TO THE EDITOR:
A recent WRAL article reported that a rape near UNC campus “served as a reminder to young women of the need to be vigilant.”
There is a subtle context to the opening line that implies responsibility on behalf of the victim, as if a formula of clothing — sweat pants and a figure-concealing hoodie, perhaps — or white-knuckling a can of mace would constitute the level of vigilance required to prevent such an attack.
These people, assailants and victims alike, are our mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, our children. On any other day, they would be treated with impartiality. Yet after an attack such as this, victims remain the overwhelming recipients of the finger wagging.
This article did not remind me of “the need to be vigilant.” Rather, it reminded me of the need to demand for better; the need to fight, kick and scream for it as victims have been admonished to do.
And what exactly is “better?” Better is a place where we no longer have to be reminded of the need for vigilance, where we no longer relegate the onus of responsibility to victims of violence, but where we learn not, under any circumstances, to harm one another.
Adriana Pollak ’14
Environmental Science
