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Megan Thee Stallion On Why She Speaks Up For Black Women: ‘I Was Shot As I Walked Away’

Megan Thee Stallion attends the 2019 American Music Awards at Microsoft Theater on November 24
(Photo by Jeff Kravitz/GettyImages)

Megan Thee Stallion speaks on why she stands up for Black women. The essay, accompanied by a video for New York Times , is entitled “Megan Thee Stallion: Why I Speak Up for Black Women.”

“I was recently the victim of an act of violence by a man. After a party, I was shot twice as I walked away from him,” she wrote, in reference to the July 12 incident in which rapper Tory Lanez is accused shooting Meg in both her feet.

“We were not in a relationship. Truthfully, I was shocked that I ended up in that place. My initial silence about what happened was out of fear for myself and my friends. Even as a victim, I have been met with skepticism and judgment. The way people have publicly questioned and debated whether I played a role in my own violent assault proves that my fears about discussing what happened were, unfortunately, warranted.”

Megan said she realized that not all violence against women is connected to a relationship. “Instead, it happens because too many men treat all women as objects, which helps them to justify inflicting abuse against us when we choose to exercise our own free will,” she says. “From the moment we begin to navigate the intricacies of adolescence, we feel the weight of this threat, and the weight of contradictory expectations and misguided preconceptions. Many of us begin to put too much value to how we are seen by others. That’s if we are seen at all.”

Watch the full video below.