Were You Bold? Did You Wear Red Today?

“When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.”

-Audre Lorde

As an ally in speaking out against violence enacted on all women, today I wore the red boots shown above to emphatically show my commitment to creating a world free from racialized and gendered violence. The website, Document the Silence, explains the Be Bold Wear Red movement in more detail.

I am not a woman of color. Just a short year ago I may not have participated in this day because of this very reason, but I've grown to realize just because this is a women of color led initiative, the movement is not at all exclusive. It can never be exclusive because violence against women of color is violence against all women. Every time a woman is beaten or raped or murdered, our desire for a humanity that is intact splinters a bit more. And it is a fact we cannot ignore that many victims of war (think Iraq, Afghanistan, Africa) are women of color. We white women cannot be silent in the face of these tragedies. Silence is acquiescence.

I, myself, am no stranger to violence against women. As a little girl I watched someone very close to me experience the horror of being violated. Though the physical bruises were hidden from me, the emotional scars were not. I saw the fear, the revulsion... the shame that this wonderful woman who had only ever contributed goodness to the world had to learn to live with. I observed her struggle to breathe and trust in a world that did not protect her - in a justice system that catered to the privileged. I felt her tears in my hair as she held and protected my scared little body in her arms. I listened to her as she stroked my face and told me with her words and her actions that I was not powerless - that she would not be powerless even in the midst of this battle raging inside of her. Even in her darkness. She is a survivor. And because of her, I am one, too.

So, no, I cannot be silent about this. Because this story is just one of the millions of stories out there. Not one of us can afford to be silent about this - men, women, white, black, brown - not if we want to take care of our fellow sisters and show our brothers and governments that pain and violence and control need not be the way to the future. Not if we truly love them.

We must speak. Now.

We have no choice.