Analysis Of Melba Beals 'Warriors Don' T Cry

In Warriors Don’t Cry, Melba Pattillo Beals describes her arduous battle for racial equality in the brutal town of Little Rock, Arkansas in the late 1950s. When she was only twelve years old, Melba survived attempted rape by a white man. Scared and confused, Melba went home and told her family. However, they instructed her to keep quiet about the abuse because they believed getting the police involved would only make things worse. Unfortunately, thousands of sexual assaults still go unreported for a myriad of reasons, including distrust in law enforcement and the criminal justice system, the possibility that the abuser will not be punished, and victim blaming, a common occurrence in our society. One of the main reasons many victims choose not to report sexual assault is distrust in law enforcement and the belief that nothing would be done to help them. A report done by the Sexual Assault Among Latinas Study showed that many victims spoke with their families about what happened, but very few victims sought help from the criminal justice department. According to the study, only 6.6% of the women involved sought help from law enforcement, and 33%

Saying that a victim was asking for it due to their clothing, spreading the myth that only “weak” men get raped, or otherwise labelling the victim are all examples of victim blaming. According to Amnesty International, about 33% of people believed that the victim was at fault if they had been flirting with predator beforehand. This belief stems from the common misconception that sexual assault is always about sex. As stated by Cambridge for Consent, “Sexual assault is not solely about sex- it is a crime relating to power, violence, and control.” Victim-blaming is unacceptable and absurd because if victims had truly been “asking for it,” it wouldn’t have been