Seeing Red, Feeling Red, Wearing Red

Today is the day to wear red

to speak out

against violence against women of color.

Red is the color of courage, of embarrassment, of indiscretion, and of blood. On days that aren’t today, people emphasize the latter three qualities more than the former quality. Courage.

It takes courage to speak out against violence in the face of intimidation and centuries of being undervalued. Red is the color of courage, of ownership of sexuality, of beautiful faces when screaming at the top of their lungs that they’re human.

Speaking, like healing, is an ongoing act. Speaking and healing are inextricably linked to surviving, especially for a woman of color. The bruises from the world stepping on our backs will heal as we bring them to the light. The shame from the darkness of violence and pain will evaporate as we step into the sun.

To honor today’s events, I collected a series of posts from friends and news articles associated with violence against women of color and speaking out against it. As a woman of color surviving sexual assault, the red I wore held a deep and cleansing significance for me. The speaking must continue for the sakes of women of color, regardless of class, ability, sexuality, or ethnicity. We cannot let others define our worth. It is always better to speak.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution covered the campaign and its purpose today.

Fabi discussed the hazards of speaking up and challenging oppression as a woman of color earlier this month to anyone — even those we would expect to be allies:

[W]hen you’re new and excited about the work, always hopeful, dreaming, wanting to say yes to everything and not challenge everyone loves you. Speak in a tone that’s very welcoming…you are one with the movement. Beware once you fall, when you are not proper and you are speaking your mind “articulately” in a matter you believe in, and you disagree with um…the ranks, whether it be white women in the ranks or the men of color in the ranks or men of color colleagues when you challenge oppression, you’re a divider, trouble maker, punishable. You’re too loud and not as likeable.

The fierce and ever-reddened women of UBUNTU! shares a free 100-page study guide to correspond with Aishah Shahidah Simmons’ groundbreaking film on black women and sexual violence, NO! The Rape Documentary. A few quotes about the documentary itself:

“I have seen a lot of documentaries about sexual violence in my 15 years as a film programmer, and ‘NO!’ is by far the most well made, riveting, and poignant… The strength of ‘NO!’ in reaching its viewers is significant, it’s scope and ability to compel are astounding- all women can relate to this film.”
KJ Mohr, Film & Media Arts Programmer, National Museum of Women in the Arts

“If the Black community in the Americas and in the world would heal itself, it must complete the work [NO!] begins.”
Alice Walker, Pulitzer Prize Winning Author, The Color Purple

BFP offers another free resource from INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence about organizing against police violence on women and trans people of color.

Many bloggers that I respect deeply posted links to Document the Silence, personal reflections, and related information about campaigns:

Elle, Ph.D. * Slant Truth * Having Read the Fine Print * No Snow Here * A Woman’s Ecdysis * Racialicious * Why Am I Not Surprised? * Slow But Steady * The Unapologetic Mexican * Zuky * Para Justicia y Libertad

Related news and notable quotes about today’s campaign:

i suppose i should tell you know how we’ll never stop fighting, we’ll never stop loving, we’ll never stop raising our babies, but i’m too tired, i need a rest. it’s hard living knowing the second my child breathed her first breath was the second my punishment began. it’s hard protecting our children from your violence, it’s hard knowing everyday if I had just done it the *right* way, the *white* way, life would be a little bit easier. and when my baby girl says to me she wants to grow up and be a mama just like me, the pain is too much to be borne.

–from the truth of brown motherhood

We are not anybody else, we are not a faceless , voiceless mass, we are NOT one and the same.

And we are not argument fodder., or stepping stones.

Do they realize we are people ?

Independent autonomous people who are NOT extensions of some nebulous ideal?

We do not wish to be treated the way they are treated

but as ourselves.

And we shall be silent on that no longer

–from Oh Donna

While we rally today against the domestic and sexual violence against women of color that seems to be becoming more gruesome and more socially acceptable in this current period, I would ask that we expand the definition of violence against us. When an institution, like academe, acts in an emotionally and economically abusive way designed to silence and exploit us, that is violence against women of color too.

I am calling for each of us in or with ties to academe, to try and think of a way to increase equity while minimizing (or one day eliminating) the collateral damage involved. If we don’t, we are no better than MTV execs who allowed a white man to call a black girl a bitch repeatedly, spitting the word out inches from her face as she warned him to stop, but instantly ejected her when she slapped him. We are no better than the police who arrest both spouses when the abuser has beaten his wife senseless and she has scratched and clawed her way out of his grasp with defensive moves.

–from What is Violence against WOC?

Another case of injustice for a black single mother in Pennsylvania (also linked by A Womyn’s Ecdysis):

We were appalled to learn that on Oct 4 Municipal Judge Teresa Carr Deni dropped all rape and assault charges in the case of a woman gang-raped at gunpoint. Because the woman was working as a prostitute, Judge Deni decided that she could not have been raped and changed the charge to “theft of services.” Deni later said that this case “minimizes true rape cases and demeans women who are really raped.”

Shannon at Egotistical Whining sums up the logic nicely:

A woman’s body is still her body. She is not required to provide unwanted sexual acts or services, just because she said I’ll do X for Y amount doesn’t mean that you can just do X without her consent! And of course, doing Z is right out!

Women of color investigative journalists are honored by the International Women’s Media Foundation for consistently and doggedly seeking to reach out to the silenced around the world.

Ann at Beautiful, Also, Are the Souls of My Black Sisters honors the contributions of black women and decries the racist and sexist violence they face every day of the year. Here are two posts from her: one about the ordeal of Megan Williams of West Virginia, and the other about Yvette Hayes of Independence, Missouri. Another resource dedicated to watching out for the lives of black women is Black and Missing, an excellent blog coordinated by Deidra Robey.

About young Mexican women performing a dance traditionally executed by males for appeasing neglected spirits during All Saints’ Day (tomorrow):

There was resistance at first. The girls were weak, some people said, unable to endure the exhausting three-day festival. They were inexperienced. They didn’t know the steps.

But they wanted to dance. And there was no one else. So the girls donned the traditional devil masks – made of red and black cardboard, horses’ manes and deer antlers – and learned the traditional moves.

“We are showing that what people think is only for men, women can also do,” said Maleny Milian Marcial, 15, one of more than a dozen teenage girls who danced in Cerro de las Tablas last year and will be dancing again this week.

In the past year, they have performed in exhibitions in nearby towns. In one town, the women were so moved they joined in the dance themselves. But the girls say they are not dancing to make a statement. They dance because they want to.

As our younger sisters want to dance, so too do women of color want to speak.

And we shall speak beyond this day,

join the carnival of 16 days

of activism against

gender violence

we will wear red,

stand with the international call

to respect sexual autonomy

and human rights

for Indigenous people

in the Northern Territory in Australia

and we will survive.

read the powerful words

of Mohawk women who

refuse to submit

to institutional violence

We will not be silenced.

Be bold. Be red.