Abuse of black women ignored when it doesn't fit the narrative of the Black Lives Matter movement

Jessica Orta is the estranged wife of Ramsey Orta. Ramsey Orta is the man who filmed the death of Eric Garner and soon after started experiencing what he called police harassment. He claimed that the police sought to avenge themselves by surveilling Orta and manufacturing charges against he and his mother.

The Black Lives Matter movement took up his cause, elevating him to hero status and demanding that he be left alone. They were convinced he was being systematically bullied by the NYPD. Eventually, Orta was charged with crimes he claims he did not commit and took a plea deal he asserts was done to prevent charges against his mother. He was eventually sentenced on drug and gun possession charges in 2016 and was released on May 28. He will remain under supervision until January 2022.

Six days ago, Ramsey Orta’s wife set up a Go Fund Me campaign in order to raise money to divorce him. In her campaign, she outlines a pattern of physical, mental, and emotional abuse. She says that Orta choked her, kidnapped her son, and demanded money for his release. She even claims that money raised through Black Lives Matter efforts were used by him to track her, her child, and an elderly relative down when she attempted to flee to another city for safety.

She is specifically calling upon the Black Lives Matter, Hands Up, Don’t Shoot, Occupy Oakland, and I Can’t Breathe movements to donate to her cause and stop shielding him and others like him from their patterns of abusive behavior.

Ramsey Orta came home to a “welcome home fund,” arranged by one of these social justice movements, according to his wife.

What is a well-kept secret to individuals outside of the community is well-known to individuals within the community.

For all the good that many black liberation movements, like the civil rights movement in the 60s up through the current Black Lives Matter movement, have done, there is an undercurrent wherein the women who join these movements are subjected to abuse at the hands of their male counterparts. Though many of these movements claim that gender equality is a basic tenant, the interactions between male and female members often betray that claim.

Eldridge Cleaver, noted Black Panther Party (BPP) leader, was a convicted rapist. He wrote in his book, Soul on Ice, that he considered the rape of white women to be revolutionary but he practiced on black women.

Huey Newton, another BPP icon, was noted to have “approved” the beating of Regina Davis, an administrator for on the BPP’s school programs, over a minor mistake.

Elaine Brown, former Black Panther Party member, described brutality, sexual exploitation, and general misogyny (ie. referring to female members as “bitches”) at the hands of the male BPP members. Brown detailed her experiences in her 1992 memoir, A Taste of Power: A Black Woman’s Story. She revealed that she came to the realization that women would have to “fight for the right to fight for freedom” and later said that her life—since joining the BPP—had been “obliterated” as much by being female as being poor and black.

This maltreatment was not just a product of less a “woke” time where men engaged in their baser instinct to behave less than civilly towards women.

In 2016, Charles Wade, Black Lives Matter leader, was charged with sex trafficking and prostitution. One of the individuals he is accused of prostituting include a 17-year-old girl. Wade blamed conservative trolls for trying to smear him and denied all claims against him. One of the arguably troubling parts of this situation is that Wade had been crowdfunding for children and youth center in Ferguson, the city where Michael Brown was killed by a police officer in 2014.

In 2017, Javier Tra Dunn, labeled a hero during the Alton Sterling protests, was arrested for the rape of a 9-year-old girl.

In 2013, Dr. Brittney Cooper, while speaking on a panel about allyship, had a cup of water thrown on her by a black man after she dared addressed the male-centric nature of social justice movements.

A few months back, a group of men wearing Black Lives Matter t-shirts threw an adolescent girl into a dumpster. After she climbed out, they continued to follow her and harass her. Due to social media outrage, one of them apologized. His apology began with, “I’m a man before anything…” He also said that he apologized to, “that black girl,” but he found it funny and stated that it wasn’t as if “she got hit” as a way to try to downplay their actions.

One former member of an unnamed social justice organization admitted that female members were subjected to silencing and physical discipline and were later made to write statements about how the abuse they received was their fault.

Similar to Huey Newton and Eldrige Cleaver, both known for claiming the importance of women’s rights while sanctioning violence against women, modern-day “male feminists” have infiltrated social justice groups and with the right lingo, have been able to gain access to more prey.

When accounts of male activists behaving badly make the news, there is an almost immediate backlash. Followers swear that the men are being framed by “the white man” or “bitter” African-American women who are in cahoots with white men to take these men down. The movements, largely constructed to avenge and provide shelter to black men, have also allowed more nefarious individuals to hide among the well-meaning men and unsuspecting women.

“Black power,” therefore, can be seen as another way to ensure that women are reluctant to come forward besides the occasional Facebook post.

In the past few weeks, the Black Lives Matter and other organizations have picked up steam. An article in The New York Times even declared that at last, Black Lives Matter is “winning.” But, can any of these movements really win with such a record of defending and harboring the very individuals whose behaviors necessitate police presence in the first place?

It’s time to lift the veil and unearth the monsters lying in wait.