C'est la Cheyenne

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In November 2015, I was called to support & coordinate a community accountability (CA) process for sexual harm. It wasn’t the first CA process I’d facilitated or coordinated and it’s not the last. It was however a very public incident. Malcolm London had sexually assaulted a young woman a couple of years earlier. She had come forward to share her experience in late 2015. She didn’t want to engage with the criminal legal system. She was open to a community accountability process. Along with coordinating the process, I was also a member of the survivor support team. Malcolm had a separate accountability team. We all checked in throughout the process. After 15 months, the CA process officially came to a close. The goals that had been set for the process were met. https://transformharm.tumblr.com

In the coming months and years after our process ended, other people came forward to share their own stories of sexual harm involving Malcolm. The ones I was made aware of through social media had taken place prior to the end of the process I had coordinated. I hoped that the accountability work that Malcolm was engaging in might equip him with tools to address those incidents as they were disclosed.

Today, I learned through social media that Malcolm raped someone in 2018. This is at least a year after the CA process that I coordinated ended. One of the commitments that Malcolm made as part of the process was to never repeat the same harm. Clearly, he broke that commitment.

I am so sorry that the survivor who spoke out about their experience today was harmed by Malcolm. I hope that their community will hold and support them through this. I am also here to offer any support desired or requested. I wish them healing and care.

The survivor who participated in the process that I coordinated starting in November 2015 through March 2017 is an incredibly courageous, generous and decent person who has continued on her own healing path over the past few years. I am blessed to call her a friend and we remain in regular contact. Our relationship is grounded in care and love. Over the years, she has been unfairly disrespected and maligned on social media. What is her crime? To have wanted to find a way to address the harm she experienced without engaging the criminal legal system: A system she had previously engaged and that had left her traumatized, unsupported and isolated. Many of the people who have engaged in disrespecting her have said that they were doing so on behalf of *survivors.* The question needs to be asked ‘which survivors?’ The ones who act as you would? She deserved and continues to deserve support and care. She has done nothing wrong. She was the one victimized. Leave her alone and stop projecting. As importantly, stop hiding behind being survivor-focused, when you spend your time victim-blaming. It’s really no wonder people choose not to make information about TJ/CA processes public.

I am deeply disappointed and angry that Malcolm hasn’t taken accountability for his violent behavior and actually done the promised work to changed it. Accountability is not only about self-reflection, apology and repair for a particular incident. It is also making sure not to repeat the same behavior. On that front, he has failed. Many people have invested countless hours and emotional labor to support Malcolm in taking full accountability. Unfortunately, he has let them down. He has also given critics of CA processes fodder which is enraging because having facilitated several processes over the years, I know their value and importance particularly for people who can’t and/or don’t want to engage the corrupt & violent criminal legal system. CA processes are overwhelmingly facilitated by survivors because we know that we cannot live without our lives. It’s a double-betrayal when people who’ve caused harm refuse to take accountability by changing their behavior after so much investment of time and labor by survivors.

This is all I’ll have to say on this subject for the foreseeable future. I continue to believe in and practice transformative justice (of which CA processes are one component). Let the focus for today be on the courageous survivors who have come forward to share their experiences of sexual violence. However, and this will be counter-intuitive to some, we also need those who are part of Malcolm’s current accountability team to lean into this moment to reduce future harm. Because if everyone cuts ties in this moment, community safety will be further compromised. None of us can be bystanders. We all have a role to play in ending sexual violence. This is a collective responsibility. I’ll continue to do my part.

In peace,