Explainin’ Is Due: Freaknik, Sexual Freedom, & Sexual Assault
There are rites of passages in every generation. Within my college-era one, there is a renewed discussion about what was deemed one of ours. It has been announced that there will be a documentary exploring the phenomenon of Freaknik (some have spelled it Freaknic). For those who are unfamiliar, Freanik started as annual picnic in Atlanta that occurred over college spring break. Geared towards college students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, it reached its height of popularity in the 1990s, until 1999 when city officials and police action ended it.
For those of my college era who did or did not attend, we all knew about Freaknik. However, its recognition as a rite of passage had its own double meaning, as reports of sexual assaults were intermingled with those of consensual sexual exploration.
As some look forward to the Freaknik documentary as a way to reminisce about street parties, seas of Black college faces, or a spring break of Black joy — -there are others for whom Freaknik was not that.
Recently, there have surfaced video recordings of some of those same college students normalizing and justifying the sexual assaults that occurred at Freaknik.
They “explained” that dressing a certain way meant that you wanted to be groped.
They delighted in tales of sexual contact with those they know were too drunk or high to know what was happening.
In the expected release of the Freaknik documentary, there will be those who have jokingly stated that they will have some “explaining to do” to their own children for whom they have admonished for what they have claimed were this Generation’s moral failings — -because they did not believe that “VHS” could be just as “forever” as the internet.
Yet, I wonder how many of those will be made to explain that their sexual freedom was not freeing for those with whom they had sexual contact?
Sexual assault of Black college women was not “new” when Freaknik happened, and it remains prevalent today.
The National Sexual Violence Resource Center reported that 1 in 5 women are raped at some point in time. Of those female victims who experienced completed rape, almost 80% have it happen before the age of 25.
We like to claim that HBCUs and those spaces inhabited by HBCU students are “safe” for Black women. However, 1 in 5 women at HBCUs will experience sexual assault, which is the same rate as their white counterparts attending Predominantly White Institutions (endrapeoncampus.org).
Freaknik being a place where sexual assaults happened is devastating but not surprising because for sexual assaults related to HBCUs, a large percentage of them occur during special events like Homecoming and, spring break — -of which Freaknik seemed to be its steroid version.
When the Freaknik documentary is released, I am hoping that we make room for the voices of those for whom it was a traumatizing experience.
I hope that we make sure that we clearly differentiate between sexual exploration/freedom and sexual assault.
I hope that in our discussion and “explaining” of its significance, we tell the whole story — -the good and the devastating.
Some of us have posted we were “safe from the Freaknik Documentary”. May we not be so safe that we fail to learn all of the lessons we can learn from it — — both that of the joy of designated Black spaces as well as what can happen when we fail to make those spaces joyful for everyone who attends or visits them.
Dr. Tyffani is a licensed psychologist who centers the needs of Black Women and Girls in her work. She is a proud HBCU alum of the 1990s when Freaknik was at its height. She did not attend Freaknik but recognizes its cultural significance — -and the need for ALL of the lessons from it to be learned.
#Freaknik #SAAM #SexualAssaultAwareness #HBCUs #BelieveSurvivors