Belle Discusses Street Harassment on ‘Nightline’
- belle
- 2 months ago
- featured-post, Newest, Small Box, Uncategorized
- 2 Comments
Click the image below to watch my interview on @NIGHTLINE last night, discussing (white) women and street harassment. I’m amazed by the reaction to this video (10 million views). I’m glad street harassment is a national topic, but stunned by the response to white women’s tears. There’s been an ongoing discussion by Black women about sexual harassment for months on Black sites/blogs/Twitter (ie, #youoksis) that went ignored by mainstream media. Many Black men only joined the conversation to say shut up, stop complaining, stop exaggerating or be grateful someone’s even paying attention.
A white woman speaks out? It’s a national news story and there’s hand wringing everywhere. White men— who also street harass, but were conveniently left out of the video- are pining to rescue her from the scary Black and Latino guys bothering her. This is racism and sexism at its finest.
About Author
Affectionately known as "Belle”, Demetria L. Lucas is the author of two books— A Belle in Brooklyn and Don't Waste Your Pretty; the creator of the award-winning personal blog ABelleInBrooklyn.com; and the founder of Coached By Belle, a boutique life-coaching service, where Demetria helps clients solve their dating dilemmas and build healthy relationships. Demetria is also a contributing editor for The Root, where she pens two weekly columns, and is a contributing writer for the websites of The Grio, XO Jane, Essence, Clutch, Vibe Vixen and Uptown. She was also the star of Bravo TV's docu-drama series, "Blood Sweat & Heels"
It’s crazy. Though I’m so glad you participated in that coverage and added in that new angle that most likely would have been ignored, it still seemed like they glossed over your statements instead of really dealing with it as a reality. After your clip, they cut right to speaking with the actual woman in the video and asked her, basically, to confirm that she does get catcalls from other races. Why editors cut out the white men in her video was not explained at all. And the need to lament the plight of white women much more often than black women was only acknowledged by you—one of the black women in the clip—and not dealt with thoroughly by the other non-black participants here.
Maybe they didn’t want to get into all that? Hmm…
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