**Content Warning: Mentions Sexual Assault and Intimate Partner Violence**

It's National Sexual Assault Awareness Month. 

And when we say protect Black women, we mean it!

Dear, John:

April 2022 marks the 21st celebration of National Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM), an annual campaign dedicated to raising awareness about sexual violence and educating communities on consent.¹ Every year, SAAM honors the survivors who have been met with doubt, disbelief, or victim-blaming upon coming forward. And each day, Color Of Change runs campaigns that shift the narratives around sexual violence and hold abusers accountable. John, here’s a brief snapshot of our #ProtectBlackSurvivors initiatives in the past few years: 

• Combatting Rape Culture and Misogynoir in Mainstream Media: We are holding media publications accountable to crafting narratives around sexual violence that center the voices and experiences of Black survivors. This month, we released our #ProtectBlackSurvivors Media Style Guide, which provides journalists with a list of best practices for reporting on this issue, like avoiding harmful language, using trauma-informed interview techniques, and more!

• Building Sisterhood with Black Survivors: We are cultivating intimate and intentional spaces for Black women and femme survivors of sexual trauma. In February 2021, we offered 30 fully covered scholarships to our Empowered Action Series, which focused on moving from healing to activism through trauma-informed reflection, narrative-building exercises, and even training to become more involved in our #ProtectBlackSurvivors work. Tomorrow, we will be releasing our Open Letter to Misogynistic Media Outlets, featuring quotes from several attendees about the depiction of Black women’s trauma in mainstream media. 

• Deplatforming Abusers Within the Entertainment Industry: We are putting pressure on corporate enablers to deplatform those who have harmed Black women, femmes, and girls. Back in 2019, we convinced RCA/Sony to #DropRKelly after the Surviving R. Kelly docuseries detailed nearly three decades of sexual abuse committed against young Black women and girls.² And in April 2021, we pressured VH1 to suspend production for T.I. & Tiny: Friends & Family Hustle, and Spotify to remove the expediTIously with Tip “T.I.” Harris podcast from its platform.³ More than 30 Black women had come forward with stories of abuse, and all of them faced retaliation by T.I. and Tiny.

John, WILL YOU HELP US TO CONTINUE THIS IMPORTANT WORK?

We do not take this work lightly. Black women remain the least protected from sexual violence and most vulnerable to the harmful narratives associated with it. When media outlets trivialize sexual violence and protect abusers, survivors are more hesitant to come forward and seek justice. When survivors are isolated from their support systems, abusers may continue to manipulate and control them. And when corporate enablers profit from content that glorifies abusers, it sends a message that gender-based violence is acceptable. It is not, and we both know that. 

John, we are worth protecting. In honor of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, will you support our efforts to make the world a less hostile place for Black women, femmes, and girls?  

YES, I WILL POWER THE FIGHT TO PROTECT BLACK WOMEN, FEMMES, AND GIRLS FROM SEXUAL VIOLENCE AND ABUSERS! #PROTECTBLACKSURVIVORS

Until justice is real,

— Jade Magnus Ogunnaike and the Color Of Change Team

References:

1. “Sexual Assault Awareness Month: Building Safe Online Spaces Together,” National Sexual Violence Resource Center, April 2022, https://act.colorofchange.org/go/301279?t=11&akid=53301%2E4731121%2Ern9iYC. 
2. Nellie Andreeva, “T.I. & Tiny: Friends & Family Hustle suspends production amid sexual abuse allegations against stars,” Deadline, February 5, 2021, https://act.colorofchange.org/go/353316?t=13&akid=53301%2E4731121%2Ern9iYC. 
3. “RCA’s move is a victory for R. Kelly’s Survivors and Black women,” Color Of Change, January 18, 2019, https://act.colorofchange.org/go/301278?t=15&akid=53301%2E4731121%2Ern9iYC.