Ever since the #YouOkSis tweet chat on Thursday focused on Black women’s experiences with #streetharassment, a bunch of people on twitter have been attacking me, saying I started the hashtag (@FeministaJones did) and the whole movement against street harassment (yeah right, women have been organizing against this issue for 100+ years) in order to push my “agenda” to jail Black men. They have also targeted the Black woman who led the campaign and many other women who participated during the chat.
Of course I have dealt with criticism (constructive and vicious) but this is a new level of willful misinformation and hate. People have been calling me Jim Crow, saying I dupe Black women, saying I have an agenda to jail all Black men, and a few men have said sexually explicit things about me. Some men have also photoshopped my head onto images like one of me crushing a Black woman in a chair with her underneath me. Yes, this is all upsetting.
I have followed the guidance of the woman who started the hashtag and not engaged with them. I wasn’t going to mention it on this blog, even.
However, I just received an email from a presumably white man saying he whole-heartedly agrees with my campaign to jail Black men and called them racial slurs and says he wants to contribute money to my campaign. That is disgusting and unacceptable and I emailed him back to tell him so. I don’t know if it’s a joke or not, but it’s unacceptable regardless.
But it makes me realize I can’t not say something publicly about this. Misinformation spreads fast. So ENOUGH.
Let me be clear: I do not have an agenda to jail anyone.
What do I want? I want everyone to be safe and unharassed in public spaces. I want interactions in public spaces to be respectful and full of consent.
Street harasser does not mean Black men. Far from it.
Men across all backgrounds are harassers (and some are harassed, primarily in the LGBT community).
On the flip side, women across all backgrounds experience street harassment (and a small number are harassers).
I have collected thousands of stories, done two online surveys, commissioned a nationally representative survey, and conducted 10 focus groups. I’ve given 125 talks where I’ve heard stories. I’ve written two books, a master’s thesis and 50 articles. I don’t know everything about street harassment, but I know a hell of a lot.
And here’s the thing. Street harassment is a societal and global problem. Street harassment does not happen in a vacuum. Sexual harassment is a problem in our schools and workplaces. Rape is a problem on our campuses and in our military. Domestic violence and teen dating violence are problems as is incest. Street harassment is one component of the sexual harassment/sexual violence/domestic violence spectrum and grouping — and it happens in every country.
I’ve been speaking out for years specifically on street harassment because so few others have been.
And so this is my agenda: bring attention to this problem, provide a place for people to share stories, and help create a culture where everyone has the right to be safe and unharassed in public spaces. Read about SSH’s work here.
