Where Are The Black Women?
I worked as a Sexual Assault Specialist at a local nonprofit, Action in Community Through Service, right after I medically retired from the U.S. Army. For me, it was a dream job. I got paid to help people recover from sexual assault! I got paid to advocate!However, I started noticing something. There didn’t seem to be many Black women coming in. Why not? What was going on? Where were the Black women?
The Statistics
I used to work with the Rape, Abuse, Incest National Network (RAINN) and the US Army. From that, I knew women of color were more likely to be sexually assaulted. According to the statistics I found it seems that 20% of women have experienced rape as reported by the American Psychological Association. Additionally a report submitted to the Department of Justice discussing rape and the utilization of rape crisis centers, in Maryland highlights some concerning trends. The authors note that African American women were significantly less likely to access services from sexual assault crisis centers compared to measures. They were also less likely to seek counseling services from sources than these centers or obtain assistance from therapists or counselors. This raises questions about whether there is an issue, at play.
Cultural Barriers
I talked to the Virginia Sexual and Domestic Assault Action Alliance, VSDAA, to learn more. A VSDAA representative, Kate McCord, offered me this: “Cultural barriers exist – last 15-20 years we’ve [been] talking about and understanding systemic racism and working on trying to build more racial justice around institutions… it’s really a part of providing trauma-informed advocacy.”
Advocacy
Okay. But, what can advocates do? “I believe that advocates working with survivors are really doing their best,” McCord says, “But for advocates who work with survivors with a color-blind approach, we know that is well-meaning but it is ineffective and can actually be harmful… it requires you to understand each survivor’s specific experience… I would encourage advocates to do their own learning and reading, on how survivors of color get access to health and safety and justice.”
Anti-Racism
I reached out to ACTS. I wanted to schedule an interview; the Director of Sexual Assault Services was unable to due to time constraints (she wasn’t meeting with the CEO until that Friday, and couldn’t ask permission until then). I knew, however, that ACTS had a Spanish-speaking Sexual Assault Specialist, to provide help to Spanish speakers. I checked with other organizations. In a few, they offer anti-racism training.Others publicly recognize the racial disparities in treatment statistics. However, whether this offers change remains to be seen.
