Putting a Face on Domestic Violence

Chris Brown, Rihanna collabo puts spotlight back on domestic violence

Recently, a few stories in the media have captured my attention. 

While one involves two popular music artists and the other two college athletes, their stories share a very common theme – domestic violence.   

The stories about Rihanna’s recent musical reunion with Chris Brown after a 2009 assault by Brown and the trial of George Huguely in the death of his girlfriend, Yeardley Love, have dominated both the airwaves and print media. They have been posted online on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter with thoughts shared among friends and between perfect strangers. But the reason these stories stood out to me so prominently wasn’t because of all of the attention that they received by the media or my social networks. Rather, it was the fact that when I look in the mirror, I see the face of a survivor of domestic violence staring back at me.

[ALSO READ: Someone Tell Conservatives That Domestic Violence Is Not A Partisan Issue]

Seeing the stories in the media caused an emotional stirring within me. Along with the recent story from one of the cast members of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and the untimely death of an up-and-coming model in Philadelphia by her boyfriend in a murder-suicide, my own past and the burden that I carried with it began to weigh heavily. I wanted to write about something else this week. I wanted to close out Black History Month focused on the groundbreaking ceremony of the National Museum of African American History and Culture that took place this week and its historical significance. But the guilty verdict in the George Huguely case meant I couldn’t wait. I couldn’t postpone telling my story any longer.