Podcast from the Chicago Defender: Very good interview!!
on May 27th, 2005 at 8:18 am
In this podcast, Roland S. Martin interviewed former executive editor for Essence magazine, Robin Stone. She just wrote the book entitled “No Secrets No Lies: How Black Families Can Heal from Sexual Abuse”. Based on what I heard in this interview, this book is definitely a must read. As the title suggests, this book deals with the topic of sexual abuse within the black community. For those out there that do not think there is a cultural aspect to this problem, please think again. There were three points she mentioned that really stuck out to me:
#1- When an internal family problem arises (like a child being molested, etc.) black families tend to “close ranks”. Two of the reasons she gave in the interview were: Not wanting to see the accused in the family go to jail, our distrust of the police.
#2- When someone has been sexually abused, we tend to tell the victim in the family “just pray on it and God will work it out”.
#3- How our young men who have been through this tend to bury the incident because we expect them to grow up so quickly. As a result, they miss that part of their childhood that lets them know that it is OK to cry and be vulnerable when discussing these issues.
Bottom line, listen to the broadcast yourself. Here is the link.
This type of issue is very near and dear to my heart for many reasons. Both my wife and I know of people within our families that have experienced this awful thing, and we have both worked with youths that have been through it as well. The effects of sexual abuse is no joke at all. Too many of you out there have had the innocence of your childhood taken away from you because of some parent, teacher, neighbor, aunt, uncle, cousin, etc. wanted to take advantage of you. There are men that will bed as many women as they can to get rid of the thought that because they were abused as a child, they must be gay. There are women who take crap from men (including abuse) because they are feel like they have to prove something to themselves. These are just two of the many symptoms of abuse. Prayer certainly helps, but you also need some good professional counseling (something else she talks about). Please do yourself the favor and get the help that you need.
