A woman was hit in the side of the head with a brick for rejecting a man’s advances and the misogynist side of Black Twitter did everything in its power to justify why no one should have stepped in to protect her, including the men who stood around and did not intervene.
Part of their justification was to go and dig up videos of her saying that her mission was to protect Black women and that was where her allegiance lies. Out of context, it is easy to feel detached from wanting to protect her, but in context, it is completely understandable why she would say that because, well, many times, Black women are the only ones who protect each other, and misogyny is a craft that many demographics happily delight in.
Yesterday, I saw a video clip of a poem called “I Don’t Owe You Sh-t,” spliced with numerous clips of Black women announcing that they didn’t, in fact, owe anyone sh-t. I saw this mashup posted in the comments on several tweets from the Passport Bros. and from Tariq Nasheed, the ashy part of Twitter. The poem was actually inspired by someone groping and sexually harassing the poet. I know this because I am the one who wrote it, and somehow, me saying that I do not owe someone my body simply because they want it devolved into me not being deserving of protection as well. Many people’s justification for not stepping in to help the woman was not only do they not owe a stranger protection, but they have families to go home to, which is understandable, until it’s their family member in need of that very protection they are not on-site to provide. The assumption that your family members will always be guarded by your protection and never in need of the protection of strangers and their community, as a whole, is delusional and intellectually dishonest at best.
Just days after the woman was hit in the face with a brick, there was a Black woman in her 60s who was beaten with her own cane by a white man on the subway, and no one intervened. No one saw the value in protecting her because protecting Black women is not a necessity.
When Black men are unjustly harmed, racist white people run to whatever sources they can find to dig up whatever in the past they can to justify why that person no longer has a future. There is always an attempt to discredit the victim, but they never dig far into the past of the perpetrator. This is exactly what the internet did to justify a woman being hit in the face with a brick. We often look for perfect victims in imperfect people. In a world where Black people rejoiced at the physical defense of a Black security guard moving a boat, we all collectively understood the importance, but even simply speaking up for a Black woman involved too much bravery.
The irony of my poem being edited and adulterated to further the narrative that Black women do not need protection is that the man who posted it under these Black men’s comments for them to eat it up was, in fact, a Trump-loving white man, because, if there’s nothing racist white people and misogynistic Black men have in common, is that they both believe Black women should be at their feet, so it’s easier to kick us, if we step out of line.
