LIBERATE

How does this erasure manifest?
Embedded in this community is a dangerous desire to maintain black unity at all
costs. It is almost impossible to critique certain organizations or individuals, and
those who do so are often ostracized, even when one is rightfully criticizing the
highly elitist, cisheteronormative, and sexist behaviors that push many of us further
into the margins. It is uncritical and facetious to believe that we are all marginalized
in the same ways – to ignore the fact that many of us cannot breathe in
this community that is supposed to be our safest space.
As black women, our genders and sexualities are treated as negligible and divisible
from our experiences of blackness. The fact that we are the ones charged with
both healing from trauma and then correcting the same violent behaviors that hurt
and disrupt our lives is indication enough that a singular blackness that is detached
from other manifestations of systemic violence, determines the disposition
of black life on campus – the type of oppression that we are willing to mobilize
against.
This illogical approach to systemic violence results in the privileging of black,
heterosexual men’s wellbeing and this has been prominently exposed in the few
conversations around sexual assault that we have had. At one particular talk that
I hosted, as the discussion progressed, it became clear that the central concern
around sexual violence is how men can best avoid culpability as opposed to a
victim-centered approach that encourages ethical and mutually beneficial sexual
encounters. To put it more bluntly, the dominating concern seems to be “how
much access men can get to black women’s bodies without being held legally accountable
for their actions” when it should be “how best can we listen to women
and ensure that we are making our community safe for them.” At worst, this is a
violent erasure that sees black women’s bodies as collateral damage to men’s unnecessary
technical gymnastics in negotiating the clearly outlined parameters of
ethical sexual behavior.