LaToya Bell was once eleven too
posted: Jul 5, 03:16 PM
I don’t think I’ve moved into vacation mode as easily as I have in previous years. There are a number of issues which I want, or perhaps need, to address. Additionally, I have found some wonderful blogs, where the focus is activism and ultimately, advocacy.
Yesterday I discovered What About Our Daughters? A blog for, by, and about Black women and girls: uncompromising, unapologetic, unbowed! I don’t believe one has to be a woman of color to recognize the importance of this blog’s content.
Wednesday July 2’s post addressed the sexual assault of an eleven year old girl in Milwaukee, by 20 men and boys. If the foregoing isn’t enough to cause anxiety in the reader the observation of a 22 year old woman who lived in the community and knew the victim and perpetrators has to be. LaToya Bell’s name will probably be the most famous to come out of this tragedy. Ms Bell is quoted as saying “Five years? Ten years? That’s ridiculous. They are getting time for nothing. That girl, she knew what she was doing.”
Victims seem to carry blame and responsibility for their “misfortunes” on a fairly regular basis in our society regardless of color, gender, sexual orientation, the list is as unique as the individual. A woman is sexually assaulted and there is always someone who wants to know what she was wearing, where she was…a person has cancer and they are encouraged to have a positive attitude (you know my attitude to this). I’m certain as soon as I post this article I’ll think of several other instances I should have added.
It frightens me even more when adult women accept their “place” within a community is defined by the men in the community. When a community “sticks together”, effectively silencing and sacrificing the victim(s), rather than addressing the systemic problems which need healing from the inside.
I believe why this issue resonates so deeply for me is there have been several similar sexual assaults within the community where I work. The community members appear to sacrifice the girl who experienced the assault in an effort to protect the young men and boys involved.
As What About Our Daughters? asks “How do you incarcerate structural inequalities which encourage, promote, and reward demonstrations of “masculinity” involving brutalizing young Black girls as a matter of course?” LaToya Bell was once an eleven year old girl too. I can’t help but wonder what she may have experienced in her relatively short life which may have normalized this little girl’s horrific experience.
Gemini