Black Dot Campaign: Petitioner Moves Against Campaign, Accuses it of being dangerous..

by Benson Agoha |

Petitioner kicks against The Black Dot Campaign

The Black Dot (above) is what some smart people developed as a solution to people suffering domestic violence, but find they can't speak-out.

Specifically, they advocate that when you show a passersby your palm with a black dot on it, they will immediately understand what you are going through and find a way to help you.

It is said that children and even physically challenged adults who, otherwise can't speak out for fear they will be made to suffer more will find it easy to use. Well, it seems not quite so.

A petitioner called Rachel Marie, has reason against the theory and now advocate that it is stopped.

According to the petitioner, the Black Dot Campaign, which is trying to give domestic violence victims a way to voice that they are being abused without saying a single word is not good.

And their goal of having an abused woman place a black dot on her palm to signal a to professional that she is a victim of abuse and that she cannot tell anyone because her abuser is watching, may be dangerous after all.

Marie said "due to the way this campaign has been publicized, they have not only educated victims of the idea but the abusers as well. This will not help women to break the silence. This does the exact opposite."

Marie who said she was a victim of domestic violence as well as a survivor said the reason women stay silent is because they fear their lives and more often than not, the lives of their children as well. 

"If I were still a victim, today, it would mean I could no longer have access to markers or pens. My abuser would have taken them away from me. He moved me hours away from my family and friends, took away my car, and broke my phone. There is nothing that would have stopped him from taking markers away from me. I could also no longer color pictures with my children. If I did, and I so much as accidentally marked my body with ink, the consequences could have cost me my life."

She said while the campaigners tried to perform a good deed, they were actually doing the exact opposite and that Healthcare professionals and law enforcement are NOT trained to follow this idea. It is being promoted and it isn't even in practice, she said.

She is concerned that a woman could walk into an Emergency Room with a black dot on her hand, hoping for help, but have the Nurse not even know what it means.

She said the idea of the Black Dot is not promoted by an agency that aides women in fleeing domestic violence, and it is dangerous. 

She wants the public to help save the vulnerable lives of domestic violence as well as sign this petition to tell Black Dot to take down their site.