A haunting collection of potent first-person narratives. Herself a
rape victim, Pierce-Baker discloses the intimate details of her
rape experience, along with those of ten other African-American
women. Each of the accounts is singularly harrowing. While
Pierce-Baker was raped and sodomized by two men who broke into her
home and proceeded to burglarize it in the presence of her husband
and son, other stories tell of rapes by relatives, acquaintances,
and dates, as well as by strangers. Despite the wide variation in
circumstances and ages (the youngest victim was four), certain
recurrent responses emerge. The lives of rape victims are almost
always thrust into havoc. Many of the women drop out of school or
the work force, plunging into deep depression and avoiding social
contact, especially with men. Sexual involvement, even with loving
partners, is often shunned. As black females, many of the victims
are unwilling to speak out against their black perpetrators; they
don't wish to further demonize the black man in a society deemed
racist; as a result, the women feel powerless. And while many black
women who do speak out don't trust the judicial system to take them
seriously, this is especially true in the case of women who have
been raped by dates or acquaintances. Eighteen-year-old Grace, for
example, who was raped by an acquaintance when she was fifteen,
explains that she hesitated to share her experiences with anyone
because she feared that "they would say it was my fault for not
speaking up louder or for not kicking or punching him in the face."
What does help each of the survivors, and particularly the author,
is the act of disclosure. Sharing their stories is often the
beginning of healing. Supplementing the women's narratives with the
voices of five sympathetic black men, including her father and son,
Pierce-Baker presents an honest and moving portrait of a painful
subject too often closeted. (Kirkus Reviews)
Charlotte Pierce-Baker weaves together the accounts of black women
who have been raped and who have felt that they had to remain
silent in order to protect themselves and their race. The book
opens with the author's own account of being raped in her
middle-class home outside Philadelphia. It continues, telling of
the author's family's response, the ordeal of going to court and
the desperate attempts of the members of the family to mend their
lives. In the course of her work as a volunteer for Women Organized
Against Rape, Pierce-Baker collected stories of other rape victims.
The middle section of the book provides the testimonies of ten
"silent survivors" - women who were sexually molested by male
relatives during childhood, subjected to "acquaintance rape" or,
like the author, assaulted by strangers. The final section gives
voice to men who have supported the women they love who have been
raped. These narratives are combined to tell of black women's
survival after sexual violence.
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