sexual abuse
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'He Had This Shut Down': Drea Kelly Speaks Out About Surviving R. Kelly Screening Evacuation
Imagine being silenced and shamed for years after trying to tell your truth about an abusive and prominent celebrity, then finally being able to broadcast that truth, only for it to be cut short via a cowardly threat. That is what happened to R. Kelly accusers Kitti Jones, Jerhonda Pace, Lisa Van Allen, Asante McGee,…
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New Research Says Black Women Are More Objectified Than White Women. Old Research Says We Knew That
Fun fact: The very first article I ever wrote for The Root was titled, “5 Signs You’re About to Be Racially Fetishized.” It was early 2016, and I was a model and musician-turned-relationship-blogger dipping my toe into the shark-infested waters of online dating after reaching the milestone age of 40 as a newly single woman.…
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Cops Sexually Assault At Least 100 Women Every Year and No One Talks About It
When discussing America’s police state, we often talk about “black bodies.” The conversation is peppered with words like “brutality” and “police violence.” But no one talks about another brutal act of violence committed by law enforcement figures. We have known about it for years but have mostly overlooked it. Everyone—including this writer—has the information but…
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‘Your Sacrifice Was Not in Vain’: Tarana Burke, Tracee Ellis Ross and More Pen ‘Love Letter’ to Dr. Christine Blasey Ford
On Wednesday, Oct. 10, some of the most visible female activists of our generation joined forces to give their thanks, support and love to Dr. Christine Blasey Ford after her Sept. 27 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, compelling testimony that was nonetheless unable to thwart the confirmation of now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. #MeToo…
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Newsflash: It’s Not the First Anniversary of #MeToo. It’s the First Anniversary of the World Giving A Damn
If you’re active on social media, you may have been greeted with a very important anniversary this morning: the one-year anniversary of the #MeToo movement. Yay! And if you’re anything like this writer, seeing tweets like this one by an otherwise credible news source, the Daily Beast, pissed you the entire hell off. The reasons…
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‘It’s About Saving Lives’: On The View, Andrea Kelly Details Years of Abuse by R. Kelly
Please stop asking why women don’t report abuse—sexual or domestic. It’s been nearly a decade since Andrea Kelly divorced singer, songwriter and multiply-alleged abuser and sexual predator Robert “R.Kelly” Kelly, but she’s broken her silence about their relationship. A Thursday morning appearance on The View was the latest in a series of media appearances that…
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SC Math Teacher Accused of Coercing Student Into Having Sex, Changing Grades When He Refused
A South Carolina high school student and his mother filed a lawsuit accusing the boy’s math teacher of coercing him to have sex with her and then changing his grades when the boy would turn down her advances. According to the New York Daily News, Burke High School teacher Jennifer Olajire-Aro was charged with sexual…
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#WhyIDidntReport: A List of Reasons for Every Time It Happened
There are a lot of reasons why a woman may not report when she has been sexually assaulted. It does not go without notice that most of these reasons would be completely misunderstood by most men, but totally reasonable to a woman. If you are a man, you should understand that a lot of the…
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'I Have Been a Victim of Abuse': Tamar Braxton Reveals Childhood Molestation on Wendy Williams Show
Tamar Braxton recently revealed that she is part of a very troubling statistic: On Thursday, the singer, reality star and mother to 5-year-old Logan Herbert opened up to talk show host Wendy Williams about her own history of sexual abuse, which she’d previously been “too afraid” to speak about publicly. As reported by People: “I’ve…
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Sounds About White: Admitted Sexual Offender Avoids Jail and Keeps Teaching Certificate
Let’s play a game of “Guess the Color,” shall we? A 30-year-old Bronx high school teacher admitted to performing oral sex on her 14-year-old student. As part of a plea agreement, Dori Myers pleaded guilty to committing a criminal sex act. The New York Daily News reports that on Wednesday, Judge Michael Obus found Myers…