Warning: This article includes details of sexual violence. Please be advised that the discussion may contain triggers.
Gabrielle Union just paid heartbreaking homage to Oluwatoyin “Toyin” Salau, a 19-year-old activist who had become known as a vocal advocate for the Black Lives Matter movement in recent weeks. Salau was confirmed murdered on June 13 — mere days after she spoke out on Twitter about being sexually assaulted. And in the process of paying tribute to the teen activist, Union looked back on her own painful history with sexual assault.
“She was 19. 19. 19. A baby,” Union began. “Oluwatoyin ‘Toyin’ Salau was a 19-year-old warrior who fought for US. She reported her sexual assault to police and days later was found murdered. The horrors she faced, the trauma she endured, all by 19 years old. Who cares for little Black girls, Black teens, Black women? Toyin deserved so much more. She fought for so much more for all of us. I can’t shake it.”
Union went on to explain that she relates to Salau on a deeply personal level. “I am her and she is me. I am alive to talk about surviving my rape at 19. She is not,” Union said, continuing, “The work continues. The fight continues. The reckoning will continue. Toyin should be here. She was 19. A baby. Hold our babies tight. Love them. Protect them. Support them. 19.”
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Union has opened up about her assault before, relaying it in visceral detail in her book We’re Going to Need More Wine. At that moment, she explained, she had a sort of out-of-body experience. “I could see the whole room,” she wrote. “I looked at that poor crying girl and thought, Things like this happen to bad people. Things like this don’t happen to people like me.”
Salua also expressed disbelief over the reality of what had happened to her, tweeting on June 6 of her attacker, “He came disguised as a man of God and ended up picking me up from nearby Saxon Street. I trusted the holy spirit to keep me safe.”
Per USA Today, the investigation into Salau’s murder is ongoing, although a suspect has been arrested in connection with the case.
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