On Mar. 23, 2016, many of our social media feeds became filled with views, and opinions on the Howard University's Sexual Assault protest that took the internet by storm. On Tuesday, Mar. 22, 2016, over 100 Howard University students gathered on their campus and protested against how their university mishandled sexual assault cases. One student's case, in particular, sparked this revolution when she used Twitter as her platform to share how the University mishandled her sexual assault case. Many HU students shared their similar stories and got out the word by using the hashtag #TakeBackTheNightHU.
In witnessing this touching protest, many other colleges, specifically HBCUs, jumped on the hashtag showing ample amounts of support and encouragement to the movement and sexual assault victims. But this is where it gets messy; our beloved Morehouse brothers jumped on the protest faster than a speeding bullet.
Now, hold up wait a minute, did y'all think we forgot? Was it not just last semester, only two days after Joe Biden's stepped of Morehouse campus's soil spreading sexual assault awareness that one of your beloved Morehouse Brothers drafted and published this 'Hoe Consent Form :
Now, Men of Morehouse, did you all not have all of the AUC at the granite steps of Graves Hall undergoing battling disputes over this Rape Consent Form? Were your fellow Spelman and Clark sisters not appalled and outraged to witness how many of their beloved Morehouse brothers dodged the conversation, downplayed sexual assault cases in the AUC, and protected their "brother" from facing the consequences of his actions? Now many of the AUC students saw the GroupMe messages that went viral, condoning or calling out this young man for his actions but where did our sexual assault discussions get us? How many of us can respond strongly saying that we witnessed over 100 AUC students protesting for our assaulted Clark and Spelman women? Now let's not exclude our assaulted Morehouse men as well in this equation! I do not recall seeing a flood of Morehouse Brothers standing in unison with the mini-protests that broke out on the AUC campuses including, the protest led by Timothy Tukes where he sat silently on the very bed he was assaulted on:
I am not a fan of downing HBCUs because every college has its problems, but I will not stand by quietly watching my Morehouse Brothers clean someone else's dirty laundry without airing out their own. HBCUs have a big problem with letting sexual assault cases go underrepresented and not confronted. It is time for us to stop talking about it and be about it. Let us learn as a community how to practice what we preach. Learn how to not only protest for sexual assault cases happening hundreds of miles away but protest the cases that are going on in your own backyard; in your own halls! Sexual assault is a huge unaddressed problem in the AUC. Morehouse, it is time to address what's going on in your own house first before you wander into other's backyard.
