Hi, I'm Brittany, and this is for Colored Nerds, the weekly show where we peel back the layers of black culture we rarely discuss in mixed company.

Today on the show, we're joined by writer, author, and advocate Beverly Gooden.

You may know Beverly as the creator of the hashtag Why I

Stayed, which highlighted the complex stories of domestic violence survivors. Or you might know her

memoir, surviving, why we stay and how we leave abusive relationships. We brought Beverly on the show

to shed light on the domestic violence conversations happening everywhere in pop culture right now.

From the new Mike Tyson biopic on Hulu to Megan the Stallion's ongoing battle with public opinion,

we've been inundated with narratives that favor the alleged abuser.

So we thought it best to amplify the experience of those who are on the receiving

end of that harm. Stay tuned. We'll be right back.

So to start things off, I first came to know you and your work when you started the hashtag Why I Stayed.

Talk to me about what that hashtag means and how or why you started it.

Yeah, so why I stayed was in 2014 and what happened is a video was

released by TMC of a football player named Ray Rice and he had punched his fiance in an elevator

and then dragged her out of the elevator and the video was released. I was heavy on Twitter at

the time, heavy heavy on Twitter at the time. Initially the video was released. I was heavy on Twitter at the time.

Heavy heavy on Twitter at the time. Initially, the response was shock, right? Because we don't

have a lot of videos that just explicitly show the moment of impact. And then the news came out

that he had gone on to marry his fiance that he had punched in the elevator.

That's when it took a turn.

And so the questions then became, why would she stay with him?

Or comments like, I would never, you know, let anyone abuse me.

...