In 1989 Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term intersectionality building on the work of many Black feminists, scholars and activists, to address the marginalisation of Black women within not only anti-discrimination law but also in feminist and antiracist theory and politics. Crenshaw describes Intersectionality as a lens through which you can see where power comes and collides, where it interlocks and intersects. 

 

Our Don't Call Me "Sis" training is rooted in Black Feminist Criminology, Critical Race Theory, and intersectional practice. We teach intersectional practice as a method and a disposition highlighting not simply that we have problems of race, gender, or sexuality but rather an amalgamation of these. These facets create specific risks, and challenges for Black women and girls subjected to violence and abuse, and as a result intervention and response must be holistic and person-centred. 

 

We discuss how intersectionality highlights how social movement organisation, feminism and advocacy around violence against women and girls failed and still fails to acknowledge and respond to the vulnerabilities of women of colour, particularly those from immigrant and socially disadvantaged communities. The women feminism forgot. 

 

We Are Frieda’s Don’t Call Me “Sis” training takes practitioners through understanding the lived experiences of Black women from both a theoretical and practical perspective, aiming to allow practitioners to understand how being a Black woman diversifies experiences of sexual violence and abuse and how to safely work to overcome these culturally specific barriers and challenges to achieve better outcomes for victims and survivors.

 

A 2017 Georgetown study analysed society’s perception of black girls, surveying 325 Americans from a variety of backgrounds (though most were white and female). Participants within the study reported perceiving Black girls as young as 5-years-old, as needing less protection and less nurturing than their white peers (Epstein, 2017).  A follow-up from the Georgetown study found negative stereotypes of Black women as angry, aggressive and hypersexualized projected onto Black girls, with one participant sharing ‘to society, we’re not innocent and white girls are always innocent’. Our training works to highlight and eradicate these forms of conscious and unconscious bias that harm Black women and girls both within society and within practice.

 

This stereotype is just one example of the harm done to Black women and girls and it is neither desirable nor possible to live up to, it leaves little room for Black women and girls to sit with, process and move through their experiences as the safety of the space is always in question. Especially in experiences of trauma. The conditions associated with being a Black Woman leave no room for vulnerability and they limit the gentle grace and empathy that Black women need from others as well as themselves. 

 

The stereotype dehumanizes and erases the damage that can be done to them and takes away their right to determine what happens on their behalf. This stereotype is particularly harmful in the context of domestic and sexual violence and abuse, as it impacts and reduces Black women and girls’ space for action, reducing the quality of the support that Black women and girls have access to. 

 

As practitioners, we must work with an awareness that there are specific barriers to accessing support services for Black and ‘minority’ women. Some of these barriers are a result of representation, some are due to cultural factors, but most are due to the physical, emotional, spiritual, economic and psychological oppression of Black women within society. 

 

The goal for any practitioner is to hold a space that acknowledges the oppression of personal, historical and societal power. To be unthreatened and open to accepting the experiences of the clients we support. To understand the privilege of joining clients on a journey through themselves, their culture, their identity, their vulnerability, and their growth. Arriving at a place in which they are able to exist without conditions and without shame but with genuine and sincere love and admiration of who they are and who they are yet to become.

 

What's included?

Our training will help you understand:

 

• Prevalence of domestic and sexual violence within the Black community

• Black Feminist Criminology

• Critical Race Theory

• Risk and needs assessing Black women and girls

• Theories of and working with Racial Trauma

• Understanding and responding to Minority Stress

• Creating safe spaces for Black women and girls

• Identifying, challenging and overcoming racial and cultural stereotypes 

• Best practice when working with Black women and girls