[TW: rape culture, racism, douchebag white bro do-gooding fuckers]
Friday night, I went to a party for a friend of a friend who will be leaving for the Peace Corps in the next few weeks. He’ll be doing his service in a country in western Africa, which I will refrain from naming for purposes of relative anonymity. They laughed and reminisced about their trips abroad, their time spent in Italy, France, etc etc. Their Ivy League educations. Their jobs in whatever the fuck NPO or PhD program they were in. The guest of honor drunkenly regaled us with his plans of going to a Francophone county, how awesome it would be to get away for two years.
But he also joked. About the AIDS epidemic across Africa. About how in order to fuck as many African women as he would like, he’d have to pack 20lbs of condoms. About how AIDS is “rampant in the blacks, you know.”
About how he would wish rape on my friend when she announced her intent to leave the party early. About the look of discomfort I couldn’t wipe from my face when he was describing the imagined rape. Oh, how he and his ever-so-educated friends laughed and laughed at that.
I didn’t tell them I’d been assaulted.
I didn’t say anything, about any of it, simply because it was an unfamiliar city, environment, and social group. At least, that was my excuse this time. I remained silent, again, and I perpetuated all of it, again.
Every single time, I tell myself I will be a good woman, a good person, and say something, do something. And every single fucking time, I remain silent. I feel choked by the weight of the words. So I let everything slide, and I feel sick with the silence. Every single goddamned time.
At the the end of the day, this guy’s idea of the Peace Corps seemed less about actually being a decent fucking person and more like the poverty tourism that is increasingly popular among privileged white kids with a growing sense of ennui. Does anyone know if there’s a way to report this brosef to the Peace Corps? Because the idea of him going to “help” people is appalling, and I’m actually very seriously concerned about the safety of the people - especially the women - that he will come into contact with there.
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