Safe Hub Collective

We woke up yesterday to the news of a woman who had been groped outside the Kendall Square T station. This badass woman managed to punch her assailant in the face and take a picture of him as he was walking away. We recognize her bravery, as well as the bravery of anyone who has ever experienced sexual violence in Boston’s public spaces. This statement is in solidarity with the victim of this particular sexual assault, and every other person, seen or unseen, who is groped on the streets of Boston on a daily basis.

News reports called the assault “shocking,” and we wish that were the case. Street harassment is only a shocking deviation from the norm for those who do not experience it. It is a common and pervasive occurrence for women, people of color, and LGBTQ Bostonians. It is the tone of these news reports that we wish to address with this statement, as we believe the reports are sensationalizing the lived experience of marginalized Bostonians, as well as perpetuating harmful stereotypes about street harassment itself.

The news reports that “police are warning women” to be aware of their surroundings and to keep themselves safe. However, women know to watch their backs when they’re out in public. They’re socialized to do that every second of every day, and have been since the time they were small. Navigating public space in female bodies has taught them to always be on guard in anticipation of the next violation of their autonomy. Implying that people who frequently experience street harassment in Boston do not know what to do in order to avoid it (as if it’s a new, unexplored, and unexplained phenomenon) is condescending, patriarchal, and offensive.

Furthermore, placing the onus of avoiding assault on the potential victim is what’s known as victim-blaming. Instead of implying that women (or people of color or LGBTQ folks) need to try to avoid being assaulted, we should send the message to perpetrators not to violate people in public spaces. To imply that women (or any marginalized people) are capable of avoiding sexual assault by behaving differently is not only inaccurate (often the only way to avoid street harassment is to avoid going outdoors) it also shames victims of street harassment for their actions. This kind of messaging is what leads many survivors to blame themselves for their assaults and feel reluctant to report harassment. We unequivocally reject this messaging, and recognize that the blame always lies squarely with the perpetrator of the violence.

Another problem with the narrative around this assault is the idea that “things like this” don’t happen in “neighborhoods like Kendall Square.” We are calling on the media to stop buying into stereotypes about "safe" and "unsafe" neighborhoods. These statements about “where” street harassment occurs are racist, classist, and fear-mongering. Street harassment happens everywhere. We’ve heard stories of it happening in every single neighborhood in the Greater Boston area, regardless of who lives there.

With this statement, we call on the media, the police, and the general public to do better when reporting on sexual violence. We are available to consult on language if desired.

If you have experienced street harassment and sexual assault on the streets of Boston, we want you to know that we see you and we support you. Please take care of yourselves and each other as you navigate this city, and if you need extra support, the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center’s hotline can be reached 24 hours per day at 800-841-8371.

This guy was locking up his bike as I was stopped at the light. I had my window down and he shouted "hey" so I turned to look. He started making kissy faces at me so I gave him a glare but he kept doing it. I gave him the finger and he still didn't stop so I rolled up my window and locked all the car doors. Finally the light changed. But I felt so angry and frustrated that I couldn't make him stop and that he thought it was ok to keep going when it clearly offended me.

Sometimes I'm walking down the street at the same time someone is heading towards me, and I jut get this gut feeling that I'm about to experience street harassment. I can feel it coming from a block away, and I brace myself, thinking, maybe I should quickly cross the street or step into this store so I avoid the potential confrontation. I hate that I have to think about this and have to consider (and often do) alter my route out of fear of harassment!

Well, this past weekend it happened; I got that gut feeling I get when I see a man who I'm about to cross paths with. We made eye contact briefly, and I decide not to change my walking path or go out of my way to avoid him because I shouldn't have to. Sure enough, I can tell he's staring at me as we get closer to passing one another, and he yells out, "Hey! You've got a beautiful frame!" And he moves his arms as if outlining a woman's body. Gross. He snickers at me, I give him the DIRTIEST look I've probably ever given someone, and he quickly takes a defensive tone and shouts, "It's a compliment you know! Jesus!"

But it wasn't a compliment. It humiliated me, and I replayed the incident in my mind all day wishing I had responded better than just a dirty look, or at least told him it's not a compliment.

Ugh.

Middle aged man on the BU bridge was taking creepshots of young women with his digital camera.

Here at Safe Hub Collective, we’re firm believers in the power of story sharing. Of course, this isn’t unique to us or our work. But we know that change can begin when people share their stories, and movements grow as those stories become too numerous to ignore.

Safe Hub Collective was formed in the Fall of 2014, when the leadership of Hollaback! Boston left the Hollaback! organization. When we left Hollaback!, the Boston website was taken down and along with it, all of the hundreds of stories that were shared on that platform.

While the stories remain in Hollaback!’s database and appear as bubbles on their map, they are no longer publicly accessible online. We asked that those stories be restored, out of respect for the people who courageously shared them, but that has not happened.

We value your experiences, all of you. And we believe it is only right to share these stories publicly, as the storytellers originally intended. We asked everyone who submitted a story to Hollaback! Boston’s site for their permission to republish that story here. Those stories belong to the person who created and wrote them, not Hollaback!, as there is no copyright or terms of service to agree to when shared.

We refuse to allow our community to be silenced. And so we will give the members of our community who took the time to share their stories with us their platform back. We will be republishing Boston’s stories of street harassment over the next few months, until each one is on our new site.

Street harassment is no joke. Did you know that navigating public space as a sexualized body can cause reactions similar to those experienced by soldiers who have seen combat? Symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder may include flashbacks, nightmares and severe anxiety, as well as uncontrollable thoughts about the event. Maybe you find yourself taking different routes, avoiding certain areas, not wanting to leave the house, or replaying incidents over and over again in your head. This is all normal, but definitely unpleasant, and may be traumatic and upsetting.

Not only that, a study published in the journal Sex Roles found that “sexual objectification had a direct role in women’s fear of crime.” The study further concluded that women of color were especially affected; African-American women felt more afraid of crime and had more psychological stress than white women. Researchers say this is likely because African-American women are more likely to be sexually objectified in the first place. So how can you take care of yourself after an incident (or several incidents) of street harassment? Here are some tips:

For more reading, see:

Street Harassment and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder by Trudy on Gradient Lair

Here's a perfect little 1 minute short-- expertly crafted by the filmmakers at Homespun Productions, documenting the final moments of Monday morning's ‪#‎WUTM‬ action, where members of Safe Hub Collective and blacklivesmatterboston demanded Marty Walsh pull his support for the 2024 Olympic bid.

Have a look, be impressed, and let's re-ignite the conversation about what it means organize, execute, and participate in radical (Black-femme led) direct action in our city, friends. Women have always been at the forefront of our movements and it's our mission to continue to foster that. As far as political traditions go, this is actually Boston's finest. Let's keep it going!

Dozens of residents representing Black Lives Matter Boston and Safe Hub Collective gathered this morning outside the home of Mayor Marty Walsh, in solidarity with the people of Rio de Janeiro and the larger anti-Olympics movement across our city and the globe, in order to bring him a long overdue wake-up call. With the Olympic hymn as our backdrop, we delivered our message outlining the economic, social, and cultural disaster Boston 2024 is working so hard to bring here with the XXXIII Olympiad.  For nearly a year we have volunteered alongside one another as members of the Hub’s vibrant, underserved communities to provide evidence as to why 54% of this city does not want to host the Olympic Games and counter the millions already spent to hide the ugly realities of its absurdist proposal and buy up support.

Displacement has accompanied every Olympic Games. Specifically, we recognize the 30,000 residents made homeless by the Atlanta Centennial Games; we are witnessing in real time the wholesale destruction of Rio de Janeiro’s neighborhoods. We refuse to allow Boston to suffer the same fate.

Likewise, we reject the continued diversion of Boston’s limited public funds for private projects when already one-third of Boston’s public schools have no physical education and roughly one-third of Boston’s children currently live in poverty.

Similarly, previous Games have actually hurt local and independent businesses as International Olympic Committee contracts go to corporate sponsors, and loyal customers are discouraged by the transportation headaches and large crowds. Boston’s small businesses are at-risk of being wiped out, which would be devastating for the families that depend on them as their source of income and to the vibrant communities where these businesses live.

Furthermore, Boston’s greenest and most beloved public spaces will become inaccessible to the majority of us who use them to enjoy time with our families and instead they will be transformed into a temporary playground for the global elite. The city should be for the people.

Perhaps most significantly, the XXXIII Olympiad will turn Boston into a police state, disproportionately targeting Black and brown folks, Muslim residents, gender non-conforming and undocumented Bostonians. We are still suffering the impacts of the expanded surveillance that accompanied the 2004 Democratic National Convention. More expanded policing is a matter of life and death for Boston’s marginalized communities.

Mayor Walsh’s continued endorsement of this bid is not only a bad idea it is also bad leadership.  By holding this space together with our bodies and our voices we made sure that Marty Walsh could no longer claim to have never seen nor heard our dissent.  In doing so, our aim is to protect our city and promote the people’s need over private interests. With this action, we hope to wake up not only Mayor Walsh, but the entire city of Boston to the destructive and devastating impact an Olympics would have on our beloved city. We occupied this space with our bodies and voices because we love Boston and we firmly believe that our city deserves better than an Olympic Games. We have one demand and it is simple: that His Honor explicitly pull his support for the bid. We hope Mayor Walsh will answer our call.

Press contact:

Black Lives Matter Boston: 617-506-9538

Read our statement about why we do not support a Boston Olympics.

Dr. Saida Grundy, a new African American Studies professor at Boston University, has been subjected to a litany of harassment and targeted career obstruction in light of personal tweets remarking on whiteness in relation to masculinity, the male college population, and the history of slavery. Safe Hub Collective stands in solidarity with Dr. Grundy, affirming her right as a black woman and an academic to speak on the legacy of racism and sexism that continues unabated to the present day. Academia, historically, is a space rife with institutional and cultural discrimination. Boston University in particular is bereft in accomodation both of undergraduates and faculty of color, particularly black students and professors: only 3% of the undergraduate population are black. By prioritizing the feelings of predominately white unaffiliated agitators and media over the qualified academic voice of a black female professor, Boston University is perpetuating a pattern of toxicity that undermines, excludes, and damages black female intellectuals while exposing them to serious threats of abuse and violence from an unrelenting hate campaigns predicated on racism and sexism. Safe Hub Collective unequivocally supports Dr. Grundy and calls for Boston University, the local Boston community, and empathetic citizens everywhere to support her against this campaign of misogynoir.

UPDATE: The Boston Metro Staff has offered an apology to its readers. We greatly appreciate their thoughtful response as well as their dedication towards safer coverage of sexual assault and street harassment in the future. http://www.metro.us/boston/an-apology-to-our-readers/zsJoef---tMqhOn9mgiFL/ Dear Metro Boston:

Your cover story on May 6, 2015 addresses an incredibly serious issue-- the string of groping assaults that have happened in Allston/Brighton over the last week. However, the image and headline you chose for that story not only trivializes the serious issue of sexual assault, but displays the kind of attitude and language that actually contributes to it.

By presenting an image of a headless woman, you dehumanize all women. The dehumanization of women is a key element to violence against them-- when you view someone as less-than-human, as an object, it becomes easier to treat them that way. Men who commit assaults like this serial groper do view women as objects or property, which this cover only reinforces.

By referring to women as “babes,” you not only sexualize them, but you patronize them. Furthermore, this is exactly the kind of violent language that street harassers use towards women on a daily basis-- this kind of reporting, using the language of violence to report on violence, is harmful and potentially retraumatizing. It also serves to trivialize the nature of the assault that the victims experienced.

The headline is a direct call to BU students, and is elitist because BU students are not the only people that this groper poses a threat to; the assaults have happened in Allston/Brighton and not exclusively on BU’s campus. The headline also presumes that young women on campuses are not already all too aware of the threat of violence that they face daily, when we know that the numbers around sexual assault on college campuses are staggering.

And finally, the image of a white, femme-presenting woman not only plays into stereotypes about who experiences sexual violence in public space, but it sends the message that only women who fit this mold should be (and are deserving of being) protected from this violence. We know that often the media and the public only care about sexual violence when young, white, cisgender women are the victims, and your cover reinforces that narrative.

We’re calling on you to apologize for the harmful, sexist, and violent cover that you ran alongside what is an incredibly serious story, and asking you to do better.

Safe Hub Collective

CALL TO ACTION: Tweet @MetroBos and let them know how you feel about their cover.

Tweet: Hey @MetroBos, your cover image about the serial gropings is sexist & harmful. Please apologize & do better!

This post, written by Kayla Hogan, was originally run on the Hollaback! Boston blog. As it’s springtime, it felt worthy of revisiting it.

Porch heckling [pohrch hek-uhl-ing], verb: when a person or group of people yell(s) at a passerby from a porch in the hopes of making the passerby feel unsafe, unwelcome or uncomfortable, usually at night; a form of street harassment.

Have you ever been there? If you’re a lady, I bet you have. You’re walking down the street, maybe even your own street, when some dudes yell at you from their porch. No matter what they yell, you suddenly feel unsafe, or in the very least uncomfortable. You don’t yell back because you don’t have the safety of your home or friends nearby. You just pick up the pace and pretend it didn’t happen. But it did happen. In fact, it happens all the time. At least it does to me.

Summer is the time for porch beers, and I’m all for that. It only becomes a problem when some frat bro or bored thirty-something (not trying to generalize, that’s just who it always happens to be) has one porch beer too many and thinks it’s okay to yell shit at me when I’m walking home. Since it’s been warm enough to sit on porches, this has happened to me every other night. It’s gotten to the point where I’ll change my route if I spot a porch full of people ahead.

Sometimes the things yelled at me aren’t even inherently offensive, i.e., that one porch dude who scream-asked my friend and I if we wanted to go to a Backstreet Boys concert with him. The point, though, is that it doesn’t matter what the heckler shouts; a heckler by any other name is a heckler. Screaming at someone from your own porch is the same idea as screaming at someone from your car: you are safe and in power, while the passerby is not.

April 12th-18th, 2015 is Meet Us On The Street: International Anti-Street Harassment Week. On Tuesday, April 14th, Safe Hub Collective is inviting residents of Boston who routinely feel unsafe in public spaces to join us in holding space in Boston Common. We invite women, people of color, trans and gender non-conforming people, queer folks, and disabled people to bring their jump ropes, balls, sidewalk chalk, and favorite playground songs to send the message that street harassment is not a game. It is violence. And it is hurtful.

The playing of games traditionally seen in elementary school yards is significant for another reason, too. When women and girls are asked how old they were the first time they experienced street harassment, the answers they give can be as young as 8 or 9 years old. One study found that 1 in 4 girls have been harassed by age 12. And, as the Twitter conversation around #FastTailedGirls*  reflects, for Black girls in particular, the freedom of childhood ends when this gender-based violence begins. Our goal is to make evident that Boston’s most cherished public spaces are not safe for the majority of its residents. We are not able to enjoy, let alone exist in our city without fear of these assaults. We hope that holding a space where those most likely to be targets of street harassment can be present and carefree gets across the message of how chilling this reality is and the urgent need to address it. We hope that the juxtaposition of children’s playground games and a conversation around street harassment serves to show the harrowing nature of the world that many people live in.

Help us build the world that we want to live in by creating a no-harassment zone with us. We all deserve to live and work and play safely. We’ll be meeting at 5:00 PM on Tuesday, April 14th, by the fountain in Boston Common. And be sure to join us using the hashtags #endSHweek and #SHNotAGame.

*#FastTailedGirls is a hashtag started by Mikki Kendall to reflect the experiences of Black girls in America. This statement has been edited to clarify that.

Meet Us On the Street: International Anti-Street Harassment Week – a program of Stop Street Harassment -  is an opportunity to collectively raise awareness that street harassment happens and that it’s not okay.

Check out our brand new infographic on women of color and street harassment, along with our reading list on the topic:

Race, Ethnicity, & Street Harassment: A Reading List

Safe Hub Collective knows that our identities shape the kind of harassment we experience and the way in which we experience it. Part of the work that we do involves bringing that to light, and working to address the ways in which oppressions can intersect. This reading list is helpful for anyone interested in examining the ways that race and gender intersect to impact someone’s experience of public space. This is a live document; we’ll add new reads as we come across them.

Street Harassment and Race: A Sliding Scale by Oshun Returns

Post the Seventy-Eighth by witchymorgan

Black women and street harassment:

When Street Harassers Are The Only Ones Calling You Beautiful by Carol Hood

On #YouOKSis and Bystander Intervention (A Round-Up Guide) by Feminista Jones

Tired of Online Abuse From White Women by Trudy, Gradient Lair

Black People: No Silence on Street Harassment by Trudy, Gradient Lair

Gradient Lair by Trudy, Gradient Lair

Police Violence Happens To Black Women, Too by Carmen Rios

Latina women and street harassment:

I’m Not Your Spicy Latina by Shantyana C. Lledin

Latina Like Me: I’m Not Your Mami! by Tanisha Ramirez

Questions Linger for LGBT Community After Police Kill Jessie Hernandez by Jamilah King

Asian/Pacific Islander women and street harassment:

It Happened To Me: A Stranger Called Me A “Chinese Bitch” And Then Spat In My Face by Andrea Park

Mea Culpa by Phoenix Tso

How To Avoid Harassing Asian American Women

Native/Indigenous women and street harassment:

Missing in Life, Missing in Death: A Teach In by Save Wiyabi Project

The missing women you don’t hear about: How the media fails Indigenous communities by Lauren Chief Elk

Conquest: Sexual Violence and Native American Genocide by Andrea Smith

Muslim women and street harassment

Why Do White Guys Hate My Hijab by Zainab Khan

From the Oppressed to the Terrorist: Muslim American Women Caught in the Crosshairs of Intersectionality by Sahar F. Aziz

Georgia judge jails Muslim woman for wearing headscarf to court by Daniel Nasaw

Practicing Islam in Short Shorts by Thanaa El-Naggar

Trans women of color and street harassment:

Transmisogyny by alok vaid-menon

Stop Letting Trans People Die by Mya Adriene Byrne

A Note on Visibility In The Wake of 6 Trans Women’s Murders in 2015 by Janet Mock

A Profile of CeCe McDonald by Sabrina Rubin Erdely

"Black Trans Bodies Are Under Attack": Freed Activist CeCe McDonald, Actress Laverne Cox Speak Out on Democracy! Now

Black men and street harassment:

How Racism is Bad for Our Bodies by Jason Silverstein

The team here at Safe Hub Collective firmly believes that our work needs to be intersectional and community-driven or else it shouldn’t happen at all. In that vein, we have chosen not to participate in V-Day’s One Billion Rising campaign on February 14th. We made this decision because we cannot support a campaign that has co-opted and erased the work that communities of color have done, particularly while representing themselves as a global movement. This behavior has been well-documented and we’d encourage you to read for yourself all of the ways that Eve Ensler’s campaign and white-saviorism has been damaging to people of color and to many communities that she does not belong to (The pieces we link to are work by Lauren Chief Elk, Everyday Victim Blaming, Mikki Kendall, and @prisonculture).

February 14th also happens to be a day to recognize and remember missing and murdered Indigenous women across Canada and the United States. You can read a short history of the day here and find actions happening around the U.S. and Canada here. Save Wiyabi Project is an organization working to map missing and murdered Indigenous women year-round, and they will be hosting a Twitter chat on February 14th at 11 AM with the hashtag #HowWeDisappear. We will be following and RTing tweets from that discussion and encourage you to do the same. You can also follow the hashtag #MMIW for more.

A core tenet of SHC’s work is that different people and different communities experience harassment and gender-based violence in different ways, and that the people who know best how to fight for justice in their community are the people living there. Therefore, inspired by Collective Action For Safe Spaces, instead of supporting One Billion Rising, we will show our solidarity with the activists and organizations working to make their communities safer here in Boston. If you’re not already familiar with these orgs, we suggest you check them out!

Boston GLASS is a drop-in center for GLBTQ youth ages 13-29. They create a space where youth can explore their gender-identity and sexual orientation and feel supported and encouraged. HIV and STI prevention, support, awareness and testing is a huge part of their mission, and they also provide groups and social support.

Black Lives Matter Boston is an organization formed in response to the anti-Black racism that permeates our society and also, unfortunately, our movements. It is an affirmation of Black folks’ contributions to this society, our humanity, and our resilience in the face of deadly oppression. The mission of Black Lives Matter is to affirm and embrace the resistance and resilience of Black people and broaden the conversation around state violence to include all of the ways in which Black people are intentionally left powerless at the hands of the state. We are working for a world where Black lives are no longer systematically and intentionally targeted for demise but rather encouraged to endure and thrive.

Black and Pink is an open family of LGBTQ prisoners and “free world” allies who support each other. Our work toward the abolition of the prison industrial complex is rooted in the experience of currently and formerly incarcerated people.

Youth Against Mass Incarceration is a collective of youth from Boston working together in our community to build solidarity, and take action against mass incarceration.

Hispanic Black Gay Coalition  (HBGC) is dedicated to the unique and complex needs of the Black, Hispanic and Latin@ LGBTQ community. Founded in 2009, they work to inspire and empower Latin@, Hispanic and Black LGBTQ individuals to improve their livelihood through activism, education, community outreach, and counseling. They hold amazing community building events, and an awesome Youth Empowerment Conference each year, which we were honored to participate in in 2013.

HUES Boston is a collective of LGBQ/T identified Brown Womyn in Boston. HUES is a program of HBGC that works to provide a space where LGBTQ Black and Hispanic/Latin@ womyn can be safe, visible and celebrated.

The Network/La Red is a survivor-led, social justice organization that works to end partner abuse in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, BDSM, polyamorous, and queer communities. Rooted in anti-oppression principles, their work aims to create a world where all people are free from oppression. We strengthen our communities through organizing, education, and the provision of support services. Their TOD@S project seeks to gain more insight on domestic violence/partner abuse within Black and/or Latin@ LGBQ/T communities and to create greater access to resources and services for survivors from these communities.

MAP for Health is a community-based, nonprofit organization that works to improve healthcare access, disease prevention and service delivery for the Asian Pacific Islander community in Massachusetts.

Mass Area South Asian Lambda Association (MASALA) is a Boston-based organization for GLBTQ people of South Asian ethnicity. Their aim is to increase the awareness of our presence in the social spaces that they inhabit and welcome alliances with like-minded individuals and groups regardless of their ethnic/cultural/sexual identities.

Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance (QAPA) is committed to providing a supportive social, political, and educational environment for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans*, and questioning people of Asian and Pacific Islander heritage in the Boston and New England area.

The Theater Offensive  seeks to present the diversity of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender lives in art so bold it breaks through personal isolation, challenges the status quo, and builds thriving communities.

MataHari: Eye of the Day is a Greater Boston organization of women of color, immigrant women and families who organize as sisters, workers, and survivors for personal and societal transformation, justice and human rights. MataHari’s Mission is to end gender based violence and exploitation.

Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence (ATASK) primarily serves Asian families and individuals in Massachusetts and New England who suffer from or are at risk of suffering from domestic violence.

Queer Muslims of Boston seeks to be a safe, inclusive, confidential and welcoming space for those Muslims who identify as LGBT, Queer, or Questioning. They aim to remove isolation and alienation, to build community, and to increase visibility for Queer Muslims in the Greater Boston area.

Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción (IBA) strives to build community power through a comprehensive approach to community development. They work to develop and preserve safe and culturally diverse affordable housing communities whose residents will have opportunities to increase their social, educational, economic and political power, in order to reach their full potential. They use the arts as a community-building tool to increase cultural pride and foster cross-cultural connections.

In solidarity,