LIBERATE

At this critical moment when it is becoming painfully clear that this community
is not safe for all of us, we need to engage in a process of constructive critique
that ensures that those who are perpetuating violence, indirectly or directly, take
responsibility for their actions or lack thereof. It is not enough to hold event after
event about consent, even when we know that patriarchy is a fortuitous system
that manifests in diverse and normative forms in our daily lives. Breaking down
this system will require self-implication; it will require continued self-reflection
and critique as well as sustained community dialogue focused on creating accountability
and centering the voices of those who have been ravaged by sexual
violence. We need to undermine the oppressive systems that make it possible for
abuse to occur, the abnormal silence that makes it possible for men to pillage
without any fear of consequence. As feminist scholar Pumla Dineo Gqola makes
clear, this will require serious social sanctions that see us calling out violence just
as much as we call it in. We cannot continue to negotiate our safety using gentle
discourse when our loved ones continue to suffer silently. We cannot continue to
engage in a politics of respectability when 42% of the black women in our midst
exist on the margins, ignored and disrespected by a community that should be
fighting for them relentlessly and fearlessly.
Black Duke, we need to do better.