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Sexual Assault In Melba Pattilo Beals 'Warriors Don' T Cry

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Recommended: The impact of sexual assault on women as the victims of sexual assault

Sexual assault and the overstepping of personal boundires is often due to the disregard of the repercussions that may occur due to the victim being a woman and/or part of an underprivileged group. This message is conveyed throughout Melba Pattillo Beals’ memoir, Warriors Don’t Cry. Warriors Don’t Cry is a piece of literature written by one of the Little Rock Nine, about her experiences integrating into an all white school. Sexual assault is seen during Warriors Don't Cry and it remains a prevalent issue in today’s society. Most recently. Sexual assault and rape is on common occurency and still on the rise. Most victims don’t feel comfortable or able to report this, so only 37% of sexual assaults are reported . Tarana Burke is standing up for …show more content…

Sexual assault has effected many people like Melba and is still a big problem now. Underprivileged groups are often taken advantage of and are scared to report the assaults. One example of this is that “rape appeared to be a growing problem as data collected by the FBI displayed that the rate of reported rapes began to increase dramatically in the 1960s as women entered the workforce in larger numbers.”(Columbia). This quote shows how rapists and assaulters take advantage of groups like newly employed women. Currently this happens to a large extent and causes so many people so much trauma. This happens so much that 63% of these crimes are not reported. Fortunately, a movement was started to help victims and make them comfortable sharing their story. This movement is called the Me Too movement. The basic idea is when a story of assault is shared, other victims say “me too” and share their stories. According to a popular article, “Now, people living beyond the limelight — those who otherwise might have remained silent — have felt empowered to come forward.”(Anzidel). Therefore, this shows big progression in the reporting of these crimes. After the attacks many victims self blame and feel ashamed of themselves for years and years. This movement is actively stopping that and spreading awareness. In sum, the Me Too movement is working hard to help victims that suffer from sexual …show more content…

In recent years she has gotten lots of well deserved credit for her work and spoke around the world. In these speeches she continues to spread the movement and support. According to The National Women's History Museum , “Burke has been internationally celebrated for her work and has been invited to speak across the country.”. This shows that Burke is still fully committed to the movement and willing to travel around the world for it. Her getting celebrated is also great because people research her and then get connected to the Me Too Movement. She has also continued her activism and branched out to other social justice issues. In the same article, Kerri Lee Alexander also writes that “Burke currently serves as the Senior Director of Girls for Gender Equity in Brooklyn, NY.”. Therefore, even after having a successful movement started she is still helping with other issues and continuing the battle. This shows she has great perseverance and mobility. In sum, Tarana Burke is branching out to continue her activism while still spreading the Me Too

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In Warriors Don’t Cry, Melba Pattillo Beals describes her arduous battle for racial equality in the brutal town of Little Rock, Arkansas in the late 1950s. When she was only twelve years old, Melba survived attempted rape by a white man. Scared and confused, Melba went home and told her family. However, they instructed her to keep quiet about the abuse because they believed getting the police involved would only make things worse. Unfortunately, thousands of sexual assaults still go unreported for a myriad of reasons, including distrust in law enforcement and the criminal justice system, the possibility that the abuser will not be punished, and victim blaming, a common occurrence in our society.

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Throughout the book Warriors Don’t Cry Melba Pattillo Beals has to deal with unruly racism and ignorance in order to integrate to Central High School. But even with the hateful comments and actions she keeps her head held high, and though it may fall sometimes her family and friends are there to keep her motivated. In chapter 4 Grandma India testifies to Melba after she cries because she is not able to go to the wrestling match, due to the fear that someone would recognize her, “ You’re a warrior on the battlefield for your lord.” (44). Melba takes her grandmother’s words far in her on going battle with bigotry, racism, segregation, and injustice.

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Jackie Robinson, Melba Beals, and Feng Ru all encountered racial and hard things that they had faced. Jackie Robinson in “I Never Had It Made,” will face some serious verbal threats and hate mail from fans and snubs. The author, “Jackie Robinson,” talked about his story of when he first became a baseball player in the Dodgers league. Melba Beals in “Warriors Don’t Cry,” had faced many problems from going to a regular high school with the white students. The author, “Melba Pattillo Beals,” talked about her life during school without her mother.

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When somebody does something bad or illegal, there are consequences; Whether it results in karma, punishments, or even a jail sentence, these consequences are solely based upon our actions, or, at least we would hope. In the book Warriors Don’t Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals, we learn that our actions do have repercussions, but we also learn that those of which we receive can be unjust and biased. The memoir follows the true story of Pattillo Beals, one of the nine original black students to integrate into Little Rock Central High School, in 1957 Arkansas. Throughout her journey, she and her fellow colored peers receive relentless hate and unjust treatment from both students and school staff. Minnijean is Melba's closest friend in the group.

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Humans are diverse, and although many share similarities, they all have differences. These differences may be difficult for some people to accept, which leads to prejudice towards those who are different. In the memoir, Warriors Don’t Cry, written by Melba Pattillo Beals, Beals reveals the many obstacles she faced attending Central High, a now integrated school, as an African American in 1957. Everywhere she went, hateful words were thrown at her, but she persevered and did not let ignorant students get to her. Some might say those who suffer from discrimination become weaker and develop anger within them.

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She tugged away thinking of the consequences she would leave her loved ones to. Her mentality, however, was stronger than her physical strength. This case is also demonstrated in Warriors Don’t Cry, an autobiographical novel written by Melba Pattillo Beals, in the struggle of defying the norms of a predominantly white school, while facing both mental and physical harassment. Melba and the others resisted this harassment only to become stronger in the end through defying. As defiance

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Warriors Don’t Cry written by Melba Beals is an influential piece of American Literature. The book is a great tool that is used in schools as a history lesson for over two decades and for decades to come. We learn what Melba and the Little Rock Nine did for desegregation. Melba writes about her awful experience as the Brown v. Education ruled in favor of desegregation in public schools. As a historical context, it reminds society what they went through and how far we have come as society.

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What is even more shocking being the number of women to this day that gets abused. "This ‘one in five’ statistic shouldn’t just be taken with a grain of salt but the entire shaker," said James Fox, professor of criminology, law and public policy at Northeastern University (Washington Post, 2014) The ‘one in five’ statistic he is speaking about is one in five women get sexually harassed in college (Obama, 2014). This small quote speaks humongous words. As it says in the quote, “one in five,” women get sexually harassed in college and that shows that women aren’t looked at as strong and agile people because

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In the courtroom, Tarana Burke sits watching Christine Blasey Ford give her testimony on how Brett Kavaugh, the Supreme Court’s nominee, sexually assaulted her 30 years ago. Seeing her cause sends people to the streets, singing out in protest, responding to the call of groups fighting against gender-based injustice, joining with survivors and allies. Out of the courtroom, Burke’s eyes glisten as she enters the restroom, sobbing of the pain she had witnessed of a woman who was too much like Burke, experiencing a trauma one would never be able to fully recover from. Backing up Ford, she makes clear that the strength to be in a trial fighting for your life, should never be questioned, and survivors like Burke and Ford are there to tell those who would listen, exactly how it was. Outside of that courtroom, Tarana Burke changed millions of lives, founding the “me too” movement to support survivors of sexual assault.

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This is another reason why the case may have resulted the way it did, but that doesn’t stop people from fighting back. Not only is substance abuse and statistics a big factor, but barriers to reporting is a main component that correlates with the case. “Recent research has found that 40% of college students believed that a woman was responsible for being raped if she was intoxicated at the time of the assault” (Schwarz, Jill, et al., 2). These statistics lead many woman who are assaulted to stay silent about it. It is also known that some girls stay quiet about their assault because it is believed to be misunderstanding or it is the “norm”.

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Every sixty-eight seconds, an American is sexually assaulted, and it is stated that only twenty-five out of every one thousand perpetrators will see the consequences of their actions (RAINN). Now, imagine if the world was a place where victims felt as if they could speak up and receive proper assistance without question and judgment. Imagine if every sexual assault case concluded with justice for the victim. Laurie Halse Anderson tells her own story of sexual violence and the struggles of the aftermath through the eyes of high school freshman, Melinda Sordino, in her work Speak. Throughout the novel, Melinda internally fights with herself on who to protect, herself and other females around her, or her attacker’s reputation.

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Therefore, candidates have to take this issue seriously when campaigning in hoping of winning an election. Despite feminism rightfully on the rise, this event at Columbia University has stemmed a fiery crusade against sexual violence and domestic violence on college campuses around the world, especially in the United

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Hearing about my best friend’s story of how she was sexually abused several times for years and only being able to obtain the courage to say something to me years later was heartbreaking. What made this whole situation more agonizing was the amount of people who saw the signs, but never said anything. Fear of intimacy, lack of eating, and problems concentrating were all huge red flags that several people saw her have, however, not once did anyone thought to speak up. Unfortunately, this is a very common occurrence in the workplace and school setting. Regardless of this circumstance, our society has made great strides with the #MeToo movement allowing victims to be able to freely share their experiences to let others know that they are not alone.

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This means that 94 percent of the cases are never reported. Cases not being reported is one of the reasons why persons tend to commit this horrific crime. “In the United States, every 98 seconds, an American is assaulted.” In addition to that “1 in 4 North American women will be sexually assaulted during their lifetime” which is about 144,750,000. This is a huge chunk of

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One in six women has been sexually assaulted according to RAIIN.org (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network). We can see throughout today’s society many different examples of how violence is sexualized. This is what is known and today’s rape and drug culture and we see it all over. We see this is the media, in music, books, movies and in the news. Take the Brock Turner case for example.

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