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Charleston Shooting, Race, and Sexual Violence

June 18, 2015 By HKearl

Yesterday, a white supremacist terrorist went to a Black church in Charleston and murdered nine people, six women and three men (read about them. My thoughts go out to their loved ones). This level of premeditated violence and hate is hard to comprehend, particularly at a place that is supposed to be peaceful and safe.

Survivors report he said, “I have to do it. You rape our women and you’re taking over our country. And you have to go.”

I keep thinking about that. And how wrong he is. Black women are as valuable as white women and women of any other race. There is no “our” and “their.” White men are more likely to rape white women overall than are Black men. Black people are certainly not “taking over” the country. I know I shouldn’t try to find logic in the thought process of someone like him, but, I can’t help but also ask, why kill mostly women if that is his line of reasoning? And at a church?

His words bring up longstanding problems in our society: the perceived value of white women’s bodies over Black women’s and white men justifying their violence against Black people over (usually just lip-service instead of actual) concern for white women.

Dr. Estelle Freedman’s book Redefining Rape: Sexual Violence in the Era of Suffrage and Segregation as well as Dr. Danielle McGuire’s book At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance–A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power are good resources for learning about this in the late 1800s and 1900s in the USA. They show how our country, our legal system is built on the oppression of all women and men of color.

We can see that in how laws and the justice system today protect white men (especially wealthy and heterosexual) at the expense of everyone else. That has to change.

I also want to share what Courtney E. Martin, a writer and thinker whom I greatly admire, shared today on her Facebook page:

“I’m thinking about how, yes, the shooter is probably mentally ill, but how our racist society is, too, and how we can’t pretend he is an anomaly. He is the son of white people, the son of America, the son of our education system and our culture and our history. We made him. White Americans, especially, made him. So how can we stop making him? How can we take responsibility for the history and the present? And what is my role in that unmaking and that claiming of responsibility?“

As a white person too, I think about that. What can I do to challenge racism and to make it so that public spaces, churches, schools, and workplaces are safe and equitable for all? I implore any white people reading this to think about it too (if you aren’t already). We have to help make the change.

#SayHerName

May 22, 2015 By HKearl

Yesterday was the National Day of Action for Black Women and Girls. The African American Policy Forum (AAPF) release the report: “‪#‎SayHerName‬: Resisting Police Brutality Against Black Women” to help shed light on the extent of the issue.

From the AAPF website:

“Although Black women are routinely killed, raped and beaten by the police, their experiences are rarely foregrounded in popular understandings of police brutality,” said Kimberle Williams Crenshaw, Director of the African American Policy Forum and co-author of the brief. “Yet, inclusion of Black women’s experiences in social movements, media narratives and policy demands around policing and police brutality is critical to effectively combating racialized state violence for Black communities and other communities of color.”

#SayHerName gathers stories of Black women who have been killed by police and who have experienced gender-specific forms of police violence, provides some analytical frames for understanding their experiences, and broadens dominant conceptions of who experiences state violence and what it looks like…

In 2015 alone, several Black women’s lives have already been lost to police violence. For instance, just before Freddie Gray’s case grabbed national attention, police killed Mya Hall–a Black trans woman, on the outskirts of Baltimore. No action has been taken to date with respect to the officers responsible for her death. Most recently, police fatally shot Alexia Christian in the back of a police cruiser while she was handcuffed. And in Ventura, CA, Police officers fatally shot Meagan Hockaday–a young mother of three–within 20 seconds of entering her home in response to a domestic disturbance.

#SayHerName responds to increasing calls for attention to police violence against Black women by offering a resource to help ensure that Black women’s stories are integrated into demands for justice, policy responses to police violence, and media representations of victims and survivors of police brutality.”

There was a rally in New York City. Here is footage:

May 1 march in Baltimore

May 2, 2015 By HKearl

Our board member Maureen (on the right) marched in Baltimore last night. #BlackLivesMatter

Standing with Baltimore

April 30, 2015 By HKearl

On April 19, Baltimore resident Freddie Gray died in police custody from spinal injuries. How it happened has remained unknown, but it sparked protests in Baltimore this week akin to those in Ferguson, Missouri in 2014. To learn more about why, here is a Washington Post article written by a reporter who has lived in Baltimore for 30 years.

Because a minority of people at the protests grew violent (some burned a CVS), some media outlets have unfairly focused on them rather than the majority of peaceful protesters who simply want justice for Gray and justice for their communities.

SSH Board member Maureen Evans Arthurs lives near Baltimore. She shares what she did on Wednesday:

“I joined the No Boundaries Coalition at St. Peter Claver Parish in Sandtown, Baltimore to distribute food and toiletries to residents in need. The community asked for help, and we were right there to provide it. The media is depicting Baltimore as a city of lawlessness and upheaval, when really, communities are coming together to support one another and causing a positive uprising for change. #BmoreUnited

Every day this week there have been protests and that will continue, not just in Baltimore, but in other parts of the country. CNN reports:

“From coast to coast, marchers are taking to the streets to support Baltimore protesters and complain about police brutality in their own towns. The momentum only seems to be building as the week goes on.

Demonstrations are planned for Thursday in Cincinnati,CNN affiliate WXIX reported. And Philly.com said a “Philly is Baltimore” protest will be held at Philadelphia City Hall. Seattle, Portland, Oregon, and Oakland, California are on tap for Friday, which is also May Day or International Workers Day — often used to call attention to issues affecting the working class and minorities. In addition to Baltimore, protests took place in at least half a dozen cities Wednesday.”

SSH Board member Malikya Muhammad lives in New York and she joined the “NYC Rise Up & Shut It Down With Baltimore” last night with 1000s of other protesters. Unfortunately though, she said it turned scary, “The cops turned a peaceful protest into a jail cell roundup folks who have been doing this for awhile. I never saw anything like this before.”

Men are not the only ones unfairly policed or killed. I attended a vigil in Washington, DC, last night for Rekia Boyd and other Black women who have been killed by police. The organizers had us chant out for justice for dozens of women and women in the crowd came up to share poems, songs, and thoughts. Several reminded the Black women in the audience that they matter, their stories, their voices matter. Indeed, they do.

We hope you will do something, take a stand (take part in the “Shut it Down” event May 1 in Baltimore), speak out, and advocate for a cultural shift where #BlackLivesMatter and everyone feels safe in their communities.

Vigil in Washington, DC. Photo by Ilana Alazzeh‎

#Ferguson and #StreetHarassment

November 24, 2014 By HKearl

Via NPR:

“A grand jury did not indict Ferguson, Mo., police officer Darren Wilson for any crimes related to the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown in August.

Wilson, who is white, shot and killed Brown, who was unarmed and black, in an Aug. 9 incident that has stoked anger and debate in Ferguson and beyond”

Resharing this article about the connections between #Ferguson and #streetharassment on this sobering night —

“A group of women in skirts doesn’t provide the grounds for catcalling anymore than black kids hanging out on the sidewalk warrants police harassment and violence….You can’t have a true democracy if one group lives in fear of another.”