My #METOO Story - Chicago Street Journal for Wednesday, November 1, 2017
#MeToo addresses the sexually abuse of men, women and children around the world. You are invited to submit your editorials on this and any timely matter to ChicagoStJournal@gmail.com.
#MeToo addresses the sexually abuse of men, women and children around the world. You are invited to submit your editorials on this and any timely matter to ChicagoStJournal@gmail.com.
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February Chicago Street Journal November 2017
1
November 1, 2017
Volume 23, No. 5
Long before the #MeToo hashtag or
references to “pussy grabbing” there were
screams and tears from women across all
civilizations, that went unanswered. And,
let’s not forget the slave woman, mother
and child, Maya Angelou or The Color
Purple. But, unlike ever before and thank
goodness in our time, Alyssa Milano
shared her experiences and now the world
responds -- FINALLY!
The #MeToo hashtag has lent a
voice and opened the doors for the victims
of sexual harassment and abuse to tell their
stories and release the pain and secrets of a
lifetime. May this door never close and enable
all who wish to do so, to walk through
with a new meaning and understanding of
what is actually taking place around the
world in this sick cycle of the abuse of
boys and girls and women and men.
In France, Twitter users are using
#balancetonporc or "expose the pig" to encourage
women to name and shame their
attackers, while #WomenWhoRoar is also
being used to encourage victims of sexual
#MeToo
abuse to speak up.
Let’s wave our own flags and shout
out #MeToo from sea-to-shining-sea.
My #MeToo Story.
Excerpt from “Black America – Asking
Ourselves The Tough Questions” by
Sonja Cassandra Perdue.
I was very young. 12 years
old. Kenneth Johnson was younger. He
was 5 years old. We lived on the first floor
of a small two-flat and Kenneth and his
family lived upstairs. The Johnsons were
in their late 20s and had four children;
whenever the young couple wanted to go
out, I was the children’s playmate/
babysitter.
It would be a grand time — every
time. We’d play games, play school, but
most importantly there was no screaming,
no beatings, or arguing. Although I was
young, they knew that they were safe with
me because I loved being in charge and I
just loved small children.
The elderly couple who had previously
lived in that apartment had been the
owners of the building. They had four foster
children and Kenneth’s mother was
their granddaughter. When the mother
died, all of the children, except Robert,
were returned to their parents or to the
state. Maybe there was no place for him to
go. He moved in with the elderly gentleman
and his new wife in their home, two
doors down.
Robert and I had been at war since I
was small enough to crawl under a
bed. That’s my earliest memory of him
chasing me and grabbing me in a sexual
manner. I would come to play with the
other kids and he’d begin grabbing me and
touching me and I would run and slide under
his mother’s bed. He was trying to get
me from under there, but he was too big to
crawl under there and reach me. I knew
even then that he was afraid of getting
caught, so he coached me out with smoothing
words that he was not going to bother
me.
Continued on Page 4
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Another
Black Great
Migration.
Page 8
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PAGE 9
Poetry by
Hussein Hill
Page 10
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4 November 2017
Chicago Street Journal
Continued from Page 1
#MeToo
This game (attack) of cat and mouse
went on and on. I was just as intense and determined
and he could not get a grip on me. I had
always sent the signal that I was ready for a
fight. The first few times, I could crawl under
the bed, but after a while I was too big and I had
to stand and fight or take flight.
As Robert got older and bigger and
stronger, he became more aggressive. It became
harder and harder to fight him off, but he came
knowing that there would be a battle. I don’t
believe that he was yet old enough to be that
sure of himself.
Fast forward to my being 12 and Robert
being 17 years of age. Somehow he had gotten
wind of the fact that I was upstairs with the children.
We were sitting on the sofa watching TV
when the door opened. All of us turned and
looked; as he spoke, he moved from the door
over to me. “I’m going to get you today. I’m
going to get me some today.”
I was thinking, how did he know that I
was up here?
Fear rose up in me and as I prepared
myself for a fight. I felt fear. When he moved
in for the attack, I was still sitting on the sofa
because it all seemed like one motion from the
door to me. There was no time for anything
else.
As we struggled, he was on my right side
sitting on the sofa and trying to push me down
into a lying position. He was trying to get a grip
on my hands and arms and could not because I
was swinging them all of the time. If he could
have stopped me from hitting him, he could
have mounted me. I kept fighting to keep control
or to keep him from gaining control.
For some reason, I didn’t want to start
screaming because I didn’t want to scare the
children. Too late. I looked to my left and the
three smaller children were huddled against the
wall watching us. They had a bewildered, wildeyed,
and confused look on their faces (one of
those “deer-caught-in-the-headlights” expressions).
Kenneth was standing in front of Robert,
a little off to his right about a foot or two away
from him. I can’t say what he was thinking, but
in retrospect, he was gauging the situation.
Maybe at first, he didn’t perceive that I
was in danger. There was no fear in his face
and I don’t recall seeing any sense of panic in
his eyes. This little boy was just standing there
watching us do battle.
Then, things changed. It seemed fast and
in slow-motion at the same time. Now I was the
observer. I will never be sure, but maybe this
little boy sensed, after giving the situation some
thought, that I just might lose that battle. Quite
unexpectedly. Quite, quite wondrously, this 5-
year-old boy leaped on this 17-year-old and began
to beat him so viciously that he couldn’t
maintain his grip on me for having to defend
himself against this child’s blows. Kenneth was
beating him and screaming and screaming and
screaming. “Take your hands off of her. You
stop it. You stop it. You leave her alone.” It
was happening so fast. He was moving so fast
that I could not keep up with what was happening.
Those little arms were moving and swinging
and clawing. It was like something flashing
before my eyes. Watching it would make you
say, “What the hell?”
Robert was not trying to hurt or injure
him, but just trying to stop Kenneth from hitting
him. Robert was laughing at him, at
first. He thought that it was funny. He tried to
grab his arms. Tried to calm him down. Tried
to hang on to me. It didn’t work out like he expected.
He had to let go of me.
I was looking directly into Robert’s face
when that child wiped that smile off of his
mug. He was taking a good look at that child
attacking him. I watched the change taking
place. I heard the change in his tone, his words,
his whole being as he tried to assure Kenneth
that he would not touch me again. He was trying
to hold Kenneth down and tell him that he
was going to stop and that he was not going to
touch me. “Calm down, man. Calm down.” He
kept saying, “OK man. OK man.” He repeated
these words to him over and over again.
I was frozen. I didn’t know how to
move. I only knew how to watch as a participant
in a movie with a surprise ending that was
never even written into the script.
Robert was finally able to calm Kenneth
down and we both sat there staring at this little
boy, who was sobbing and taking these huge
loud breaths. The attack itself was a shock, but
the hollering and crying took it over the edge. It
seemed that that child had gotten so wound up
that he couldn’t come down immediately. He
finally calmed and he told him one more time,
“You leave her alone! Don’t you bother her
again!”
I was taken aback, as I sat there that day,
but Robert was taken further. Robert told him
that he would not touch me again. And he never
did.
Without regard to the size or might of
the enemy, this little boy moved into position,
executed an attack, and was victorious. He left
the enemy/potential rapist empty and impotent.
Robert stood up from the sofa as we all
watched him straighten his clothes. He told me
that he was sorry and that he would never, ever
touch me again. He told me that I had nothing
to worry about. I can only think that if shame
had a smell, it would smell just like Robert
Johnson.
Here and now, I wonder if Robert remembers
the day that a 5-year-old boy became
more man then he would ever be.
Sonja Cassandra Perdue is the author of “Black America
– Asking Ourselves The Tough Questions” now available
on Amazon.com, Founder of Chicago’s Black Business
Network and Associate Publisher for Chicago Street Journal’s
Digital Division. She has completed close to 300 podcasts
available on Chicago’s Black Business Radio Network.
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screens. This was by design....it may not have been a joint effort by the hidden
hands of power and the media, but whatever it was, it has worked!
Black people, afraid for their sad lives, left the city. They either moved to the
burbs or exited the entire state for what they thought was better and safer
surroundings. They may be accurate in some cases, but in most cases, urban
removal is being planned in many big states, especially if there is prime realestate
to gobble-up, and Chicago's Southside is open for an A 1 land grab.
Mayor Emanuel and Governor Rauner have decided that it's politically correct
or in their best interest, politically, to declare the state of Illinois and the
city of Chicago as 'sanctuary' landing location for anyone non-black to stakeout
their territory. I strongly recommend instead of blacks selling their property
and moving out of the city, they declare their current dwelling grounds
as 'sanctuary communities,' for their many relatives who wanna relocate to
the CHI.
Black people, call your kinfolk in every southern state or send smoke signals
to your lost and deprived cousins and cast away family members, instruct
them to redirect their journey and head to Chicago. Make this their sanctuary
city and state. Give them housing and help them either get jobs or create employment
opportunities to ensure that they can have a simple quality of life.
Better yet, since the mayor just announced that his administration would provide
Section 8 vouchers for immigrants or U.S. citizens displaced by ravaging
tragedies, there is no better excuse, than now to make Chicago the new
black migrant's 'sanctuary' home.
CARL WEST
Another Black Great Migration
As the world faces many, many troubling catastrophes, such as raging
brush fires on the West Coast, massive terrorist shootings in major cities or
states including Nevada, as well as deadly hurricanes in Houston, Texas and
Puerto Rico--there are horrible transformations occurring in places like Chicago.
Make this movement to Chicago another Great Black Migration. Come and
take advantage of all the privileges that the mayor and governor have decided
to give to anyone who comes to Chicago or Illinois to start anew. So
get on the phone and find your peeps and send them a life-line. Let us use
social media, community newspapers, and talk radio to make the call-toaction
like the Chicago Defender did over 60 years ago. This historic newspaper
was responsible for instructing Negroes in the south to come to the
north and find refuge from bigotry and racism.
And the people who ran from the city to the suburbs, pack your Gucci bags
and move hastily back to Beverly, Chatham, South Shore, Lincoln Park,
Avalon Park.....just bring your black behinds back to CHI! Until the next
edition.....Peace and One Love.
I Write To Differ
All these concerns listed above are life-altering experiences, and we as
Americans should feel their pain. But what's happening in my state and city
hurts even greater. I'm witnessing the demise or destruction or demotion or
deduction--whatever you wanna label it--of black people from the concrete
jungles of the Windy City.
The hidden hands of power have taken steps to ensure that black people remove
(themselves) from Chicago. They're using tactics like profiling violence
and other quality of life issues to drive people out of the city limits.
This was initiated with the blowing up of Cabrini Green, which was the first
step in removing unwanted black bodies from Chicago's census count.
Now as black folks move out and others move in at record numbers, it hurts
to see what I predicted is coming full force. I told you naïve people who
played the blame game and denounced your own community and children
with the help of local media as they presented horrific violence on the
nightly news, that this was not priority number one.
It was all propaganda. They used images of black boys and men committing
crimes against their neighbors to mentally kill the spirit of weak people who
feared for their lives as they continued to see crime flash across their TV
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February 2017
Chicago Street Journal November 2017
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February 2017
10 November 2017
Chicago Street Journal
Sorrow Beyond Syntax*…
Hussein Ali Hill-Johnson
Our Moral Decay…
Hussein Ali-Hill Johnson
In America things are now absurd
and “Alt-Truth” has become the key word
Innocence citizens were beaten and one murdered by terrorist
and our President took 3 days to denounce this
All I feel is pain
and lack the words to fully show my disdain
This morning’s sunlight exposed all of the above as sad facts
and all I am left with is a sorrow beyond syntax
*Inspired by the murder of Heather Heyer
and brutal beating of Deandre Harris
Change just for change sake
is a major mistake
If you follow leaders that are lost
guess who pays the cost
If you have a square and you cut off four corners you have a circle
that reminds me of the common sense wisdom of Studs Terkel
When it comes to self-respect and respecting others
we are going backwards my Sisters and Brothers
In a car reverse is the strongest gear
but, you can’t win Indy guiding you car with its rear
The answer is not as simple is turning back the clock
in order to rebuild our society GOD must be our bedrock
Because Devil is saying a big hooray
at the state of our moral decay
Hussein Ali Hill-Johnson has been a Poet and Activist since his Freshman year in High School back in the
1973. The addition of the -Johnson is to his name is to honor is Mother (R.I.P.). She was a Short Story Writer,
who taught him 90% of what he knows about writing and 100% of what it is to be a person of faith. In the past
30 months, he has written 200 poems, 98 of which are currently published on-line. He can be contacted via
Twitter and via e-mail at husseinhill@yahoo.com
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