Sometimes people accuse Black women who fight against sexual and domestic violence of "aligning with white women" or "followi...
Sometimes people accuse Black women who fight against sexual and domestic violence of "aligning with white women" or "following white women". This argument wrongly assumes that Black women and Black girls have not had to take this fight on if we were to survive at all.
1975.
Joan Little was the first woman to be acquitted of murder
committed in self-defense against a sexual assault.
This woman fought for her very life every step of the way. She was not "following white women" or "aligning with white women". She was fighting for her own life. Her freedom.
Her right to live in a society free of racism and misogyny.
Her right to live in a society that doesn't see Black women like her or any other woman as disposable or just there for the purpose of male pleasure.
It wasn't until 1975...........
Just so we are clear, I am proud of Joan Little's strength and perseverance. In awe, actually.
I am not proud or joyful that it took so long for a woman to get justice. There have been too many thousands of previous cases that we know of, where the facts were similar and there was no justice. No accountability. Just more lies, coverups, and killing folks to cover the sins.
Think of all of the women who were put to death & lynched for defending themselves against sexual assault.......of all races and backgrounds.
Women who were married....
Girls on their way to school....
Girls are assaulted within their families.....
Women and girls raped in mental institutions....
Not until 1975 was a woman acquitted of murder committed in self-defense against sexual assault.
Black women, all women, have a right to fight for our own protection, safety, and dignity-even when no one else has the humanity to be on our side.