In February my cousin T. Nicole was a
victim of violence from a high profile African-American man, the
president of the Cincinnati chapter of the NAACP.
On the night it happened my cousin
called and told me what happened to
her at the Cincinnati NAACP office. She was crying her heart out over
the telephone as she explained to me the humiliation and pain she felt over
being shoved down the steps by the big black man in a powerful position.
As I listened to my younger cousin weep on
the phone, I really didn’t know what was the right course of action or how to
advise her. I knew that it was not right
for NAACP president Ishton Morton to shove her but I also knew the man’s history
and his connection with the powerful and oldest civil rights organization in
the country. I was aware that even though she was a victim how she would be stereotyped and made to believe she deserved to be pushed and thrown out of a meeting.
Although she and I had
dedicated over 6 years of our life to the NAACP organization, that same organization
had failed to protect us when we reported the behavior of the powerful men in
the group which included, emotional abuse, threats of physical intimidation as
well as sexual harassment by the current leader who reportedly is not in America legally.
Former NAACP Cincinnati chapter president
and Council member Christopher Smitherman, who is the chair of the Law and Public safety committee said
this of the abuse my cousin suffered, “The women cause a scene, acting in
such a way that begs someone to touch them in order to escort them out.”
0 comments:
Post a Comment