RAPE THESE BITCHES
Monday, July 21st, 2008
RAPE THESE BITCHES!
Instead of Rape these Bitches I could easily title this piece Darfur: Raping one woman at a time. However that would lead us to believe that this is an isolated problem in the country of Sudan, when in fact it is not. According to Amnesty International; in the Congo alone 40,000 women have been raped in the last 6 years as an act of war. 6 year old girls are being raped by men with H.I.V., having their bodies violated, their souls torn and their lives ruined.
If the title Rape These Bitches offends you, it should! It offends me that as an international society we devalue the worth of women so much that we ignore their screams and cries after being forced to have sex with military men in their flawed attempt at conquering the souls of that nation. The term bitch is one of the most vile terms you can call a woman but it is nothing in comparison to the brutalized rapings that women are subjected to daily. Women are not bitches but the way in which these rapings have been ignored makes me feel as if we are treating them as such.
Last week the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court sought an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Al- Bashir. He is being charged with masterminding a campaign to wipe out African Tribes in Darfur with genocide, rape and massive deportation allegedly sanctioned by the government of Sudan. However the day this story broke the news was consumed with “satire or tasteless” images of Presidential nominee Barack Obama on the cover of the New Yorker and barely paid any attention to the atrocities going on in Darfur or even brought light to the fact that rape as an act of war is happening in Iraq, Afghanistan and countless other countries that are engaged in conflict.
So in essence we are blatantly sending a message that the rape of women is not an important issue. As an international society / global village we are screaming ‘RAPE THESE BITCHES”. We must be, because our lack of concern for the well being of women across the globe is shameful and by being ignorant to this issue we are condoning the rape of women and devaluing their existence.
In America we are constantly arguing over the images of women of color and how they are being exploited in the media. In recent years this has become a big debate but the fact that many governments are turning a blind eye to their troops raping women of the nations who they are in conflict with goes unnoticed. Not to make light of the negative images of women portrayed in the media however I wonder why more women aren’t speaking out about the brutality forced upon these female victims. Survivors tell stories of being raped by ten or more men in front of their toddler children. While young women parading around in thongs on BET does do damage to a young girl’s self esteem; 40,000 women being raped as a government sanction is an international issue that needs to be addressed by men and women of all colors in all countries.
It’s hard enough for women who have been the victims of such an atrocity to even share their story. Many would rather death than the shame and memories that they are forced to live with because of the trauma they have endured. The amount of government officials who have been imprisoned for authorizing such horrific crimes are minimal however. And those statistics will remain minimal if our attention is not brought to these issues, if people of all countries do not pressure their own governments to make these heinous war crimes a priority. For too long we have turned a blind eye to issues that are not directly affecting us. Just think; we ignored terrorism in other places and the stench of death rose so high that it claimed over 3,000 of our own in America on September 11, 2001. Do not be foolish and think that we are immune to such atrocities!
If a millionaire hides his/her money in offshore accounts you can count on seeing that plastered all over our TV. screens via news outlets. Michael Vick financed a dog fighting ring and this story ripped through our homes at the speed of light. Every day I watch Presidential nominees talk about a war that cost $720 million dollars a day, that was started for personal gain and carelessness but I rarely hear them address an issue such as the use of rape as an act of war. Until we as a race of humans decide that this is an issue that needs to be addressed. Every time you see a sweet innocent young child who is around 5 or 6 years old walking to school with her SpongeBob book bag on. Remember that if you were in another country you may see that same young girl, with her clothes ripped, soul depleted, and tears on her face because she has just been raped by ten or more adult men who are soldiers and are supposed to represent the enforcement of laws in that country. Help make this issue a priority, contact organizations like Amnesty International and see how you can help. Contact your government officials and voice your outrage about these atrocities, and contact the news outlets which choose to sensationalize nonsense instead of addressing real issues. Contact those news stations and hold them accountable to report to you news that matters and not just sensationalized entertainment. Make It Happen!
