These above words, though quoted from Shackelford and her friends, very much echo the feelings of many black women lately. When a black man is unjustly brutalized by police or killed, we step into the front lines of protests and create #protectOurMen and #blackboysmatter hashtags on social media to show that our black men’s and black boy’s lives matter. However, when a black woman or girl suffers rape or murder, there is largely silence — sometimes even justification for the injustice — from our men. This is all with the exception a few (literally, a few) male voices that do speak up in our defense.
You don’t shut sh*& down for us when we’re murdered by the police, by this system, or by our community. – Ashleigh Shackelford
According to a Violence Policy Center (VPC) analysis released in 2012, black women have been murdered by men at an alarming rate in this country. In 2010, the murder rate of black women was nearly 2.5 times higher than that of white women. Additionally, the most common weapon used to commit these homicides was a gun. In the same survey, 94% of murdered black women knew their male killers.
The biggest threat to black women and femmes safety is not just white and non-Black people, it’s you.
We are the revolution.
And you can’t silence us anymore.
This is just the beginning. This will no longer be a conversation we “keep in the house” because you can’t be trusted to hear us, protect us, humanize us, or love us.
Source: Black Girl Long Hair