Thoughts on the death of Oluwatoyin Salau and fellow black women
“The most disrespected person in America is the black woman. The most unprotected person in America is the black woman. The most neglected person in America is the black woman.”
Malcolm X
Malcolm X’s words about the protection of black women in America are the only words that stand out in my mind because his words from 1962 still hold painstakingly true to the protection of black women in 2020. Oluwatoyin Salau’s face stays on my mind heavily. Her picture stays on my social media feed as I scroll. This nineteen-year-old, black, female activist was found dead days after posting on Twitter about being sexually assaulted. The gut-wrenching part about her death was that she was killed by a black man, who sexually assaulted her right before murdering her. Salau’s life had such a disappointing and tragic ending, where her activism was focused on the Black Lives Matter movement, to then be killed by a man from the black community that she was fighting for. Her story has shaken me to my core, as we share similarities of being young, black women in America. It has caused a bit of sickness in the pit of my stomach to know that you can be a black, vocal female in a country where it is considered to be “The Land of the Free” that is filled with endless opportunities and can still face death in such a gruesome way, not by the opposite race but by your own people.
During slavery, it was nearly impossible for black men to protect the black women from being raped by the slave masters and overseers. Furthermore, it was harder to keep the black women from being sent to the breeding farms, where their sexual sacristy was taken and violated at high privilege by white people. After all we have been through – 400 years of trials, tribulations, hardships, and struggles – we should take the extra mile to protect black women. They are the back bone in the black community. Even in the face of adversity, black women have pulled through for the sake of their children and families. It should be up to the black men to step up now more than ever to take the extra precautions to protect the black women in our community.
The mission to respect and protect our black women is not up to par as should be or can be in the 21st century. Black women are known to go far and beyond for black men but still there are some of our black men who refuse to do the same. For example, Oluwatoyin Salau was advocating for equality for black people, specifically police brutality against black men. She was out in the community protesting for better treatment towards the black community. The black men she was protecting and advocating for was one of the ones that took her life. In the words of Malcolm X, “The black man will never be respected until he learns how to treat his woman right.” Meaning that until the black men in our community start to give more respect, care, and protection to black women, they will continue to face disrespect and discrimination by the oppressor. Until we, as a black community, start to bring awareness to sexual violence, human trafficking, and sex trafficking and take the necessary actions to protect our young, black girls, we will continue to hear stories like this.
How can we move forward and bring awareness sexual violence in the black community? One of the ways we can bring awareness to sexual violations/violence is to not make victims feel ashamed. We should be able to let victims tell their story without making them feel belittled, ignored, and invalid. Giving victims and survivors the safety net and support to be vocal and share their experience will help bring awareness to us, as people, so that we know how to prevent it from further happening. A way we can combat sexual violence against black women is by holding seminars and conferences/meetings. In these conferences, it would be set up as an open forum to the community, where mothers and victims/survivors have a conversation about their perspectives on sexual assaults. Hopefully it would give some men that don’t know many women in their life, who have experienced sexual violence, a chance to hear from women who have personally or from their daughters. We have the power to change the social norms by speaking up against sexual language or behaviors that promote violence and offer support where the violence has occurred. Let us shine light on an issue that has continued far too long. As long as we don’t shine a light, then the roach predators won’t come out.
