This morning I fiddled with my braids to whip up a quick style and without even thinking, I pinned some strands back and looked exactly like an older version of Jada.
Jada is the 16-year-old girl whose rape went viral on social media when someone took pictures of her half-naked, unconscious body, and others imitated the pose with the hashtag #JadePose. She was given a drink she believes was spiked at a friend of a friend’s party.
I couldn’t get her out of my mind for days, but seeing myself with a similar hairstyle as this young woman was startling.
Jada could be my lil’ sister, cousin, niece, friend.
Sadly some teens reduced what happened to her as a joke or a meme on social media. Sometimes I hate social media, because people can be heartless. When did rape or any sexual assault become a punch line? There’s a reason we call the cruel folks on Twitter and Instagram trolls.
It fits.
Sometimes I love social media because strangers will check you real quick with facts, truth bombs and rally behind your cause.
They’ll even create hashtags, like #JusticeForJada, #JadaCounterPose and #StandWithJada, to ride with you and shout louder than jerks with the thoughtless jokes and memes.
My favorite hashtag is from Jada herself. #IAmJada
She isn’t silent.
She isn’t hiding.
She’s taking her name back.
She won’t let the assault, the photos and the ugly tweets define her. You’ve seen her body. Now see her face, up close.
Jada tells her story with #IAmJada and even penned an open letter about cyber bullying to President Obama and appeared on The View, HuffPostLive and CNN.
It made me ask myself, would I have been as brave as she was?
At 16, probably not.
At 18. Maybe.
As a grown damn woman? Definitely.
I hope you and your crew ride with the I Am Jada movement. I do, because #IAmJada.
If there’s any justice in this world, the cowards that did this to her will be found and prosecuted.
