This episode is simply what I can only describe as necessary. It's challenging and imperative to navigate the realities of rape, assault, bar culture, rape culture and the general overall safety for people in the community of Greensboro and beyond. As someone who has struggled with navigating the lines of privacy this conversation was enlightening and something that I believe is everyone's responsibility. No one is safe if we can not create a space to address the things that people have a hard time speaking about. I did a episode a couple of weeks ago with Daniel White when the Greensboro Predator List was still a hot topic and I posed some questions that raised some brave souls to approach me about how they felt! One of those brave souls is Devon McKnight, she introduced me to Alexa Feldman who has been one of the many people in a community that has arose to allow survivors to speak out and be protected, this comes in the form of the NC Safety Alliance. I am beyond honored that they chose my platform to be a place where they could speak out as well. These courageous women put their names out there along with their stories and have taken on the heat that comes along with the communities fears about the unknown. Privacy is something that I touched on in Part One and we continued that conversation because of the harms that come along with privately handling something that changes the life of a survivor, forever. The problem that we see in our community is the inability to speak on the dangers that are blatantly in our faces. To silently address each survivor after something has happened is simply too late and not effective enough, we all have a responsibility as members of this community to make sure that it is a safe one. We spoke on the many ways a survivor can receive justice ,but the real challenge is empathizing with abusers in a way that still protects a survivor. It requires a heart that is willing to hold abusers accountable to their actions and call them to be members of society not cause loss of innocence. This is not just about women it is about our children, our friends, our families and the places that make Greensboro such a special place. The alliance as I learned through this conversation are simply focused on elimination of the toxic rape culture that we can easily miss if we do not pay attention! Privacy to someone who has the ability to diminish the value of a human life is simply intolerable. What are we doing to protect the community that loves us? Is there love if we simply turn a blind eye to the cries of the people who are simply seeking someone to listen to them and believe them? How people choose to beat the wounded further by privately attacking them is toxic, this is why transparency has been a big push for the alliance. There is incredible strength in numbers and the access the community has to this information gives me as a survivor hope that we can eliminate more instances of people who can relate to this unacceptable behavior. Are we holding our bar communities to a standard to prioritize the people they serve? Is money more important than the safety of the people who allow this communities' local businesses and people to be successful? We MUST have hearts that are willing to listen, love and grow. It is imperative to know the people who need the community to step in and simply say NO. Conversations about anything are possible only if we have ears that are solution seeking. I admire that there is a call to simply acknowledge the disparities that make this community petrifying to people who have seen it's darkness. We can not be afraid to speak out when we see violation, we can not ignore the cries of survivors and we simply have a obligation to be aware of the best ways to make sure that we reduce the numbers of people who can relate to sexual violence.
Instagram: @ncsafetyalliance_gso