Black Women Reporting Rape

Not only are we [Black women] dealing with racism and sexism from white mainstream society but we’re also dealing with sexism from our community and who we going to tell? Because nobody going to believe us and do we want to see our brother/father/boyfriend/lover/comrade get arrested?

This is the first post that i have done where i actually write my opinion on the subject. being a rape survivor, I've been in the above situation. The man who raped me was black and i knew him. the only thing about my situation was that i did report the man who raped me. and he was not arrested or serve time in jail or was punished. At first i didn't want to say anything because i thought no one would believe me. on that part i was right.

after i reported it no one did believe me. which only made me feel alone and i didn't trust after that. i still don't to this day, trust the police. i know it sounds bad but its the truth.

how do you advocate for someone to come forward with their problems so you can help them when you don't believe a word they are saying?? i mean really its a catch 22.

i honestly felt like i went through the whole process for nothing. calling the detective everyday about my case only having him ask me why am i calling him so much. not to mention during the time he interviewed me asked why i didn't give my rapist oral sex and did i think it was selfish of me not to do it.

last time i checked what happened to me was a crime......on top of that asking him what was taking me so long to write out my statement. I'm thinking to myself are you serious. after being raped i had to call your crappy ass police department.(Prince Georges County Police, Maryland) wait 4 hours for you to show up at the station because you wouldn't drive down here(Charles County, Maryland). then still have to wait for your ass to show up...........

gee i wonder why we don't open our mouth and say anything..........??????????????

When Black Woman Are Raped

• Why do black women fail to report rape. Maretta Short, president of NOW New Jersey, recently forwarded two important articles on this issue. One was by Salamishah Tillet, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, the other by Melissa Harris-Lacewell, a professor at Princeton University. Both appeared on TheRoot.com. Both writers came to the same conclusion.

• Black women account for about l8 to 28 percent of rape victims. About 90 percent of victims report they were assaulted by a member of their own racial or ethnic group. Harris-Lacewell writes, “Black women raped by black male perpetrators often remain silent because they are alone. They don’t want to confirm white racial stereotypes; their own families and communities tell them to shut up; they have little reason to think that authorities will take their cases seriously; they fear the devastating ramifications of a manhunt in black communities if they are believed; and in the history of lynching, white women have been adversaries not allies, on the question of rape.”

• Tillet adds “ … rape victims do not want to perpetuate stereotypes about the black male rapist and … they fear criminalizing African-American men. But even more egregiously, African-American women know that they risk being labeled a race traitor by some who view their actions as airing dirty linen

• This is an attitude I am familiar with. All minority groups are protective of their communities. This is why liberal American Muslims have been slow to condemn fatwas by some Muslim clergy ordering the murder of dissidents, or to admit that some of the teachings in the Koran are destructive and are not to be taken literally but to be understood as ideas within the framework of the time in which they were written.

• In my own case, as a Jewish woman, I was raised to believe that ‘Jewish men don’t do that,” meaning they don’t rape women or beat their wives. Imagine my shock when I eventually met a pregnant woman who told me her Jewish husband had been beating her while she was pregnant. And then my surprise when, many years later, I heard a Yiddish song , probably written in the late l9th or early 20th century, which was a plaint by a woman telling about her abuse at the hands of her husband. Of course the group performing this song was a woman’s klezmer band. My mother’s mantra “ Jewish men don’t do that” was a means of not washing dirty linen in public, of protecting the reputation of our minority community

• We all know by now, however, what protecting criminals does to a community. Protecting drug dealers in public housing, or even ignoring bad behavior such as graffiti or inconsiderate levels of noise destroys the livability of the buildings. Ignoring rape or any other destructive, anti-social behavior just encourages more such behavior.

• From a feminist perspective, when a woman who has been assaulted is more concerned with protecting the innocent men in her community than with her own pain, she not only harms herself, but is committing a great injustice to other victims and victims in the future. This is a pattern of thinking that I feel quite sure is essentially female. When a man is violated in any way, by assault, robbery or rape – I doubt very much he starts worrying about everyone else before reporting the crime. A woman in that situation should be encouraged to think about herself first, and if she has the energy, to commiserate with her sisters who have been through the same trauma.

• As far as protecting her community, the only way to deal with a sensitive issue is to have the courage to tell the truth, to share that truth with other victims and with the community at large. Only then can the community begin to think about the problem and take action.

• **Suzanne Messing is a member of the Northern New Jersey NOW chapter.
  Contact Sue at SuzMessing@Aol.com or Northern New Jersey NOW at NNJNOW@nownj.org.

The Crappy ass so called fuckin sentacing for the rape and tourture of a woman over a week....

Just a quick summary of the sentences:

Alisha Burton, age 23, 10 years,kidnapping and assault.

Karen Burton, age 46, 30 years, malicious assault and violation of civil rights.

Linnie Burton Jr, age 21, plead guilty to battery on June 9th for striking Williams in the head with his fist. He was given a 6 month suspended sentence and 1 year of supervised probation.

Bobby Ray Brewster, age 25, 12-35 years, second-degree sexual assault, malicious assault and conspiracy to commit kidnapping or holding hostage.

Frankie Brewster, age 49, 10-25 years, second-degree sexual assault.

Danny J. Combs, age 21, 4-20 years, conspiracy to commit kidnapping or holding hostage, assault during the commission of a felony, and first-degree sexual abuse.


George Messer, age 25, 10 years, kidnapping and assault.