In recent months, Dare to Struggle has confronted two instances of sexual assault and abusive behavior from people involved in our work. The situations required immediate action to kick out and expose the abusers.
We’ve also recently taken up fights to support people facing criminal charges for defending themselves against abusers, including Keshia Golden, a Black mother who defended herself and her unborn child against a serial abuser and who faces a second-degree murder charge in Chicago, along with Kam, a survivor of rape who faces a felony charge in New Jersey for exposing their rapist online.
Because our people are facing retaliation for seeking justice against their abusers, because there is a universal culture of sexual misconduct among Leftist organizations, and because the broader patriarchal society we live in is constantly breeding and enabling fucked up behavior, we have to get on the same page about how we fight to eradicate patriarchy in all its manifestations.
We don’t “talk it out” with rapists
Some people think rapists deserve to have “their side” of the story told when women come forward with credible accusations of sexual assault. We don’t. Some people think identity markers excuse or justify abusive behavior and make someone more deserving of leniency. We don’t. Some people think it’s wrong to punish perpetrators of sexual assault and misconduct, and that we should instead coddle people with “restorative justice” nonsense. We don’t.
To brush aside rape, assault, and harassment is to ignore and encourage it. It sends a message that we’re perfectly fine with it. We either punish and aggressively deter this behavior, or we reward it by not taking it seriously.
Survivors need to be supported in every way possible
Taking the first step of exposing an abuser or rapist invites immediate retaliation. Survivors are routinely ignored and face total isolation. Abusers inflict vile retaliatory behavior on survivors for speaking out, including harassing them to stay silent, spreading lies and talking shit about them, and manipulating them through guilt and shame. The people retaliating aren’t just going against the survivor for standing up. They’re also upholding patriarchy and fighting to maintain it.
When survivors take steps to publicly expose or go after their abusers, they face civil lawsuits for defamation, or even criminal charges and the potential for jail time. Whenever this happens, we need to do everything in our power to flip it around—expose the sick fuck who is doubling down on their abuse, expose the pathetic losers supporting them, and expose the wretched system that punishes survivors.
If a survivor faces retaliation or prison time for fighting back, a mob of people needs to stand with them to bulldoze every obstacle out of the way on their path to getting full justice.
Rapists and abusers should live in fear of retribution
Perpetrators of rape and abuse hardly ever face the punishment they deserve. The legal system protects them. Organizations embolden them by allowing this behavior to fester, cultivating a perfect environment for these kinds of people to keep victimizing others and find new victims. Survivors face worse consequences when they speak out or fight back.
We need to make it unsafe for abusers to be around our work. Anyone who commits sexual assault is immediately kicked out. Anyone who harasses or is disrespectful towards women and LGBTQ people, and who refuses to change when they’re confronted about it, also gets kicked out.
We’ve exposed and we’ll keep exposing sexual abusers
Exposing someone through social media is an immediate way to put other abusers on notice: don’t come around us if you don’t want to get exposed too. Unrepentant, die-hard misogynists should confront the shame of having their face, name, and crimes plastered over the internet.
We’ve heard people suggest that we’re somehow helping the state repress activists by exposing the abusers among us. This makes them sound like apologists for rape. Why should “activists” somehow get a pass from public scrutiny for depraved behavior just because they do good activist deeds? It seems like what people saying this really want is to maintain sexual assault as perfectly acceptable behavior in these circles.
It’s often friends of abusers who are forced to confront whether they’ll take action against their friend. There’s a broader issue of how people decide someone is guilty or innocent based on whether or not they like or don’t like them as a person. We need to be more serious—just because someone is your friend, that doesn’t mean they didn’t do something fucked up. The majority of people who are assaulted are attacked by people they know and trust. If your friend is guilty of disgusting behavior, you need to break from them and support the victim. To fight and eradicate patriarchy, we need to expose every instance of sexual assault and create a social environment that’s hostile to it.
Policies and statements don’t mean shit if they don’t lead to consequences
Most nonprofits, government agencies, and corporations that employ abusers have “zero tolerance” policies that they don’t enforce. Leftist organizations like PSL and FRSO, who profess to fight injustice, have well-documented track records of enabling sexual abusers. They are at the vanguard of enabling and spreading rampant sexual misconduct among activist organizations in the US.
Our policies are empty words if they don’t lead to action. When we hear of abusive behavior, we need decisive responses. Plans need to be made and quickly carried out to confront the perpetrator and support the person they targeted.
We also need to criticize any instance of disrespect or harassment towards women and LGTBQ people. As soon as someone demonstrates a pattern of behavior, we need to escalate our response and force them to decide if they’re going to quit being a pig. If they don’t, we don’t want them around.
Our organizational culture should set the proper tone from the moment someone meets and joins us, making it extremely clear what is acceptable and what is not. We’ve had extremely few cases of abuse or sexual assault to respond to, and that’s because we quickly push away people who are sexual opportunists.
In a just society, people who commit rape and assault would face punishment for their crimes every single time. Until that day comes, anyone who takes matters into their own hands to root out this behavior is justified. Every survivor deserves justice, and every rapist deserves to live in fear, shame, and guilt.
Dare to Struggle 