Five Anti-Racist Actions to Take this Week with UltraViolet
From the UltraViolet Weekly eNewsletter - Week of Sept
The period from September 15 to October 15 marks National Hispanic Heritage Month, and there is a reckoning inside and outside of this nation's largest ethnic minority. (1,2)
On the one hand, Latinx people are a multiracial, multiethnic, and multilingual population waging internal battles against patriarchy ("machismo"), racism, classism, homophobia, and other oppressive systems of power. (3) On the other hand, this growing population's most vulnerable people, who are Black, Indigenous, and those who self identify as trans or nonbinary, are frequently targeted by the U.S. government and white supremacist and patriarchal law enforcement.(4)
Take, for instance, recent news on the inhumane, forced sterilizations of immigrant women detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).(5) The U.S. has a long and lurid history of controlling Black and Brown women's reproductive choices from slave owners' monetary interest in Black women's reproduction to the forced sterilization of Indigenous, Black, Puerto Rican, poor, and immigrant women as a way to limit the reproduction of non-white populations. (6)
As we lock arms with these women, let's take one or all of the following five anti-racist actions right now:
Sign onto SisterSong's open letter in response to the forced sterilization of immigrant women. Staff at an ICE detention camp in Georgia were performing sterilization surgeries on immigrant women. This human rights violation has come to light thanks to a whistleblower nurse at the facility, who flagged the high number of hysterectomies performed on Spanish speakers.
Donate to Seed the Vote. Seed the Vote, which has a website available in Spanish, partners with local, grassroots organizations in battleground states that work to make sure working-class and communities of color are heard at the polls. At a time when Donald Trump and his supporters are spreading disinformation in Black and Latinx communities to depress voter turnout, it is critical that we reach out to these voters in trusted and culturally relevant ways.(7)
Call on big Louisville, KY.-based employers to divest from the police department that killed Breonna Taylor. UltraViolet is calling on three major Louisville, KY., employers--UPS, Humana, and Ford--to stop supporting the police department that killed Breonna Taylor. Sign the petition demanding that these companies entirely divest from the Louisville Metro Police Department, the Louisville Metro Police Foundation, and the Fraternal Order of Police.
Join the Survivors' Summit. Over 1,300 people--many of whom are UltraViolet members!--have already signed up to attend the virtual Survivors' Summit on September 24-26. Join our multiracial collective and national movement for and by survivors to help eradicate sexual violence in our institutions, workplaces, homes, interpersonal relationships, and culture. Creating an agenda and movement steeped in Black feminism and not the current legal and criminal framework is important as many Black women and gender-nonconforming survivors are not helped by the current system, and, oftentimes, are further harmed when police officers are the perpetrators. (8)
Watch and share our anti-racism, feminism series. We were proud sponsors of the anti-racism "Feminist Future" webinar series coordinated and hosted by the Women's March. Another partner in the series, MomsRising.org, has collected all six webinars in one blog post. Definitely check those webinars out, and then share them with others!
Thank you for taking action with us!
--Shaunna, KaeLyn, KD, Kathy, Melody, Lindsay, Sonja, Kimberly, Maria, Elisa, Katie, and Iris, the UltraViolet team
Sources:
1. About National Hispanic Heritage Month, National Hispanic Heritage Month, accessed September 16, 2020
2. When it Comes to Latinidad, Who Is Included and Who Isn't?, Remezcla, July 30, 2019
3. Ibid.
4. It's Long Past Time We Recognized All the Latinos Killed at the Hands of Police, Time, July 21, 2020
5. Reports Of ICE's Forced Hysterectomies Are Nothing New In America, New York, September 15, 2020
6. Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty, Dorothy Roberts, December 29, 1998
7. Black and Latinx People Are Primary Targets for Disinformation. We Must Fight Back.| Opinion, Newsweek, August 31, 2020
8. The Violent State: Black Women's Invisible Struggle Against Police Violence, William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice, November 2017