In their shoes

The previous week has filled the internet with sad news after the other. If it was not someone's passing on, it was an upsurge of Covid or a case of sexual violence.

It was sickening and depressing being on the internet but it was also a time to learn people. There are people that I thought were enlightened, I mean from their poise and previous conversations but then I realized I might be dealing with idiotic individuals in official wear. 

From today, don't place a measure of maturity as official wear, he might have borrowed it. It is very sad, that in 2021 we are still having rapists apologists and give excuses on their behalf. It is stupid to think and express his thought that a girl was raped because of how she had dressed or she agreed to some drinks so that was consent.

It is sick that a woman is physically abusive to the husband and no one will come out to say it is wrong.

I am so mad that we have normalized violence and blaming the victims. She was in the wrong place, she accepted to go out with a married and other excuses.

But going through conversations on social media, I realized one thing, we are a selfish lot that is why we have the capability of verbal diarrhea. 

Unless it has happened to you or someone close to you then you will not just talk for the sake of talking and commenting on posts.

It is selfishness that makes us not think, think in-depth of a crisis because after all, it did not happen to you or your daughter. 

It is selfishness that gives you the right to be deputy saints and therefore others but the perpetrators are wrong. 

But, what if we put ourselves into others shoes, maybe you would realize the survivor needs support more than ever

You know why some people have not accessed justice for years, it is because of your selfishness. If it did not happen to you, it does not matter.

It may have not happened to you but it might as well have. It might happen to your daughter, mother, son, wife.

I mean would you be talking the way you are if it was your or your daughter.

Think

Would you be bashing yourself for getting raped. 

Maybe when you think of it at that angle it sobers you up

I know people I can reach out for help and I know there are people that I need to keep my distance from just based on their comments, they are toxic and have a sense of entitlement

The survivor never gets back to how s/he was. The traumatic experiences change them.

We cry out on how we need a revolution from the oppressing systems that we have that have kept suffocating us. I think we first need a revolution of the mind, we need minds that are not shallow and myopic. Maybe we need independence from the colonization of the mind that have reduced us to cold and selfish people

Until we get in others' shoes, we will feel a sense of justification for our actions. We do not fight for just our rights. We fight for our rights and others. That's what ubuntu is but I had already forgotten it is now everyone for himself and God for us all

We need to get in their shoes to push for justice, because the coin may flip, and you may be the survivor.