Hey, Cis White Men! We’re the Worst.
Stop being awful for a second and read this.
I’m a white, cisgender man, and I’m angry.
“Join the other hundred-million of you guys in America,” you say. “You’re part of the problem.”
We are the problem.
The majority of perpetrators of sexual violence are white (57%) and male.
Yet, there are also many cis white men — the most privileged class in America — who are not abusive, but we’ve collectively stayed quiet in the ongoing fight to end sexual violence.
That silence is why I’m angry.
I don’t want us to be the loudest voice in the room, as is our wont, but we need to be in the room. We need be allies to all survivors of sexual violence, including the populations most at risk like trans people and indigenous women.
If we listen to and amplify the voices of survivors and marginalized communities while attacking toxic masculinity from within, we could change our culture.
Instead, cis white men pretend like it’s none of our business. We remain ignorant, whether that’s willful or not. Meanwhile, the mostly silent epidemic of sexual violence continues at alarming rates.
