“What Is It About The Walls” A Report of African American Women’s Experiences

of Domestic Violence in the Lincoln, Nebraska Area

Project Coordinator of Grant StudyVenita Kelley, PhD

Additional AuthorsMyesha Albert, M. A.S. Lateefah Coleman

Debbie Gaspard, M.B.A.Cindy Grandberry

Tekla Ali Johnson, ABDWendy Smooth, PhDRenitaTyrance, M.Ed.Franchell Watson, B.A.

The Family Violence Council/Lincoln Medical Education Foundation

African American Women and Domestic Violence Services Steering Committee Friendship Home

Rape Spouse Abuse Crisis Center

Report Commissioned By:

Woods Charitable Fund

Community Health Endowment

Friends of the Lincoln Lancaster Women’s Commission

The Lozier Foundation

Nebraska Department of Correctional Services

Report Funded By:

“Called Matriarch, Emasculator and hot Momma. Sometimes Sister, Pretty Baby, Auntie, Mammy and Girl. Called Unwed Mother, Welfare Recipient and Inner City Consumer. The Black AmericanWoman has had to admit that while nobody knew the trouble she saw, everybody, his brother and his dog, felt qualified to explain her, even to herself.”

--Trudier Harris, 1982

Why This Study:

Recruitment of Facilitators 8 facilitators Facilitators received RSACC training and focus group/personal interview training

Recruitment of Participants 20 targeted with 46 participants Age range from 12 to 64 years of age 26 women from NCCW and LCC

Methods

Focus Groups and Interviews 90 minute target focus groups. Group sizes from 3-7

The facilitators accommodated personal interviews as well.

Methods

Correctional Facilities

Faith Based Organizations

City and Gov’t Agencies

Domestic Violence Service Providers

What Is It About The Walls: Key Findings

Media

Outreach Not targeted to African American women.

Information about shelters is difficult to access

Thirty days is not enough time to get re- established

Key Findings: Domestic ViolenceService Providers

In Shelter Treatment

Providers needed to be sensitive to cultural nuances

Overt censure and suspicion was felt. There were some positive interactions with service providers.

Domestic Service Providers-cont’d

State Policy and Laws

Medical

Legal System

Educational Facilities

Law Enforcement

Social Services

Key Findings: City and Gov’t Agencies

High level of distrust related to social and human services workers

Fear of losing their children

“Once your children are gone into that system, it’s like hell to get them back. They look at you at you as the unstable one, even though you were not the Perpetrator.”—Focus Group Participant

Key Findings: Social Services

Participants referenced a Nebraska law (LB184) that places children who have witnessed domestic violence in foster care

These laws were a major hindrance to reporting domestic violence in the African American community, and may serve to further empower abusers

Key Findings: State Policy and Laws

Not giving warnings to girls

School officials insensitive to children’s feelings

Shame and humiliation a part of lives

Key Findings: Educational Facilities

African American women are more likely to have to rely on local police in a domestic violence crisis

Most participants who had experienced domestic violence found officers to be of little help

A few women reported officers had been helpful:

“He was my rock!”—Focus Group Participant

Key Findings: Law Enforcement

Imprisonment is part of the domestic violence cycle

Programs for support had not been in place for at least two years at NCCW and do not exist at LCC

No African American counseling (or staff) personnel or other women of color in place in the correctional facilities

Power and control dynamics were evident

Key Findings: Correctional Facilities

Ambivalence and outright discouragement about the Black Church and Muslim Mosque response to their situations of domestic violence

Yet, participants did find aid in the faith community *******

Participants discovered an incomplete application of the scriptures

Key Findings: Faith Based Organizations

Women stated that O.J. Simpson opened the world to the problem

African American women are strong, unfeminine, ugly, not worthy of respect, loud, masculine, as domestics, and literal and emotional servants “Black women’s assertiveness and their use of every expression of racismto launch multiple assaults against the entire fabric of inequality have been a consistent, multifaceted threat to the status quo. As punishment,Black women have been assaulted with a variety of negative images.”

—Cheryl Gilkes, 1982

Key Findings: Media

Service Providers

Correctional Facilities

Colleagues

CommunityEnvironments

Faith Based Organizations

Media

Gov’t Agencies

Participant Recommendations

Eliminate stereotypical images

Teach our daughters

Include African American women in the mainstream social images of domestic violence work

Participant’s Recommendations: Media

Use sermons to address domestic violence

Make churches and mosques safe places for women

Engage leaders in training and education related to domestic violence

Participant’s Recommendations: Faith Based Organizations

Law enforcementOffer monetary rewards for information on abusers

Officers must be aware of statistics associated withAfrican American women exiting abusive relationships

EducationMust respect the children’s right to privacy

Establish a domestic violence curriculum

Participant’s Recommendations: City and Governmental Agencies

MedicalWomen suggest both medication and counseling“…come to think of it, I DID begin abusing prescription Medicine first…(they gave me) what I describe as ‘theBlack people’s domestic violence counseling.”

--Focus Group ParticipantLegal SystemWomen suggested the establishment of a defense lawRefine dual arrest lawsRepeal law that puts children witnessing DV in foster care

Participant’s Recommendations: City and Governmental Agencies--continued

As Colleagues

Facilitate professional networking

Train and educate providers about female relationship dynamics

Incorporate suggestions and practices that differ from existing shelter structures

Participant's Recommendations: Colleagues

Post business sized cards at the grocery store

Post information in hair salons

Involve religious communities

Recruit ministers

Participant's Recommendations: Community Environments

A shelter run by Women of Color would enhance the services

Essence and Jet Magazines

Implement a “Detox” Program

Establish culturally specific support groups

Conduct a media program

Participant’s Recommendations: Service Providers

Establish and maintain grief, family, and domestic violence support groups

Establish a half-way house staffed by Women of Color to assist transition back into public society

Include former correctional residents on a advisory board

Participant's Recommendations: Correctional Facilities

Remove the “ For White Women Only” stigma

Reach out to significant institutions in the Black community

Build relationships with African American Organizations

Seek the help of the Black Church/religious institutions to combat domestic violence

Implement holistic programs

Research Team's Objectives and Recommendations

An examination of cultural and societal maintenance assumptions will reveal that African American women’s (and all women’s) roles and lives are defined within a context of self-sacrifice and altruism for others’ sake

Research Team's Objectives and Recommendations

DV services in Lincoln, NE were viewed as for "white women" only

Multi-angle/level phenomena

Religious institutions erroneously communicated that violence is sanctioned by the Bible and Koran Community involvement is imperative

Conclusions

“Strong Black Woman” stereotype Commitment to the family

“Human ties can be freeing and empowering, as is the case with Black women’s heterosexual love relationships or in the power of motherhood in African-American families and communities. Human ties can also be confining and oppressive. Situations of domestic violence and abuse or cases in which controlling images foster Black women’s internalized oppression represent domination on the personal level. The same situation can look quite different depending onthe consciousness one brings to interpret it.”

--Patricia Hills Collins, 1990

Abandon “one size fits all” approach Holistic approach imperative

Conclusions cont.

Name of the Report

The Author’s Perspectives

Transitory Nature of Committee

Name of the Committee

Cultural Nuances

Challenges in the Process:

Program Coordinator Position (FVC)

Good Neighbor Award

Advocate Positions at RSACC and Friendship Home

Creation of the Nebraska African American Domestic Violence Advisory Committee(NAADVAC)

Community Forum-Malone Community Center

Additional Grant Funds

African American Women and Domestic Violence Conference

Outcomes from Report:

Special Session: Nebraska Violence Symposium

Collaborations:- UNL-VAWOC- Lincoln Area NAACP - Safe Quarters- National Counsel of Negro Women

Local and National exposure-CALCASA Presentation-Lincoln Juneteenth Celebration

Outcomes from Report-cont’d:

Walls?

“Domination operates by seducing, pressuring, or forcing

African-American women and members of subordinated groups to replace individual and cultural

ways of knowing with the dominant group’s specialized thought.”

–Patricia Hill Collins, 1990

www.rtyrance@peoplescitymission.org