Brittany Packnett Instagram – To say that the conversations of men I know and once venerated disappointed me when Cassie first revealed her years of torture would be an understatement. The equivocating from intelligent, well-read, seemingly “allied” Black men was honestly breathtaking. It literally took my breath away to find spaces and people I once saw as safe as clearly not. Even conversations now are staggering, as people discuss the fate of Diddy’s career or how bad his cover up strategies must have been before they ever mention being disgusted by the terror they saw in full color, or what their role has to be in creating a world among men where this doesn’t happen. Patriarchy is insidious like that. Because you can easily never be the man who’d raise a hand to a woman—but you can often be the man who’d help him weasel out of accountability, or contribute to cultures that allow this to happen for years, intentionally and unintentionally. Those cultures live in the world, yes—but also in your friend groups. Your professional spaces. Your group chats & your frats. Your churches and your block. Your homes. Your. homes. You cultivate them there just as much as anywhere else. Have you stopped to ask yourself how YOU help create something DIFFERENT? Start by knowing this: We don’t need allies. We need traitors. Traitors to the patriarchy that raised you, upholds you, and is killing you while it kills us. Bless every survivor who saw herself in that video—or can’t and doesn’t ever need to bring herself to watch it, because she knows the face she will see is hers. Bless every woman who has known the emotional, psychological, financial, spiritual, and/or physical abuse, control and narcissism that hides in too many corners and is too little believed. Having experienced one, some, of all of these is never your fault, always too much, and never ever ok. You are still here. We are still here. And we deserve every ounce of love and protection this green earth has to give. Times 100.