TRIGGER WARNING: sexual assault, rape, misogynistic language

I remember when the statement of Brock Turner’s victim came to light. I had just graduated from high school.

Brock Turner’s victim. That’s what this remarkable woman’s identity was reduced to after the night she was sexually assaulted at Stanford University by a white, all-American Stanford boy. All the judge and the media could talk about was what a talented swimmer the rapist was and how he’d had a bright future ahead of him. The man who’d tried to take his victim’s dignity, her agency, her very self.

When he received a sentence of six months, possibly reduced to three months, I raged. But I couldn’t imagine it could get any worse.

Until it did.

Austin Wilkerson is a student at the University of Colorado. He pretended to help a heavily intoxicated young woman at a party when others were watching, and when they were alone, he raped her.

Kalief Browder was imprisoned for three years without trial on the accusation of having stolen a backpack. He was Black. Fate Vincent Winslow received life in prison for selling a small quantity of marijuana. He was homeless.

Earlier during the party, Wilkerson had by his own admission made advances on his victim but was rejected, and responded by referring to her as a “fucking bitch.”

Austin Wilkerson received exactly zero prison time. If you are a wealthy white male, rape is barely a crime.

Women, we have to understand that the system offers no justice for us. When we are the victims of sexual assault, of male violence, the system offers no justice. We live each day knowing the law does not protect us when the police force is overwhelmingly male; when judges and juries have been conditioned in a society that teaches dangerous lies about what it means to be a man or a woman, that is built upon a violently patriarchal culture.

Men are naturally strong, active, sexual, they say; they must constantly prove their toxic masculinity through acts of violence and control. Women are weak and gentle and submissive and are the vessel for the man’s seed.

It’s a destructive lie.

In our society white men are entitled to control over our lives, our bodies, our consent; this belief is accepted without question. It’s accepted every time they demand to know how much she had to drink. What she was wearing, to be interpreted to the convenience of men. If she said no loudly enough; if it was really a no or if she really wanted it, if her clothes spoke louder than her voice. If she was a “desperate whore.”

And the media, and the courts, find a way to make the perpetrator out to be the victim, his life ruined by one “mistake,” a bright future led astray by a temptress, a vixen, a Calypso, a slut.

Never mind the victim’s ruined future. Never mind her tears, her self-hatred, her thoughts of suicide, her recurring nightmares, her ability to function, her life’s dreams that she now will not be able to achieve. Because she asked for it.

She asked for it because the dress she thought made her look pretty, a boy decided made her available. Because she was too careless at a party, drank too much, and boys will be boys. Because she loved the solitude of the night outdoors, watching the stars, but only “bad girls” stayed out so late. Because she can’t expect boys to control themselves.

“Your silence will not protect you,” Audre Lorde declared.

Keeping your head down will not protect you. Obeying the rules will not protect you. Vilifying your fellow women will not protect you.

It will not protect you from being a woman. It will not isolate you from the risks you incur by existing in a patriarchal society. It will not protect you from being next.

Yes all women.

But fellow women, here are my words to you, and to myself, as I step across the threshold into a world in which I have a 20 to 25 percent chance of being the victim of sexual assault.

I wasn’t even angry when I heard about the Austin Wilkerson case. I was burning with rage after Brock Turner; now I had simply sighed in resignation and frustration. But now I was completely wrong.

Never lose your rage.

Never slip into acceptance, resignation, normalization.

Let your anger be new each morning to burn the world clean. Rise blazing as the sun each crimson dawn. Rise blazing when everyone tells you you're crazy.

Rise blazing when the established order stands against you. Rise blazing against every catcall, every gender disparity, every threat, every microaggression, for they build the foundation upon which the violence and the rape stands.

Rise blazing for your sisters of all colors.

Rise blazing to bring to birth a new world.

Rise blazing like the terrible power you are.

Rise blazing because I stand with you. I believe you. And we will all stand together.

Solidarity, not silence, will be our sword and shield.

If you wish to sign the petition to remove the judge who gave Wilkerson the lenient sentence, click here.