GIRLS RAPED AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, U.S.A. - RAPE IS OKAY - EVEN IN AMERICA

 

 

Little girls and young women are being raped all over the world. Why? Because men must satisfy their every desire. Because men envy and fear women. They must control and conquer them. Because such men are savages, religious fanatics, perverts, greedy, mentally defective, self-centered, criminal, arrogant bastards.

 

And because societies all over the world, run by men, allow them to do it. 

 

You will read here on this blog of the sexual abuse of little girls and young women around the world. With television news available to everyone, we have become accustomed to hearing of sexual abuse in India, Cambodia, Africa, Thailand and other not-yet "civilized" societies.

 

It is long past due for us to recognize, notice, admit, and protest full-force, the abuse of little girls and young women all over the world - even in America - on college campuses, in the military, in churches, on the streets, in their own homes.

 

Why is it happening?

Because our governments, our police, our society

Let it happen.

 

Because those who should be protecting girls - protect their rapists instead.

Young women raped at Columbia University in the U.S.A. blame school authorities and police for aiding their rapists. They will not be silent. Neither should we. Silence implies consent and, by our silence, we make ourselves accomplices to the heinous criminals who enjoy the protection of  "The System". They are such nice boys. So what if they enjoy a little fun? That is "The System" our society supports.

Slavery is now frowned on.

Women have the right to vote.

But RAPE is still okay.

Phyllis Carter

 

Hundreds of students turned out for a rally at Columbia University in New York City on Friday bearing mattresses and chanting "carry that weight," a reference to the emotional burden they say all survivors must shoulder each day. Some wore red tape over their mouths to symbolize the harms done by Columbia's bureaucratic handling of sexual assault. Earlier this month, Columbia University senior Emma Sulkowicz announced she would carry a dorm room mattress with her everywhere on campus until her rapist is expelled or leaves campus on his own. We play excerpts from Friday's rally and speak to Sulkowicz and fellow Columbia University senior Zoe Ridolfi-Starr. She was also sexually assaulted at Columbia in 2012. She is the lead complainant in a federal complaint against Columbia over its handling of sexual assault.

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: We're speaking with Emma Sulkowicz, a Columbia University senior who says she'll carry a dorm room mattress with her everywhere on campus until her rapist is expelled or leaves campus on his own. Emma Sulkowicz is not alone. On Friday, hundreds of students turned out to a rally carrying mattresses of their own, chanting "Carry that weight!" a reference to the emotional burden they say all survivors must carry each day. In front of Low Library at Columbia University in a speak-out that lasted hours, many shared stories of violence, injustice and healing. This is just some of their voices.

STUDENTS: Carry that weight! Carry that weight! Carry that weight! Carry that weight!

SIERRA: Sierra. I'm a freshman here at Columbia. And for the past two weeks, I've been meeting with deans and advisers in different environments, and they've been telling me how they can help me get a job, how they can help me study abroad. How are you going to help end sexual assault on my campus? Why is it more likely for me to be raped at this college than it was for me to get into this college?

ALICE: My name is Alice. I'm a junior at Barnard. To graduate from Columbia College, you need to pass a swim test or take a beginner's swim class. I don't get why Columbia's administration doesn't uphold consent—enthusiastic, continuous, retractable, noncoerced consent—as a Columbia requirement. My assaulter graduated. My friend's rapist graduated. I guess not being a rapist isn't a graduation requirement, unlike knowing how to swim. Knowing how to breast stroke for three laps isn't going to keep me from drowning when I see my rapists on campus or their name on a class roster or when you run into them in an elevator. Columbia, where rapists walk away with diplomas, but you can't graduate unless you pass the swim test.

DOROTHY: Hi, I'm Dorothy. I'm a freshman. I've been on this campus for two weeks, and I was sexually assaulted six days ago. And no one tells you where to go from there, so...

JEN: Jen. My first year here on campus at Barnard College, I was raped. Unlike the vast majority of students who are raped on this campus, I was not raped in a dorm or in a party or on campus, but off campus. I quickly went into something of a spiral, where I couldn't sleep at night and I could only sleep during the day. And I started having trouble in my classes, and I started having my grades slip. And it became an issue, and I went to speak to the dean of students at Barnard, a woman, a women's college, and I told her what had happened to me. And she looked at me with a sad expression and said, "You went where we tell our girls never to go." The idea that she would both victim-blame me and invoke the most racist stereotypes of how sexual assault happens, at the same time, says everything about what this university represents. This was 22 years ago. And what has changed?

http://www.democracynow.org/2014/9/16/we_will_not_be_silenced_students