Black Women Bear Brunt of Domestic Violence II

And cycles continue, through generations. Boys watch daddy pummel mommy and start practicing their shoves on sisters and cousins. Shoves elevate to punches, now foisted on girlfriends and wives. To curb that cyclical violence, prevention education emphasis is falling to not just entangled adults or even teenagers, but to elementary school students, where impressions begin.

“We don’t always want to equate domestic violence in other conversations we have, like HIV/AIDS, housing, unemployment,” Williams said. “Even if it’s not called ‘domestic violence,’ it’s present. It’s a challenge for us to get our heads around. But we need to look at it from a holistic perspective of making sure our community is healthy.”

He has seen advances in his 30-plus years as an advocate. From literature to counselors that reflect the African-American, and later, the Latino and Asian and Pacific Islander, experience, he can document progress.

In 1993, he and his cohorts were pioneers in tailoring domestic violence prevention efforts for African-American audiences. Today, they find themselves in the company of others, community efforts taking root from Atlanta to Los Angeles, with successes budding, lives being saved.

But it’s still not completed work. Shelters have been a good start and a proven method for some, but may not be the most accessible outlet for every woman. African-Americans still need to dig deeper, look at barriers raised by class and culture and develop their own networks and remedies to address them, he said.

And while wider society is beginning to accept and support those trying to survive abuse, the National Women’s Law Center reported in 2008 that in nine states – Arkansas, Idaho, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota and Wyoming – and the District of Columbia, it is legal to reject survivors of domestic violence for individual health care coverage, citing the abuse as a “pre-existing condition.”

On many fronts, it’s still part education, part action in the battle against domestic abuse.

Washington is working on both ends. On Oct. 24, she will host her second walk in Philadelphia to raise money for the hotlines in the area that direct women in need to crises support services, a lifeline for many fleeing for their lives.

She suffered her abuser for nine years, but it wasn’t until 14 years later that she recognized and understood what she had endured. Once she did, she began speaking out.

Washington will continue to do so, urging other women to chose other options.

She is still “Cookie” to those who knew her when, and “senator” for those who know her now. But she is a victim no more.

Today, Washington is known as an advocate, a voice, a survivor. And more than anything, she hopes other women will walk alongside her, not just this October, but every day.

resources: http://www.blackamericaweb.com/?q=articles/news/moving_america_news/13144/2

Black Women Bear Brunt of Domestic Violence I

LeAnna M. Washington is busy at work these days like many of her colleagues in the state senate, looking to push through Pennsylvania’s budget, finally freeing needed dollars to strapped social service agencies that aid the most vulnerable. Washington once was among them.Well before she was called “senator,” looking to right wrongs, she was called “Cookie,” looking for love. When she was 18, she figured she found it.She became a married woman, with a black eye as a honeymoon present from her new groom – the first of many.“It was the big secret,”

Washington told BlackAmericaWeb.com. “But women being beaten was not unfamiliar to me. And I got used to being beaten.”As have many black women across the country.While the sensational incident between pop stars Rihanna and Chris Brown recently snagged headlines and electrified airwaves, the struggle against domestic violence among African-Americans is an age-old and often silent battle. Those fighting to end it hope the spotlight from Domestic Violence Awareness Month will draw recruits.It’s not just about donning purple ribbons or playing celebrity public service announcements.

It’s about absorbing the reality that close to five in every 1,000 black women aged 12 and up are victims of domestic violence, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. It’s understanding that among those abused aged 15 to 34, murder by a husband or boyfriend remains a leading cause of death.More importantly, it’s about actively working on changing those outcomes, said Dr. Oliver J. Williams, executive director of the Institute on Domestic Violence in the African-American Community.“We have to figure out ways for our communities to own it,” Williams said. “We have to devise ways to get communities to see what actions and activities they can do to be engaged and involved, to develop solutions to it.”First observed in October 1987, Domestic Violence Awareness Month evolved from a single day of unity to a month-long endeavor to spotlight a social condition that was considered taboo for polite conversation.

Verbal, sexual and physical abuse are forms familiar to a large swath of black females. Historically so, Williams said. These are the scars of slavery, lack of education, discrimination, unemployment and other frustrations that have been exacerbated among African-Americans.Poverty tends to be an indicator for abuse, though violence is not confined to one social class. The difference is having options and resources to escape – options not always afforded by those struggling to survive day-to-day. Feeling trapped leads many women to stay put - and in peril.For Washington, those days seem like a lifetime ago, but the memories still make her cringe.

Like when she and her young children would barricade themselves inside a bedroom, dresser against the door, and remain huddled together until they heard her husband's truck pull away in the morning.Or the time she tried to exact revenge after a beating by tossing a pot of boiling water at him, and instead he dumped the hot water on her.Or the day he unexpectedly stepped in puppy feces, dragged her to the spot, twisted her arm and shoved her face in the smelly mess.But the beatings were the constant, followed by the apologies, the promises to change. Until the next beating.“A lot of people ask me to come and share my story,” Washington said. “The toughest woman will stop and pay attention, and that’s because it’s not just unique to me. We all know this story, but just with different players.“Sometimes I laugh when I hear myself repeating the stories, asking myself, ‘Why did I take that?’ But it was real life. And it happens all the time.”

resources: http://www.blackamericaweb.com/q=articles/news/moving_america_news/13144/1

Domestic violence in African American society

photo from http://images.mirror.co.uk/upl/m4/feb2009/0/3/Rihanna_milticrop_524570783.jpg

Domestic Violence and African Americans

African Americans, including African American Women suffer deadly violence from family members at rates decidedly higher than for other racial groups in the United States. However, it is observed that research concerning family violence among African Americans is inadequate.

Factors such as the breakdown of families, unemployment and underemployment, poor schools, inadequate vocational skills and training, bad housing, the influence and use of drugs, and the density of liquor stores in the inner city contribute to the problem of domestic violence. All of these ingredients may compound and coalesce into a strong undercurrent of frustration that can lead to domestic violence.

A Painful Dilemma

Many Black women may find it harder to leave a battering relationship than White women. The reasons for this are unclear, but some possible explanations include the following: (1) African American women have fewer options in their search for a marital partner than do White women; (2) African American women on average, have a lower income level than that of most White women; (3) Black women are reluctant to call the police because they see the racial injustice in the criminal justice system; (4) community support systems including women’s shelters and other service programs may be less available to them and they may view the shelter system movement as something mainly to benefit White women. Unfortunately, many Black women resort to “homicide” as an answer to the violence and battering they encounter.

from http://www.blackwomenshealth.com/2006/articles.php?id=35

Domestic violence hits Black women harder

According to a recently released study, the weapon most used by men to kill African American women was a gun.
The Violence Policy Center, a national non-profit organization that conducts research on violence in the United States stated in its annual report, "When Men Murder Women: An Analysis of 2006 Homicide Data," that 551 African American women were murdered by males that year.

Of those homicides where a murder weapon could be ident

ified, 305 of the victims were fatally shot and most during the course of an argument.
The study stated there were 1,818 race-identified females murdered by males. And while white women accounted for the largest total of those killed–1,208–African American women were killed at a rate nearly three times higher.

In Illinois, there were 39 domestic-related homicides and 114,921 reported cases of domestic violence in 2006.
Justine Gray* (real name withheld to protect her privacy) lived to tell about her repeated incidents of violence at the hands of a former boyfriend.

Gray said she was fresh out of college and had a 2-year-old son. She said it was hard to make ends meet while working, caring for her son and maintaining stable housing. The jobs she held paid barely above minimum wage, and she had little help from her family.
Then an old acquaintance came into the picture, and she thought things were starting to look up. They moved in together, created a two-income household and the man treated her son as if he were his own, she said.

“But jealousy kicked in for some odd reason, and I became a punching bag. I have no idea what set him off,” the now-married mother of three said.
She wanted to leave but could not bear no longer having a stable environment for her son. She initially thought she was to blame for his tirades, plus he threatened to kill her if she left.
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“Even though I was working, it still wasn’t enough to put food on the table, pay the rent, the bills and pay for day care. He treated my son very well and was paying his child care costs. I don’t know where we went wrong,” Gray said. The man hit her several times--a few times she was knocked unconscious. There were many times she had to wear sunglasses to hide the black eyes that sometimes never seemed to fade, she said about the “toxic” relationship.About a year into the relationship, she mustered the courage to leave. “It was the best decision I ever made. I just wish I had the nerve to do it sooner,” Gray said.Domestic violence is a pattern of mental, physical, emotional or sexual abuse where one partner makes the other partner feel scared, weak, isolated, hurt or sad, according to Between Friends, a Chicago-based non-profit agency that provides educational and counseling services for domestic violence victims and advocates. “One in three women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime so everybody probably knows someone who has been affected,” said Kathy Doherty, executive director of Between Friends. Signs of abuse include jealousy, controlling behavior, isolation, forceful sex, and physical and verbal abuse. “It is our responsibility to help others learn more about the issue and take action that will make a difference in the lives of the women and children affected by domestic violence,” Doherty said. October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
For more information, visit www.betweenfriendschicago.org, or www.ncadv.org.
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Copyright 2008 Chicago Defender. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

My opinion:
It really shocks me that one of three women will suffer from the domestic violence in their lifetime.
The condition will become worse for black women, since they have to suffer the discrimination, and when they come back home, there is another bully. It really burdens them very much.
Every women should be equally treated, so there must be some social welfare institute to help them.

Domestic violence

Domestic violence that constantly takes place in Precious’s household
In the film, Precious’s mother plays a very important role. She is a contrast to Precious. She is mean, demanding, and careless about her own daughter; while Precious is a more responsible and caring person. Precious’s mother, in fact, is a very complicated character. She neither wants to give her daughter love, nor intends to take care of the family. She constantly abuses Precious physically and verbally. She even chooses to remain silent when Precious’s father is raping Precious. However, the most ironic thing is, when Precious decides to leave her and start a new life, the mother realizes that she can’t lose Precious not because she still has a bit love left for her daughter but because she needs someone in the house to keep her company and do things for her.
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