Statement of Black Men Against the Exploitation of Black Women
June 18, 2008
*Statement of Black Men Against the Exploitation of Black Women*
Six years have gone by since we first heard the allegations that R. Kelly had filmed himself having sex with an underage girl. During that time we have seen the videotape being hawked on street corners in Black communities, as if the dehumanization of one of our own was not at stake. We have seen entertainers rally around him and watched his career reach new heights despite the grave possibility that he had molested and urinated on a 13-year old girl. We saw African Americans purchase millions of his records despite the long history of such charges swirling around the singer. Worst of all, we have witnessed the sad vision of Black people cheering his acquittal with a fervor usually reserved for community heroes and shaken our heads at the stunning lack of outrage over the verdict in the broader Black community.
Over these years, justice has been delayed and it has been denied. Perhaps a jury can accept R. Kelly’s absurd defense and find “reasonable doubt” despite the fact that the film was shot in his home and featured a man who was identical to him. Perhaps they doubted that the young woman in the courtroom was, in fact, the same person featured in the ten year old video. But there is no doubt about this: some young Black woman was filmed being degraded and exploited by a much older Black man, some daughter of our community was left unprotected, and somewhere another Black woman is being molested, abused or raped and our callous handling of this case will make it that much more difficult for her to come forward and be believed. And each of us is responsible for it.
We have proudly seen the community take to the streets in defense of Black men who have been the victims of police violence or racist attacks, but that righteous outrage only highlights the silence surrounding this verdict.
We believe that our judgment has been clouded by celebrity-worship; we believe that we are a community in crisis and that our addiction to sexism has reached such an extreme that many of us cannot even recognize child molestation when we see it.
We recognize the absolute necessity for Black men to speak in a single, unified voice and state something that should be absolutely obvious: that the women of our community are full human beings, that we cannot and will not tolerate the poisonous hatred of women that has already damaged our families, relationships and culture.
We believe that our daughters are precious and they deserve our protection. We believe that Black men must take responsibility for our contributions to this terrible state of affairs and make an effort to change our lives and our communities.
This is about more than R. Kelly’s claims to innocence. *It is about our survival as a community*. Until we believe that our daughters, sisters, mothers, wives and friends are worthy of justice, until we believe that rape, domestic violence and the casual sexism that permeates our culture are absolutely unacceptable, until we recognize that the first priority of any community is the protection of its young, we will remain in this tragic dead-end.
We ask that you:
o Sign your name if you are a Black male who supports this statement:
http://www.petitiononline.com/rkelly/petition.html
o Forward this statement to your entire network and ask other Black males to sign as well
o Make a personal pledge to never support R. Kelly again in any form or fashion, unless he publicly apologizes for his behavior and gets help for his long-standing sexual conduct, in his private life and in his music
o Make a commitment in your own life to never to hit, beat, molest, rape, or exploit Black females in any way and, if you have, to take ownership for your behavior, seek emotional and spiritual help, and, over time, become a voice against all forms of Black female exploitation
o Challenge other Black males, no matter their age, class or educational background, or status in life, if they engage in behavior and language that is exploitative and or disrespectful to Black females in any way. If you say nothing, you become just as guilty.
o Learn to listen to the voices, concerns, needs, criticisms, and challenges of Black females, because they are our equals, and because in listening we will learn a new and different kind of Black manhood.
We support the work of scholars, activists and organizations that are helping to redefine Black manhood in healthy ways. Additional resources are listed below.
Books:
Who’s Gonna Take the Weight, Kevin Powell
New Black Man, Mark Anthony Neal
Deals with the Devil and Other Reasons to Riot, Pearl Cleage
Traps: African American Men on Gender and Sexuality, Rudolph Byrd and Beverly Guy-Sheftall
Films:
I Am A Man: Black Masculinity in America, by Byron Hurt
Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, by Byron Hurt
NO! The Rape Documentary, by Aishah Shahidah Simmons
Organizations
The 2025 Campaign: www.2025bmb.org
Men Stopping Violence: www.menstoppingviolence.org
Kenyon Farrow’s Testimonial on NO! A Documentary on
May 19, 2008
“I don’t know if I have seen a more nuanced and comprehensive film dealing with rape and sexual violence in the Black community.
Aishah Shahidah Simmons’ NO! forces us to deal with the lasting trauma Black women survivors have to endure, but also forces us to confront our own ambivalence about the rape of Black women as men, and an entire Black community.
This film gives us the language and the context by which we can examine the racism, sexism and homophobia within the Black community, but also helps us see the way Black women have struggled to heal, and what we as allies to Black women can do to end sexual violence in our communities.
NO! is a gift to those of us who who know that there can be no Black liberation where women cannot be self-determining.”
Kenyon Farrow, essayist, organizer, media and communications specialist, and board co-chair for Queers for Economic Justice.
Shout Out Women of Color Respond To Violence
April 15, 2008
Women of Color Shout Out Against Violence Against Women of Color in Powerful Anthology
Shout Out: Women of Color Respond To Violence
Maria Ochoa & Barbara K. Ige
Seal Press ©2008
“How do so many women survive the violence of their daily lives? Where do they find hope? How can this violence be allowed to continue? Shout Out address these troubling questions and more. This powerful collection provides a range of responses to the injustices that women sustain in their dialy lives through critical examiniations, creative non fiction, visual art, and poetry. Shout Out provides living testimony for the need to put an end to Oppression and violence.”
In January 2008, Seal Press released the powerful anthology Shout Out: Women of Color Respond To Violence. Shout Out doesn’t allow readers to be passive spectators. No, this compelling anthology will take you on a transformational journey that challenges you to be involved in the multi racial, anti colonialist, transnational movements to end all forms of violence perpetuated against women.
Aishah Shahidah Simmons’ choreopoem, “A State of Rage” which was conceived in 1994, in a Toni Cade Bambara scriptwriting workshop at Scribe Video Center, is featured in Shout Out. This choreopoem served as the literal roadmap on my eleven year journey to make my documentary NO!.
As with Color of Violence: The INCITE! Anthology, Shout Out: Women of Color Respond to Violence, is another ground breaking, riveting, anthology, which creates the critically needed space for women of color activists, cultural workers, scholars, and practitioners, to document the violence we face everyday, while celebrating our resistance, expressed in a myriad of ways, against all of the odds.
Sex Workers and The Media
April 7, 2008
A Tale Of Two Strippers…
by Aishah Shahidah Simmons
Sometime last fall Michael Simmons, my father and comrade in the international struggles to end violence against women, called me to share his passionate rage about all of the positive hype around Diablo Cody’s, (the very talented Academy Award® Winning screenwriter of the film Juno, directed by Jason Reitman) herstory as a stripper to support herself while writing screenplays. Media outlets, from National Public Radio to Entertainment Tonight, raved about “the stripper turned Hollywood screenwriter.”
Before my feminist sisters get upset, I want to be clear that Michael’s (and my) passionate rage isn’t about Sister Diablo Cody. This is not an anti-sex worker piece/peace. While I, as a Black feminist lesbian, critique a patriarchal, sexist, and misogynist world where sex work is, for countless women in the world, the only viable option to make a living, I do not and will not ever critique women for “choosing” sex work to financially support themselves.
I do, however, critique, the media, including many progressive and even some White feminist outlets, who celebrate Sister Diablo’s decision to work as a stripper to support herself while writing screenplays but castigated, maligned, and marginalized my Black Sister Survivor who was hired by members of the Duke University Lacrosse Team to perform for them. Yes, I know that had she not accused those innocent White men of sexually assaulting her, we probably wouldn’t even know she existed. However, since she did accuse them of sexually assaulting her, the media presented her as another Black woman stripper/whore who was a liar. In fact, in her very specific instance, stripping was frowned upon and demonized as a viable option for her to earn a living to support herself and her two children while she was an undergraduate student at North Carolina Central University.
When it comes to rape, sexual assault and other forms of violence against women, sex workers are some of the most vulnerable employees. This sobering reality transcends the race, class, and national origin of all sex workers.
I know that Sister Diablo hasn’t publicly accused anyone of sexually assaulting her and very hopefully she isn’t one of the three women in the world who has experienced some form of sexual assault on her journey called life. So, I’m definitely not implying that her situation is the same situation as with my Black Sister Survivor in North Carolina.
I do, however, question and challenge the media’s sexist (and I would argue racist and classist) grotesque duplicity when it comes to their deciding which women should be celebrated for making “a smart decision” to strip to support themselves; and which women should be punished for making “a dumb decision” to strip to support themselves.
It’s also very important to note, that the media’s celebratory attitude towards Sister Diablo stripping is not unlike their celebratory attitude towards White middle and upper class single women who decide to have children without getting married or having a male partner, which is often viewed and presented as a chic/hip feminist statement. While on the other hand, poor African-American single women who decide to have children without being married or having a male partner are viewed and presented, by the media, as pathological…
But, that’s another piece/peace for another day.
Aishah Shahidah Simmons is the producer, writer, and director of the internationally acclaimed feature-length documentary NO!, which explores the international reality of rape and sexual assault through the first person testimonies, scholarship, spirituality, and activism of African-Americans. This award-winning documentary also explores how rape is used as a weapon of homophobia. During April, which is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, she is traveling with NO! to continue to raise awareness about all forms of violence against women. Please visit www.NOtheRapeDocumentary.org and www.AfroLezProductions.com for detailed information about her schedule.
Rebecca Spellmeyer | Ms. Heartland US Testimonial on NO! The Rape Documentary
April 6, 2008
“As a survivor of rape myself I found [NO!] to be very powerful and thought provoking. I am truly blessed to have been able to see a screening of this film and meet the wonderful woman that made this film possible.”
Rebecca Spellmeyer, Ms. Heartland US
NO! A Documentary About Rape and Sexual Assault Screened and Discussed at Brown Memorial Baptist Church
April 3, 2008
in recognition of
SEXUAL ASSAULT AWARENESS MONTH (APRIL)
Kevin Powell, Black and Male in America (BAMIA),
Hot 97.1 Radio, allhiphop.com, April Silver of AKILA WORKSONGS, Inc.,
CONNECT, and the Black and Latino Filmmakers Coalition
present
A Special Screening
and Discussion about
a documentary about rape, sexual assault,
and violence against women and girls
www.NOtheRapeDocumentary.org
featuring
AISHAH SHAHIDAH SIMMONS
Writer, Director, and Producer of the award-winning film NO!
QUENTIN WALCOTT
Anti-violence activist; Director, CONNECT Training Institute (CTI)
and the Community Empowerment Program
KEVIN POWELL
Writer, Activist, and Author of the essay
“Ending Violence Against Women and Girls”
(visit www.huffingtonpost.com to read the essay)
plus a special creative piece by
TOYIA TAYLOR
Poet and Community Activist
MONDAY, APRIL 7, 2008
Doors open at 6:30 pm
program begins at 7:00 pm
at BROWN MEMORIAL BAPTIST CHURCH
(Pastor: Rev. Clinton Miller)
484 Washington Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11238
(at the corner of Gates Ave. | Fort Greene, Brooklyn, NY)
A or C to Clinton/Washington stop
Admission is FREE, no RSVP needed.
Seating will be on a first-come basis.
This program is open to females AND males of all ages.
Counselors will be on site to field questions from rape,
sexual assault, and domestic violence survivors.
Copies of the NO! DVD will be ON SALE.
PLEASE BRING a PEN and NOTEPAD
and PLEASE COME PREPARED
TO WORK, LEARN, AND SHARE…
For more information call 718.390.3520 OR
email us contact@blackandmaleinamerica
Visit us on the web at www.blackandmaleinamerica.org
PLEASE NOTE THAT BAMIA’s regular monthly empowerment workshops are for MALES ONLY. We will return to that format
on Monday, May 5, 2008 at 7pm (same locatoin).
The workshop leader will be KENDRICK B. NATHANIEL.
Topic: “Taking Care of Your Physical Health”
Tamara K. Nopper’s Testimonial on NO!
March 20, 2008
“When I attended a fundraising event for NO! in New York several years ago, I watched an African American woman scholar artistically explore her survival of sexual assault. As a graduate student who has spent most of my professional life in academia, I had by that time observed how badly Black women are treated at all levels of the university. And I knew that this treatment was not isolated to academic spaces. Having seen, listened, and read about how Black women are racistly and sexistly perceived by men, women, and children of all races and sexualities, I was familiar with many of the themes in NO! Perhaps this is why I had such an emotional political response to watching this Black woman scholar talk about her sexual assault. I knew it was a great risk for her to draw attention to how she was attacked when racist and sexist imagery of Black women declares that they are unable to be violated because they are supposedly over-sexual. And having been in front of a classroom myself, I know that students pick you apart, watch your body, and judge you at every turn. Most students evaluate non-white teachers–and particularly Black teachers–with no remorse, and often in sexualized ways. So to watch a Black woman scholar demand documentation of her pain, to draw attention to her body, to tell her side of the story was simply…everything in the world. This is what NO! does: along with sharing the powerful stories of those in the film, it creates a space for those of us watching it to locate ourselves. In the process, NO! forces you on an emotional and political roller coaster ride. In my case, I left that fundraiser knowing I could no longer act as if what I knew I did not know, and what I saw I did not see. That’s perhaps the most beautiful and scary part of viewing NO!–once you watch it, there is no turning back.”
Tamara K. Nopper, educator and writer
Women’s History Month | Screening of NO! The Rape Documentary @ Raday Salon in Budapest Hungary
March 12, 2008
Women’s History Month | Screening of NO! at Raday Salon in Budapest Hungary
After a long hiatus of screenings, book signings, and lectures, the Raday Salon kicks off its 2008 season with a screening of NO! The Rape Documentary to commemorate Women’s History Month. This is not the first time that Raday Salon has hosted screenings and discussions of NO! The Rape Documentary both as a rough cut and now as a completed documentary to standing room only audiences. However given the horrific and unfortuante global manifestation of sexual violence, combined with requests from people who have not had the opportunity to view the documentary, Linda Carranza and Michael Simmons, the Salon’s co-founders, are hosting an encore screening.
“...We have developed many new ties with folks who are new to Budapest or just new to our Salon, who have expressed an interest in seeing the film. We would be happy to see both old and new Salon friends at this showing, especially as the discussion is always different and brings up new observations every time we show the film…” will be an encore screening and discussion of NO! The Rape Documentary.” — Linda Carranza & Michael Simmons
Aishah Shahidah Simmons will not be present at the screening. However, Michael Simmons, who has definitely screened NO!, more than Aishah, throughout Europe and the Middle East, will both host the screening and facilitate the dialogue following the screening.
For more information about the screening and equally as important for upcoming events at Raday Salon, please visit their site (http://raday.blogs.com).
“Our Salon is dedicated to the proposition that all people are fascinating individuals, and everybody has a story to tell.” — Linda Carranza & Michael Simmons, Co-Founders, Raday Salon
If you ever find yourself in Budapest, Hungary, definitely get in touch with both Linda and Michael. They definitely walk their talk.
Thomas Glave’s Testimonial On NO! A Documentary On Sexual Assault
March 10, 2008
“NO! does not flinch, and is a vital contribution to ongoing cultural-political discussions, not only in African America but also in the African diaspora and beyond.”
Thomas Glave, Lamda Award Winning Author,
Words To Our Now: Imagination and Dissent
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