Jada Pinkett Smith revealed a very personal and scary story to Us Magazine about her 20-year-old niece nearly becoming a victim of date rape recently. Jada put the story out there before the public eye in light of the #JusticeforJada campaign that was launched after a 16-year-old girl from Texas named Jada was drugged and raped while at a party earlier this month. Her violation didn't end there, for her rapists posted pictures of her naked and unconscious body on various social media websites.
On July 11th, Jada Pinkett Smith posted a cautionary message on her Facebook account in light of this horrible rape incident that read, "This could be you, me, or any woman or girl that we know. What do we plan to do about this ugly epidemic? #justiceforjada."
Since then, she has spoken out to Us Magazine about the issue and how her own niece was a victim of a date-rape drug on the same weekend that 16-year-old Jada was raped. Luckily for Jada Pinkett's niece, she was around some caring and responsible friends who took care of her and prevented any harm from coming to her.
Jada also spoke about how she has chosen to teach her own 13-year-old daughter, Willow, about these types of issues in order to help her be more aware and empowered when engaging in intimate acts with people when she gets older.
"If you saw what I put on Facebook, you also saw that this could happen to any woman that we know and the unfortunate part is that my niece was given a date-rape drug that weekend. Thank god — she's 20 — so thank god that nothing happened, because she was with some responsible guys that took care of her, and with three of her friends. She said, 'oh my god I can't feel my...' she was losing consciousness. Thank god the people she was with put her in a room, closed the door, and she didn't come to for three and a half hours.
"I'm not a conventional parent, which I take a lot of pride in. The first thing I had my niece do was sit down with my daughter and a couple of her friends and tell her about that experience. I don't just sit with Willow and go, 'hey, this is what Mommy thinks.' Let me just bring in a little reality to validate what Mommy's been talking to you about.
"What I do with Willow is I give her the opportunity to be empowered by having herself first. Because when you allow a person to be an individual and you allow a person to have power within and have confidence on who they are, you'll never have to look into the eyes of a man and question whether it's a yes or a no. She's gonna be very clear: No. She's gonna be very clear: yes. And she's gonna be in a position to be able to determine how to protect herself. Know when you're in danger. Should you be a girl that goes into a room with four men drinking. Should you? Even if you think you know them? Is this about wanting to be the cool girl or is this about wanting to set a standard for yourself?"
Source: bossip.com
