Today is day 15 of the national month-long writing campaign for men on the issue of domestic violence and in support of Marissa Alexander, the Florida mother of three who was sentenced to 20 years for firing a warning shot to scare off her abusive husband. Launched by the Chicago Taskforce on Violence Against , Emotional Justice Unplugged, and the Free Marisa Now Mobilization Campaign, EBONY.com is the official media partner of this critical act of 'emotional justice' in action.


Check out our mission statement here and visit EBONY.com daily through the month of October to read powerful words from men who are committed to seeing justice for Marissa Alexander.

Today's letter is from Tom C., a man who learned about Marissa Alexander through a woman he was dating. He acknowledges the male privilege that honors and encourages violence from him, and the price Marissa pays for defending herself against that violence. Here, he confronts the circumstances that allowed him stay unaware of the realities around domestic violence.

"Dear Marissa" by Tom C.

"We will do our work on the outside for now until you are free from this hell, until we are free from this hell."

"I feel my potential to be violent and the world leaves the door wide open for me. But some people have helped me resist this, [the] 1st being the woman I just broke up with after 4 years of dating. She wrote to you a little while ago and was the 1st person who told me about you"

"…I am concerned with the ways my environment influences me, being in surroundings where nobody checks my sh*t, where I don't check other people's sh*t. And if I will slip down the slide we can only scramble to stay safe from the bottom. The Bottom, where we allow ourselves to ignore the stories we hear, the truths we see, or live and just ignore what we know and what things could be like."

Read this brother's complete letter here

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