On Monday’s THE OPRAH WINFREY SHOW, Mo’Nique’s brother, Gerald Imes, appeared on the program to admit and apologize to his sister for years of sexual abuse. This is the first time he has publicly admitted to the two years of sexual abuse of his then 7-year-old sister when he was 13.
Imes says that he was a victim of molestation himself and explained, “I started using cocaine, heroine, alcohol at the age of 11. I used these drugs to hide my own pain, to hide my own fears. The drugs allowed me and afforded me the opportunity to hurt my sister.”
Mo’Nique did not appear on the show, but gave Oprah her blessings to air the episode, believing it could help other abuse victims. So far, public reaction has been mixed. Some say they are happy he was finally able to face up to and admit the devastation he caused his sister, while others think he is an opportunist only coming forward now that Mo’Nique has become more famous from her Oscar winning performance in the movie “Precious.” What do you think?
The truth is, I have no way of knowing what Mo'Nique's brother's "True" motivations are so I can't speak on that.But I do know THIS: Sexual abuse (like mental illness) in the collective BLACK community is_and has been a "taboo" subject since FOREVER. To say that Our absolute FAILURE to address this issue (and mental illness) Openly and HONESTLY within the Black community has had an adverse effect on Us as a people would be, IMO, grossly UNderstating its devastating impact on the Black community, generation-after-generation!So I support any GENUINE effort to get Black people talking about this subject among ourselves FIRST.