Tarana Burke founded the Me Too Movement in 2006 as a way to speak out about sexual assault and to empower women, young women, particularly women of color to be empowered and to find pathways to healing. I honor the courage it takes to speak up about this violence and all voices are necessary and need to be heard.
Time is up for all the silencing, violence and oppression happening to people in the world. Perpetrators of violence should be exposed and held accountable right? No one, absolutely no one is infallible. Holding perpetrators of abuse and violence is necessary to bring truth to light and justice to the injustice of their harm.
This includes White Woman Violence. If I were to ask 10 black or brown women if they've experienced silencing, abuse, racism, marginalization and or oppression at the hands of white women, I'm confident 9 of them would say yes. If asked those nine women if they were afraid to speak up about this violence for fear of retaliation, not being believed, blamed and or fear of losing their job - all 9 would say yes to one or all of these real fears.
Many of them would instead suffer in silence. Many of them would not trust white women. Many of them would be angry and rightfully so. Racial violence enacted by white women against black and brown women has been happening for centuries and white women have been getting away with it for centuries.
Violence is violence. And white women should be held accountable for this violence. Time is up for white woman violence cloaked in feminism and sisterhood.
What do you do when time is up? The same thing you expect the men who are being exposed for their violence to do!
To tell the truth. To own their abuse and violence. To do the right thing. To be held accountable. To genuinely apologize and make amends. To respond wisely to their call out and exposure. To listen to their victims/survivors. To reconcile and repair. To commit to NOT causing more harm. To do the time for the crime.
Isn't this what most people expect? Well... this is what black and brown women expect too. Time is up for white women. Are you going to do what is right? What is expected? What is just? OR are you going to be hypocritical and believe that these expectations don't apply to YOU? Let me be the first to tell you that they do. All of them. It's your choice. You can deny and resist and find yourself in the hot seat like Marianne Williamson, Danielle LaPorte and Roseanne Barr if you like OR you can choose to start your on anti-racism journey to learn how to dismantle your own racism, lay down your Weapons of Whiteness and stop perpetrating violence against black and brown women. Black and brown women will be silent NO more. We're calling out this violence. Exposing it and shining a light on it. And calling white women to be accountable for their actions. And just like women are locking arms in solidarity - black and brown women are locking arms in solidarity. We will NOT be silent about this. And we'll seek accountability by any means necessary. YOUR TIME IS UP. WHAT WILL YOU DO NOW?