UNITED STATES
The Scripps Voice
March 4, 2016
By Evelyn Gonzalez ’18
Feminism Columnist
The personal stories and accounts of survivors get lost under the weight of a heavy silence when we, as a society, allow those in power to have so much influence over the relevancy and importance of our words. As a result of our reliance on a capitalist system that often thrives on the exploitation of society’s most vulnerable, very few mechanisms exist at the present to protect survivors of abuse if it means that the image of corporations might be damaged in the process. In allowing this to continue, we have created a culture that forces survivors of abuse to speak up; but those that speak up are faced by a society who refuses to listen, reinforcing a damaging culture of violence and injustice.
On December 25, 2015, The New York Times released a piece on the connection between Whole Foods Market co-founder John Mackey and sex offender and creator of the nonprofit Center for Integral Wisdom, Marc Gafni. Approximately one month later Sara Kabakov submitted an exclusive to Forward’s online website. In it she detailed her personal account of the sexual and spiritual violation and molestation she faced under the hands of Marc Gafni during the 80’s. Along with Kabakov, several other women, including one of Gafni’s ex-wives chose to come forward with their own descriptions of the violence enacted on them. The similarities in the stories written by these women were striking in that they highlighted the varying ways they were forced into silence by Gafni himself and from their own communities. In this current society, speaking out about one’s past experience, especially against people in positions of power, can often result in a high degree of danger and vulnerability. Gafni’s ex wife, who chose to stay anonymous when she published her story in The Times of Israel about Gafni’s abuses said, “there is also a risk to staying silent, staying safe. 20 years and untold numbers of victims later, I have learned that staying safe can also be risky business.” In exposing the connection between Whole Foods Market and Gafni, the voices of those who are most at risk can be brought to the forefront of the conversation.
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