Mark Anthony Neal’s Testimonial on NO! A Documentary on Sexual Assault

March 10, 2008

“The notion “speaking truth to power” has been a hallmark of Black political struggle in the United States, but it has been increasingly clear that “speaking truth” was often solely reserved for Black men, especially when Black men themselves were the subject of scrutiny. In the spirit of women like Anna Julia Cooper, Mary Church Terrell, Zora Neale Hurston, Audre Lorde, Toni Cade Bambara, Pat Parker, June Jordan and Michele Wallace, filmmaker Aishah Shahidah Simmons dares to “speak truth to power” with the emphatic power that the very exclamation NO! is intended to convey.”
Mark Anthony Neal, Scholar and Author, New Black Man