, much like the word
“Ho” or the “N” word should be re-appropriated. The way in which we are
perceived and what happens to us before, during and after sexual assault
crosses the boundaries of our mode of dress.  Much of this is tied to our
particular history.  In the United States, where slavery constructed Black
female sexualities, Jim Crow kidnappings, rape and lynchings, gender
misrepresentations, and more recently, where the Black female immigrant
struggle combine, “slut” has different associations for Black women.  We do
not recognize ourselves nor do we see our lived experiences reflected within
SlutWalk and especially not in its brand and its label.



As Black women, we do not have the privilege or the space to call ourselves
“slut” without validating the already historically entrenched ideology and
recurring messages about what and who the Black woman is.  We don’t have the
privilege to play on destructive representations burned in our collective
minds, on our bodies and souls for generations.  Although we understand the
valid impetus behind the use of the word “slut” as language to frame and
brand an anti-rape movement, we are gravely concerned.  For us the
trivialization of rape and the absence of justice are viciously intertwined
with narratives of sexual surveillance, legal access and availability to our
personhood.  It is tied to institutionalized ideology about our bodies as
sexualized objects of property, as spectacles of sexuality and deviant
sexual desire. It is tied to notions about our clothed or unclothed bodies
as unable to be raped whether on the auction block, in the fields or on
living room television screens. The perception and wholesale acceptance of
speculations about what the Black woman wants, what she needs and what she
deserves has truly, long crossed the boundaries of her mode of dress.



We know the SlutWalk is a call to action and we have heard you.  Yet we
struggle with the decision to answer this call by joining with or supporting
something that even in name exemplifies the ways in which mainstream women’s
movements have repeatedly excluded Black women even in spaces where our
participation is most critical. We are still struggling with the how, why
and when and ask at what impasse should the SlutWalk have included
substantial representation of Black women in the building and branding of
this U.S. based movement to challenge rape culture?



Black women in the U.S. have worked tirelessly since the 19th century
colored women’s clubs to rid society of the sexist/racist vernacular of
slut, jezebel, hottentot, mammy, mule, sapphire; to build our sense of
selves and redefine what women who look like us represent. Although we
vehemently support a woman’s right to wear whatever she wants anytime,
anywhere, within the context of a “SlutWalk” we don’t have the privilege to
walk through the streets of New York City, Detroit, D.C., Atlanta, Chicago,
Miami, L.A. etc., either half-naked or fully clothed self-identifying as
“sluts” and think that this will make women safer in our communities an hour
later, a month later, or a year later.  Moreover, we are careful not to set
a precedent for our young girls by giving them the message that we can
self-identify as “sluts” when we’re still working to annihilate the word
“ho”, which deriving from the word “hooker” or “whore”, as in “Jezebel
whore” was meant to dehumanize.  Lastly, we do not want to encourage our
young men, our Black fathers, sons and brothers to reinforce Black women’s
identities as “sluts” by normalizing the term on t-shirts, buttons, flyers
and pamphlets.



The personal is political. For us, the problem of trivialized rape and the
absence of justice are intertwined with race, gender, sexuality, poverty,
immigration and community.  As Black women in America, we are careful not to
forget this or we may compromise more than we are able to recover.  Even if
only in name, we cannot afford to label ourselves, to claim identity, to
chant dehumanizing rhetoric against ourselves in any movement.  We can learn
from successful movements like the Civil Rights movement, from Women’s
Suffrage, the Black Nationalist and Black Feminist movements that we can
make change without resorting to the taking-back of words that were never
ours to begin with, but in fact heaved upon us in a process of
dehumanization and devaluation.



*What We Ask*

* *Sisters from Toronto, rape and sexual assault is a radical weapon of
oppression and we are in full agreement that it requires radical people and
radical strategies to counter it.  In that spirit, and because there is so
much work to be done and great potential to do it together, we ask that the
SlutWalk be even more radical and break from what has historically been the
erasure of Black women and their particular needs, their struggles as well
as their potential and contributions to feminist movements and all other
movements.



Women in the United States are racially and ethnically diverse.  Every
tactic to gain civil and human rights must not only consult and consider
women of color, but it must equally center all our experiences and our
communities in the construction, launching, delivery and sustainment of that
movement.



We ask that SlutWalk take critical steps to become cognizant of the
histories of people of color and engage women of color in ways that respect
culture, language and context.



We ask that SlutWalk consider engaging in a re-branding and re-labeling
process and believe that given the current popularity of the Walk, its
thousands of followers will not abandon the movement simply because it has
changed its label.



We ask that the organizers participating in the SlutWalk take further action
to end the trivialization of rape at every level of society.  Take action to
end the use of the word “rape” as if it were a metaphor and also take action
to end the use of language invented to perpetuate racist/sexist structures
and intended to dehumanize and devalue.



In the spirit of building a revolutionary movement to end sexual assault,
end rape myths and end rape culture, we ask that SlutWalk move forward in
true authenticity and solidarity to organize beyond the marches and
demonstrations as SlutWalk. Develop a more critical, a more strategic and
sustainable plan for bringing women together to demand countries,
communities, families and individuals uphold each others human right to
bodily integrity and collectively speak a resounding NO to violence against
women.



We would welcome a meeting with the organizers of SlutWalk to discuss the
intrinsic potential in its global reach and the sheer number of followers it
has energized. We’d welcome the opportunity to engage in critical
conversation with the organizers of SlutWalk about strategies for remaining
accountable to the thousands of women and men, marchers it left behind in
Brazil, in New Delhi, South Korea and elsewhere—marchers who continue to
need safety and resources, marchers who went back home to their communities
and their lives. We would welcome a conversation about the work ahead and
how this can be done together with groups across various boundaries, to end
sexual assault beyond the marches.



As women of color standing at the intersection of race, gender, sexuality,
class and more, we will continue to be relentless in the struggle to
dismantle the unacceptable systems of oppression that designedly besiege our
everyday lives.  We will continue to fight for the development of policies
and initiatives that prioritize the primary prevention of sexual assault,
respect women and individual rights, agency and freedoms and holds offenders
accountable.  We will consistently demand justice whether under governmental
law, at community levels, or via community strategies for those who have
been assaulted; and organize to end sexual assaults of persons from all
walks of life, all genders, all sexualities, all races, all ethnicity, all
histories.



*Signed by: *The Board of Directors and Board of Advisors, Black Women’s
Blueprint | Farah Tanis, Co-Founder, Executive Director, Black Women’s
Blueprint | *Endorsed by:* Toni M. Bond Leonard, President/CEO of Black
Women for Reproductive Justice (BWRJ), Chicago, Illinois | Kelli Dorsey,
Executive Director, Different Avenues, Washington, D.C. | The Women's Health
and Justice Initiative, New Orleans, Louisiana | Black and Proud, Baton
Rouge, Louisiana | Civil Liberties and Public Policy Program at Hampshire
College, Amherst, Massachusetts | Corinna Yazbek, Population and Development
Program, Amherst, Massachusetts | Black Women’s Network, Los Angeles,
California | League of Black Women, Chicago, Illinois | African American
Institute on Domestic Violence, Minneapolis, Minnesota | Brooklyn Young
Mother’s Collective, Brooklyn, New York | Women’s HIV Collaborative, New
York, New York | National Organization of Sisters of Color Ending Sexual
Assault (SCESA), Connecticut | Girls for Gender Equity, Brooklyn, New York |
My Sister’s Keeper, Brooklyn, New York | The Mothers Agenda New York (the
M.A.N.Y.), Brooklyn, New York | Sojourners Group For Women, Salt Lake City,
Utah | Dr. Andreana Clay, Queer Black Feminist Blog, Oakland, California |
Dr. Ida E. Jones, Historian, Author, The Heart of the Race Problem: The Life
of Kelly Miller | Willi Coleman, Professor of Women's History, member of the
Association of Black Women Historians, Laura Rahman, Director, Broken Social
Contracts, Atlanta, Georgia | Marlene McCurtis, Director, Wednesdays in
Mississippi Film Project | Issa Rae, Producer, Director, Writer, Awkward
Black Girl, Los Angeles, California | The Prison Birth Project| Ebony Noelle
Golden, Creative Director, Betty's Daughter Arts Collaborative & The
RingShout for Reproductive Justice | Yvonne Moore, Southern California,
Sexual Assault Survivor | Kola Boo, Novelist, Poet, Womanist | Jessicah A.
Murrell, Spelman College C'11, Candidate for M.A. Women's Studies | Shanika
Thomas | Cathy Gillespie | Kristin Simpson, Brooklyn, New York |



   - *To endorse this letter*, email us with Subject: “Add My Name” to:
   info at blackwomensblueprint.org


   - *To be part of the broader conversation*, learn more and to participate
   in our “Live Free” campaign to end sexual violence, email: Farah Tanis,
   Executive Director, Black Women’s Blueprint,
   ftanis at blackwomensblueprint.org


   - *Add Your Voice! Take Our Survey- *Answer Anonymously-10 Questions
   About Rape/Sexual Assault.  https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/V868RZG


   - *Join Our Workshop: Silent No More:* Supporting the Survivors and
   Creating Response to Rape/Sexual Assault in African American Communities.
   Friday, October 28, 1:30-4:30 PM – RSVP for more information and location to
   info at blackwomensblueprint.org


   -  *Give What You Can! Support the Work at The Intersections*
   http://www.indiegogo.com/Help-Finish-The-Film-Under-Siege-The-Policing-of-Women-Girls-In-America?c=activity&a=214519&i=addr


   -  *Join the Cast or Sign Up For Updates On Mother Tongue: Monologues In
   Sexual Revolution! **For Black Girls & Stolen Women Taking Back Our
   Bodies, Our Selves, Our Lives – *The National Black Theater of Harlem,
   February 24, 2012 info at blackwomensblueprint.org
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