Document The Silence: a website giving voice to Feminist Women of Color confronting Racist Sexual Violence

All that follows is from *here*.

“The History of Document the Silence’s Website”

In Uncategorized on July 26, 2009 at 8:25 pm

In October 2007 people all over the United States gathered physically and in spirit to speak out against violence against women of color. The violence that lead us to action was:

Organizing on October 2007

• The brutal and inhumane rape, torture, and kidnapping of Megan Williams in Logan, West Virginia who was held by six assailants for a month.
• Rape survivors in the Dunbar Housing Projects in West Palm Beach, Florida one of whom was forced to perform sexual acts on her own child.
• A 13 year old native American girl was beaten by two white women and has since been harassed by several men yelling “white power” outside of her home
• Seven black lesbian girls attempted to stop an attacker and were latter charged with aggravated assault and are facing up to 11 year prison sentences

The title of the campaign was Be Bold Be Red Be Brave: Ending Violence against Women of Color. Some of us wore red all day and explained that we were reclaiming and reframing our bodies as a challenge to the widespread acceptance of violence against women of color. Some of us wrote powerful essays about why we were wearing red and posted them on the internet. Some of us gathered with bold and like-minded folks and took pictures, shared poetry and expressed solidarity.

Then on the first anniversary of the Be Bold Be Red Campaign, October 30, 2008, we once again invited people to make bold stances against the violence enacted on women and girls of color in our society visible.

In D.C., Chicago, Durham, Atlanta and Detroit women of color gathered to renew their commitment to creating a world free from racialized and gendered violence through the use of Cyberquilting which uses video conferencing technologies to connect all of these gatherings in real time. To learn more about Cyberquilting, which is a woman of color led project to stitch movements together using new web technologies and old traditions of love and nurturing, visit www.cyberquilt.wordpress.com.

And now we are launching a new cyber campaign entitled, “Where is Aniysah?”