You all know this—Sexual assault is a HUGE issue on college campuses. But as we discuss consent and how to fairly adjudicate cases, are black women being left out of the conversation? That’s the question Anita Badejo of BuzzFeed News asks in her deep investigation of sexual assault at Spelman and Morehouse, two elite single-sex historically black colleges.
In interviews with several people at both schools, Badejo learned that while the colleges talk big talk about sexual assault, a combination of respectability politics and old-fashioned sexism are standing in the way of real action. In one shocking statistic, the story reports that while 44 percent of white women report sexual assault, only 17 percent of black women do.
“We already feel bad enough because we’re all black. … We already have so much against us,” Victoria Hall, a recent Spelman graduate and sexual assault survivor, told BuzzFeed News. “For once we’re trying to protect ourselves. It’s not even about race, but of course [black men] have to make it about race by wanting us to protect [them]. I said, I’m not doing that anymore.”
Check out the full story here.