Media Advisory: Hold Albuquerque Police Accountable

MEDIA ADVISORY

Families of Albuquerque Police Shootings to Deliver 45,000 Signatures Demanding

Attorney General Eric Holder Hold Officers Responsible

Over 45,000 people from around the country are calling for a federal investigation of the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) officers who have shot and killed 27 people since 2010. Ken Ellis, whose son was murdered by APD officers, started a petition with Strong Families New Mexico demanding accountability from the officers involved. Family members of those shot and killed by Albuquerque police along with community leaders will personally deliver the signatures to New Mexico U.S. Attorney General Damon Martinez, and designate Dept.of Justice Representatives. The petition, hosted on Change.org, calls for current Attorney General Eric Holder to bring in federal prosecutors and bring justice to the families who have lost their loved ones.

WHAT: Press conference and delivery of over 45,000 signatures to US Attorney General Damon Martinez, and DOJ representatives demanding a federal investigation of Albuquerque police who shot and killed 27 people since 2010.

WHO: Strong Families New Mexico, Attorneys, Ken Ellis (the petitioner and father of a young man shot by APD), and several families of those shot and killed by Albuquerque police.

WHEN: Wednesday, December 10, 2014 at 2:30pm

WHERE: Civic Plaza, One Civic Plaza NW, Albq., NM 87102

WHY: To demand accountability and a federal investigation of police officers using “excessive and fatal force” to kill Albuquerque residents. No one should be held above the law, lets see some indictments that show families our justice system follows a process that is just.

For more information, contact Adriann Barboa at Strong Families NM 505-379-1962

Forward Together at 25: #BuildingPower Nationwide

During our 25th anniversary celebration, we focused on the importance of building power so all families can thrive. We know that Forward Together would not be sustainable without the work and support of colleagues from around the country to push for the policy changes and culture shift we need to see. Our Strong Families Initiative, a network of over 120 organizations and thousands of individuals, has bound together to tackle the lack of affordable childcare and afterschool programs, immigration policy, marriage equality, voting access, police accountability and many issues that will make our communities stronger and safer.

A few of our Strong Families friends shared their reflections with us on our 25th anniversary, what Forward Together has contributed to their important work and how we can continue building strong families for the next 25 years and beyond.

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Edith Sargon, Principal, Movement Building; Wellstone:

How did you start collaborating with Forward Together?

I knew Forward Together when it was Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice (ACRJ). I was working at a youth led reproductive rights organization and they were leading the conversation on the importance for intersectionality and the Reproductive Justice framework. I read their white paper, which I still use when I work with individuals and organizations who are working all of this out, and made sure our students and youth got access to it, made curricula from it and led discussions from that incredible tool. I continued to work with them as they transitioned from ACRJ to Forward Together. In that transition I saw them become this amazing unifying force in the reproductive rights/reproductive health/reproductive justice movements. They were bringing so many of us together, helping organizations and leaders see the potential for power we have when we work together, painting a real vision for what collaboration and collective power looks like, all while making it so doable and realistic and not asking anyone to be something they aren’t. I haven’t really seen that model of collaboration before. I haven’t seen that ability to bring so many different kinds of groups together and yield the best possible work from everyone. Where everyone has their time and place and can bring their unique strengths. It was inspiring. I didn’t want to walk away from that when I left my job, and that’s how I became a board member. Forward Stance was a big part of that work and that collaboration. It was and still is so powerful.

How has this collaboration impacted you personally and professionally?

Eveline and Moira are incredible leaders and I feel like I learn from them every time I’m around them. They model really thoughtful, strategic, nimble and intentional leadership. I think that’s part of what draws so many organizations to want to work with them. Working with Forward Together has given me a vision of what reproductive justice in motion looks like. It has also given me hope that we aren’t just a movement that calls people out and names all that’s wrong in the world, but that stands for things that will make real differences in people’s lives.

What is your vision of how we can build power together for next 25 years?

This is a big question! My vision is that we will move from defense and play offense. That communities of color and poor people will be leading on this offensive game and that they will be prioritized. And that looks like winning local, state and national fights – elections, ballot measures, and legislation.


Zach Norris, Executive Director, The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights:

How did you start collaborating with Forward Together?

The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights is proud to be a leader in Forward Together's Strong Families Network. We have partnered with Forward Together on Towards a Caring Economy, a national participatory research project to capture and uplift the voices and experiences of families most impacted by incarceration and our nation's punishment economy. We are working together with organizations and families across the country to develop public safety solutions that invest in communities so that we can thrive. This partnership has brought together groups that work on gender justice, economic justice, racial justice and criminal justice reform to build up a family led movement against mass incarceration. We look forward to continuing to strengthen our relationship and collaboration with Forward Together.

How has this collaboration impacted you personally and professionally?

I couldn't think of a better organization to partner with. Alicia and Eveline bring a high level of energy and expertise to our work and are a joy to work with. We have enjoyed the opportunity to work together to reframe what makes a strong family through media education and campaign work connected to Mama's Day and Papa's Day. Our work together in conjunction with Justice for Families has helped shift the perception of families of incarcerated youth from pariahs to partners i.e. toward families being recognized as central partners in the success in their of children and loved ones. Personally, I always look forward to sending out the beautiful Mama's and Papa's day cards each year. Professionally, I love being able refer other organizations who work with families to Forward Together/Strong Families and know that they will find a powerful and supportive staff and network there.

What is your vision of how we can build power together for next 25 years? 

We can be powerful together over the next 25 years by continuing to support each other as we build our movement for strong families and communities!


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Aimee Thorne-Thomsen, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships, Advocates for Youth

How did you start collaborating with Forward Together?

I first met Eveline as part of the Women’s Health Leadership Network organized by the Center for American Progress. I had heard of and known of Eveline for years but never been in space with her. Being in that network together allowed us to learn more about each other and each other’s work (I was at Pro-Choice Pubic Education Project at the time) and build a strong friendship over the years. That beginning gave us the grounding to begin collaborating together first through EMERJ and then through Strong Families.

How has this collaboration impacted you personally and professionally?

Oh wow! Where do I begin? Professionally, everything changed for me when Forward Together (then ACRJ) released “A New Vision” in 2005. I was at a reproductive health, rights and justice conference at Smith College at the time the paper was released. The paper caused such a stir, that the conference ran out of copies! Every day another FedEx box arrived and within minutes, all the copies were snatched up. I hold on to that moment because I witnessed how the thought leadership of Forward Together could change the movement seemingly overnight. The power of that analysis holds true to this day. When I introduce activists to Reproductive Justice, I always go back to that paper as a cornerstone of the movement, not because FT originated the framework or even the movement itself (which they would never claim they did), but because they captured the work of women of color and Indigenous women in fighting reproductive oppression in a more holistic way.

Now, I had to read “A New Vision” 5 or 6 times to really understand the differences between reproductive health, rights and justice, and the importance of the relationship between the three sectors. But that analysis and the relationships I developed with Forward Together staff (at the time) including, Eveline, Dana, Aparna and Maria, changed my work and life forever. The articulation of Reproductive Justice resonated so deeply with me that it shifted the way I did the work, the direction of the organization I ran at the time, and how I identify my activism. Forward Together used that particular movement moment to bring people together to strategize how best to build power and movement for our communities (EMERJ). And it was the years spent building trust, strength and power that laid the foundation for what is now Strong Families.

What is your vision of how we can build power together for next 25 years?

We cannot build power in isolation from each other. We have to continue to build relationships across individuals, communities, issues and movements and use those relationships to learn from each other and explore new ideas for building power. To move forward, we also have to center young people in our movement work and lift up their voices, ideas and leadership. Achieving reproductive justice will take all of our skills, dedication and talents, and it’s critical that we continue to develop future generations of movement leaders. by continuing to support each other as we build our movement for strong families and communities!

Forward Together at 25: The Power of Reproductive Justice

The following post is part of our 25th anniversary blog series, and is written by Eveline Shen, Executive Director of Forward Together. 

When I first came to Forward Together, then Asians and Pacific Islanders for Reproductive Health, I stepped into our 600 square foot office in Oakland's Chinatown brimming with excitement. I came to help develop a comprehensive framework to understand and address problems impacting the reproductive lives of Asian women and girls. I also came because I knew that I could bring my whole self—Asian, queer, progressive.

Most organizations back then did not look through an intersectional lens; we were among the handful in the country looking at how gender, race, sexuality, and class controlled the lives of women of color. Our communities wanted more than just the right to abortion—we wanted the well-being of women and girls and through their own empowerment to make healthy decisions about our bodies, sexuality and reproduction. We sought reproductive justice in all areas of our lives.

Through this prism, we linked up with other struggles for social justice, like when our youth joined the environmental justice fight to shut down a medical waste incinerator in East Oakland to inform their mothers, aunts and sisters how these toxins impacted their reproductive health.

As more and more saw the power of reproductive justice, we felt the need to distinguish it from reproductive rights and health, which we did through a collaborative process with leading reproductive justice activists. Today, when you google “reproductive justice,” you’ll find on Wikipedia the definition we created in our 2005 report, A New Vision for Advancing Our Movement for Reproductive Health, Reproductive Rights, and Reproductive Justice.

You know we’ve made progress when you can read a recent article by Dani McClain in The Nation on how the murder of Mike Brown is a reproductive justice issue. It’s a sign of how reproductive justice has grown in terms of its acceptance in the social justice community.

Over the last 15 years in my tenure at Forward Together, I have seen the chasm of inequality grow for millions of low-income women of color, youth, LGBT folks, and their families who face greater challenges to accessing reproductive health care, living wages, and safe communities free from sexual violence and police brutality.

But in the face of these grave challenges, I am inspired by the growing number of organizations and national initiatives uniting across sectors and issues to build power and make change together.

At Forward Together, we have found that transformation happens when we can see beyond our own silos and unite under a shared vision for our families. Through our Strong Families Initiative, we have seen the power of LGBT, youth, reproductive, environmental, and racial justice groups coming together to move proactive policies on the local, state and national levels. By empowering families that have been pushed to the margins to come together and organize together, we are changing the terrain of how decision makers think, feel and act in support of families.

This fall, our Strong Families network is leading civic engagement work like you have never seen before. By supporting our allies on the ground, we are helping them bring historically marginalized communities—low-income, people of color, and rural—to come out and vote for a progressive platform that impacts multiple issues affecting our families. From ensuring the right of immigrants to have driver’s licenses to increasing access for reproductive health to removing barriers to voting, we’re helping our communities see how these policies don't solely impact us individually but our entire families. And once the election is over, our community partners aren’t left with just clipboards and pens but leadership and infrastructure so they continue to build power in the long run.

Who knows what that will mean for how social justice is meted out in years to come, but we’re in the game now. And as the country shifts demographically, our communities will be better poised to advocate for a progressive platform so that all our families can thrive.

Eveline Shen is the Executive Director of Forward Together. Since Eveline's leadership began in 1999, Forward Together has become widely recognized for its innovative role in the Reproductive Justice Movement—working with grassroots communities; providing thought leadership; developing effective tools and resources for evaluation, training, and documentation; and organizing for long-term systemic change. Eveline serves on the board of the Movement Strategy Center and is a member of the Bay Area Social Justice Funders Network advisory committee. She has also served as Principal Investigator for two National Institutes of Health grants that explore the intersection between environmental justice and reproductive justice. Women's eNews named Eveline one of their 21 Leaders for the 21st Century. She was a 2009 Gerbode Fellow and holds a Masters in Public Health from UC Berkeley in Community Health Education.

Forward Together at 25: Black-Asian Collaboration and Interracial Solidarity

This post is part of our 25th Anniversary blog series and is written by Echoing Ida's Cynthia R. Greenlee.

When I first joined the black women's writing collective Echoing Ida, I wondered why an organization such as Forward Together (which started as Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice) would start a program to amplify black women's voices in media. Much to my chagrin, though I often write about intersectionality, my questions about black-Asian collaboration showed the limits of my ideas about interracial solidarity.

I didn’t spend a lot of time wrestling with this question but I started to make mental notes about convergences between black and Asian communities. I knew that, in the last decades of slavery in the United States, some Americans thought that immigrant Asian workers would be the best replacements for the enslaved once the "peculiar institution" ended. I knew that Asian-Americans and African-Americans alike fought segregated schools despite their different vantage points in a race-obsessed nation. The 1927 U.S. Supreme Court case, Gong Lum v. Rice, which upheld a Mississippi court's decision that a young girl of Chinese descent could not attend a white school, was important for reinforcing the segregation that so harmed African-Americans. Throughout the twentieth century, blacks and Asians faced restrictive covenants that determined where they lived and their very mobility. And I knew that Asian-American activists like Richard Aoki, Grace Lee Boggs and Yuri Kochiyama bridged gaps between our communities, though their stories have often been drowned out among stories that foreground black-Asian conflict.

Knowing all these things, I somehow still thought of Asian-American and African-American freedom organizing as entirely discrete movements. But working with Forward Together — and observing the countless Twitter debates about #antiblackness and the ways in which communities of color often haven't helped each other — I made a point of discussing black-Asian convergences and differences in the classroom with my students.

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In a seminar called “Race, History and Television,” my students watched early film and television that used blackface and relied on hateful stereotypes of black Americans. My students — mostly black and Latino students whose parents emigrated from Cuba, Eritrea, Jamaica, and Barbados — were shocked at the unvarnished racism of “The Birth of a Nation,” “Amos and Andy,” and even those playful Little Rascals. But they weren’t surprised; they understood how central anti-black racism and rhetoric are to the American story, though some believed such blatant on-screen white supremacy was a relic from past ages.

But what they found much harder to understand was that media racism is a many-headed hydra — and a beast that is alive and well. Soon after we discussed blackface minstrelry, the CBS sitcom “How I Met Your Mother” drew fierce criticism for outfitting characters in “yellowface” (including Fu Manchu moustaches) as well as portraying Asians as martial arts masters, enigmatic sensei and geisha. I asked Asian-American Twitter activist, Suey Park, to Skype into class to talk about why she led the critique of CBS, and the students peppered her with questions about the lines between cultural appreciation and cultural appropriation, humor and mockery, and growing up Asian-American where there were few people on TV who looked like you.

I turned the class back to this question: Did they see any similarity between controversies over blackface in the early twentieth century and this latest fracas over yellowface? There were a few moments of silence before students began to cautiously discuss how black and Asian Americans are both “others” sidelined in beauty norms and media representations, albeit different kind of “others.” As my students talked out their thoughts, I thought back to what had once seemed incongruous: Forward Together’s broad and inclusive mission of reproductive justice. Finally, my students filed out and I heard one say to another pupil: “I had never thought about black people and Asians at the same time. Imma have to think on that.”

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Although Forward Together started working primarily in Asian communities 25 years ago, I'm thankful it's expanding to cover more issues at the intersection of race, gender and sexuality. I'm especially glad to be part of the Echoing Ida project, which has given many of us writers, thinkers and activists a larger platform to tell our stories. Please help us continue cultivating our voices and connecting our communities for stronger families.

Cynthia R. Greenlee is a historian and writer. Follow her on Twitter @CynthiaGreenlee.

Forward Together at 25: We are Echoing Ida!

This post is part of our 25th anniversary blog series, "Forward Together at 25." 

Echoing Ida exists to support and amplify the voices of Black women – encouraging them to tell their stories and propose solutions to the issues they see in their communities. With 15 Idas and plans to expand over the next year, we are developing generations of thought leaders and skilled communicators for the social justice movement.

Each “Ida” has a unique voice and story. Every Ida is engaged in work to transform our communities. It was this time two years ago that this project began as a pilot program of Forward Together. Now during our 25th anniversary and with over 100 pieces under our belt, we thought it would be a good time to reflect on some of our Ida favorites. We hope our namesake, Ida B. Wells-Barnett would be proud. We hope you are, too.

Alex Moffett Bateau: Chronic Pain, and the Denial of Care for Black Women, RH Reality Check, March 2014.

“Women of color should not have to prove the legitimacy of their illnesses in order to get treatment. Perhaps this can only happen with the dismantling of racism, but for the sake of my sisters in chronic pain, I hope it doesn’t take that long.”

Alicia M. Walters: Policing African American Motherhood from Every Angle, RH Reality Check, January 2013.

“…there is a systemic movement hell bent on our incarceration, the separation of our families, and ultimately, our loss of humanity. Whether the right is attempting to culturally shame and legally prevent our access to abortion or target us for incarceration, above all, they seek to police Black bodies and criminalize Black motherhood thereby limiting our power of self-determination and autonomy.”

Amber J. Phillips: Love Thy Self Fiercely: How Self-Love Makes for Better Health Care, RH Reality Check, March 2014.

“Being my mother’s daughter, even down to carrying her diva gene, I’ve had to actively fight my own fear of proactively making doctor appointments. This is an issue that is so common in Black communities and yet is being ignored as the health care and Affordable Care Act (ACA) enrollment conversations continue to take place in the media. In all the frenzy to get people to enroll, the president paints a rosy picture for some while ignoring that this health-care discussion is particularly important to historically marginalized multicultural communities, specifically Black women, whose health goes far beyond whether we have insurance coverage.”

Annika Leonard: I Am Annika, I Am All, Strong Families Blog, October 2012.

“I am a child witness to domestic, sexual and community violence.
I am a survivor of sexual assault.
I am but if you love her how could you hurt her?
I am a man of God, but I’ll beat the sh*t out of your mom Monday through Saturday when no one’s looking.
I am forgive but don’t forget, yeah he touches little kids but he’s safe to be in the church unattended.”

Bianca Campbell: The Resilience of Black Breastfeeding, The Root, May 2014.

“Formula was, and continues to be, pitched as empowering for women—a promise that they could return to work sooner. It is a promise that my mother and millions of parents believed in. It provided a way for parents to continue supporting their families without having to worry about loss of pay…[but] what is pitched as empowerment can actually restrict the choices of families.”

Cynthia Greenlee: What Love and Hip Hop: Atlanta Can Teach Us About Repro Rights, EBONY.com, August 2013.

“…regardless of how you feel about the show's creator Mona Scott-Young, she has done one thing right. With abortion storylines involving self-proclaimed “Puerto Rican princess” Joseline and underground rapper Rasheeda, the show is the rare television show tackling this divisive social and political issue.”

Elizabeth Dawes Gay: Do We Love Black Mothers Enough?, Huffington Post, May 2014.

“Maybe it's that trope of the strong Black woman that makes people believe we don't need special care or attention when we are pregnant. People -- including Black women -- expect that we should and will handle whatever comes our way, keep it all together, and take care of everything ourselves -- pregnant or not. This Superwoman Syndrome is detrimental and potentially deadly.”

Gloria Malone: Teen Moms Win Too: Why I'm Glad I Had My Daughter at 15, Vitamin W, March 2014.

“I like to think that being a teenage mother has made me more human to myself and my daughter. While society is focused on the negative outcomes of teenage parenting, I am certain that if hadn’t been a teenage parent, I would not be the person that I am proud of and love being today. I have accomplished my goals in life and continue to strive to improve because I was a teen mom, not in spite of it.”

Jasmine Burnett: The Media’s Role in Attaining Justice for Black and Missing Persons, RH Reality Check, August 2014.

“[The] lack of regard for the safety of Black people and the protection of our rights is symptomatic of the established order of white supremacy in this country, which must be dismantled. Dismantling white supremacy is a tall order, and one way to start is through equity in media exposure as an entry point for re-education.”

“When the media neglects to cover these stories, it is omitting the fact that people care about missing Black women, and permitting the conditions for this toxic environment of invisibility and violent actions with no recourse to thrive.”

Jazmine Walker: What Happened to the ‘Affordable’ Part of the Affordable Care Act? RH Reality Check, July 2014.

“While I am happy to play my part in making affordable health insurance accessible for all Americans, young people like me also need some support. And through a combination of political grandstanding, lack of foresight, and poor implementation, federal and state governments have failed to hold up their ends of the deal to make health care available and affordable for all Americans.”

Malika Redmond: Improving Health Equity in Georgia, The Atlanta Voice, February 2014.

“Today, while our leaders find ways to pass the buck on Georgians’ health, we the people are gathering for a day of action to demand that they accept federal funding to increase health coverage for the low-income uninsured. We believe that how much one does or does not earn for their work should have no impact on whether they are able to see a doctor or get the care they need.”

Renee Bracey Sherman: How to Listen When a Loved One Says ‘I Had an Abortion’, EBONY.com, January 2014.

“We all face challenges in our lives. We all have that secret that we’re afraid our family and friends will judge us for, and we crave connection and acceptance. You’ll never know how many of the one in three women who’ve had abortions are in your family or circle of friends unless you open the space for conversation and show that you can Stop, Drop, and Listen.”

Samantha Daley: Lessons From the Kitchen, Strong Families Blog, April 2014.

“What strikes me now about this unique and yet universal way I was raised is how far American culture has strayed from it. Obsessed with parenting perfectly and trying to do it all on our own, modern mamas must remember what our foremothers knew—that mothering happens in community and is far too much for one woman alone to bear. All these women taught me the importance of breaking bread, and how powerful of a tool that can be for learning and growth, laughter, and helping to move forward.”

Shanelle Matthews: When Sexual Harassment is on the Menu, EBONY.com, June 2014.

“Because the restaurant industry is the largest employer of people of color, and women make up half of the people working in this business, we are disproportionately subjected to this type of workplace harassment. At the same time, the restaurant industry is the largest low wage employer with millions of women dependent on tips to survive. Therefore in many cases earning a living requires us to have to put up with predatory behavior.”

Taja Lindley: Exam Rooms and Bedrooms: Navigating Queer Sexual Health, RH Reality Check, March 2014.

“Indeed, people are having all kinds of sex, regardless of how they identify their orientation; we need a health-care system that is prepared to address everyone’s questions, issues, and concerns about sex, sexuality, and sexual and reproductive health. Unfortunately, sex education and sexual health services remain within a hetero-normative context. This must change.”

Guest Posts:

Leajay Harper: Life’s Unexpected Journeys, Strong Families Blog, January 2013.

“Following my termination, I was faced with explaining to my girls that it was going to be hard for us for a while, but we had each other and we would stay strong. We packed up a suitcase with our clothes and boxed everything else to take to our storage unit. We said goodbye to a place that we called our home for so long and the memories we created together as a family.”

L. Michelle Odom and Naimah Johnson: When Zero Tolerance Makes Zero Sense, Strong Families Blog, June 2013.

“So many young Black girls identify with the images in mainstream media and have little promise to rest on for their future, because society has presented to them with a world where success, fame and media attention comes from criminalized activity, rather than educationally, spiritually sound practice, which can uplift them and their communities.”

Thoughts on Ferguson

On August 9th, 2014, unarmed teenager Michael Brown was shot to death by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. In the weeks after his death, protests ensued and a national dialogue began about police brutality, the over policing of communities of color, the militarization of our police forces, and the right to parent your child in a safe environment, free from violence. In response, Echoing Ida writers spoke out to elevate the voices of Black women and the impact of the killings on our communities.


In a ThinkProgress article, Jasmine Burnett and Gloria Malone shared their thoughts about how the killing of Michael Brown is a reproductive justice and feminist issue.

“We look at the right to have a child, to not have a child, and to parent your child in a safe and sustainable community free from violence,” Jasmine Burnett, a black feminist activist, told ThinkProgress. “If you aren’t safe in your community because you’re racially profiled by the police, and you can’t walk from your home to a clinic or to a hospital to access the services you need, then that’s not really a full articulation of reproductive justice.”

“Reproductive justice is about the whole person — their mental, physical, and economic well being. And when you live in an area that is over policed and dealing with police brutality, that absolutely affects your mental health,” Gloria Malone, a Latina activist who organizes around issues facing young mothers, added. “The killings of these children leave a huge emotional scar.”

Jasmine reminds us that talking about the issue is never enough, we must demand action and changes in society's behavior.

“People are talking about it — that’s great,” Burnett added. “But it means nothing if your interactions with people of color, and your politics around people of color, don’t change. It will take society really building the power of people of color, because all I see is us being tortured and violated in our communities.”

In a piece for RH Reality Check, Riots and Research: What a 1968 Report on Urban Unrest Has to Do With Ferguson, Dr. Cynthia Greenlee ties the 1968 Kerner Commission Report to today's protests.

The report didn’t mince words about how police actions inflamed tense situations. Many of the report’s recommendations concerned changing the police-community dynamics in the nation’s cities—establishing more and better channels for community grievances about police misconduct, the recruitment and promotion of more Black officers, increased patrols to increase resident security, and even a junior “Community Service Officer” corps to attract Black males 17 to 21 years old to police work.

But the report’s authors knew that an expanded police presence on the streets could mean more surveillance, more violence, and less trust.

Cynthia points out that when it comes to inequality and community policing, much hasn't changed since 1968.

 Change a few words here and there, and we could re-issue the Kerner Report today; inequality is a fixture of American life, and history doesn’t repeat itself gently or always arc toward justice. Sometimes, history boomerangs with a vengeance.

For her RH Reality Check piece, The Violence Happening in Ferguson Is More Than Physical, Dr. Alexandra Moffett Bateau, examines the impact of the Ferguson protests, police responses to the protest, and police brutality on communities - and show us that there are many ways it impacts the body.

We may miss the violence of the police officer who said something to a young woman that completely destroyed her spirit prior to hitting her in the face. We may miss the destruction of a young man’s spiritual altar in his home prior to being beaten brutally in the street after he reacted. We may miss that a woman’s children were suddenly taken from her home a week before she was raped by a social worker.

While these examples are somewhat extreme, I am using them to get at a central point: Physical, emotional, spiritual, and even bureaucratic harm can all enact different modes of violence, both on the community and the individual.

The violence our communities, like Ferguson, experience all across the country, at the hands of the state, have a deep impact. An impact not only felt by our bodies, but also our future generations and history. The Echoing Ida writers have demonstrated the complexity of reproductive justice and why we continue to fight.

Forward Together at 25: #BuildingPower with Forward Stance in New Mexico

The following post is by Denicia Cadena, Communications and Cultural Strategy Director at Young Women United in New Mexico, and is part of our 25th anniversary blog series.

From my first introduction to Forward Stance, I was hooked. Forward Together explains that the technology of Forward Stance as a “powerful way to learn and gain new insight through physical movement and by reconnecting our bodies with our minds.”

The staff of Young Women United

My name is Denicia Cadena and I am proud to be the Communications and Cultural Strategy Director of Young Women United. At Young Women United, we lead community organizing and policy initiatives by and for young women of color in New Mexico. We work so that all people have access to the education, information and resources needed to make real decisions about their own bodies and lives. By integrating the practice of Forward Stance into what we do as individuals, as Young Women United, and as leaders in our shared movement for reproductive justice, YWU is better grounded and positioned to make positive changes our families need.

As I had the opportunity to further learn and practice Forward Stance I began to share the concept with young women through our teenage organizing circle. As we walked through the elements of a forward stance, including holding a big awareness, being relaxed while ready to move, and deep breathing down to our core, we did more than talk, we got moving. Our young leaders love Forward Stance because it helps them to be more confident in their everyday lives. They always have a great time playing ninja---a competitive but fun-natured game that allows them to show off Forward Stance skill! We also started incorporating Forward Stance activities into all of YWU’s campaign areas and programmatic spaces. Forward Stance has been especially useful in our Sister Sharing Circles-facilitated conversations on pregnancy, birth, and parenting. During Sister Sharing Circles focusing on breathing exercises gives our mamas and other organizers a way to feel connected to the practice and a way to feel safe and centered while sharing personal and sometimes difficult experiences.

At YWU, Forward Stance has been an important way that we explore, expand and as needed, take up space. Moving our organization to downtown ABQ last year we painted, put up artwork and began to practice Forward Stance throughout our new office. Using exercises in which we generated rhythm and movement we continued growing YWU and our structure with a new energy that matched our location. When Forward Together Policy Director Kalpana joined us for Forward Stance she asked in disbelief, “THIS is where you practice Forward Stance?!” as we often practice Forward Stance on the sidewalk, amid the morning crowd headed for coffee, rumbling buses, and our ABQ city scape. We are proud to use Forward Stance as a way to build up our presence in our downtown surroundings.

As Forward Together celebrates their 25th anniversary I am thankful to be part of the Forward Stance practice that has created a common language across movements reclaiming organizing with mind, body, and spirit. We live a world where Black boys and men are being murdered by state sanctioned police forces, where women and children are being deported after fleeing extreme violence, and where trans* women of color are being murdered and incarcerated for defending their lives. The time to collectively organize for justice has never been more apparent. At its core, Forward Stance is a way to practice how we work together, weaving diverse leadership and movements for justice. Though we may have different rhythms, energy, and stances, when we come together to practice Forward Stance we have increased capacity to move and advance collective power. I’m ready to move with Forward Together for another 25 years!

Denicia Cadena is a queer chicana born and raised in Mesilla, New Mexico. Denicia is the Communications and Cultural Strategy Director of Young Women United (YWU), an organizing and policy project by and for young women of color in New Mexico. She leads YWU’s communications strategies so that our efforts reflect the lived experiences of our communities. Rooted in cultural organizing, Denicia develops media and messaging alongside YWU’s members, leaders and activists to move community based policy change and culture shift. Denicia has deep experience working on issues of reproductive justice, racial justice, and queer justice. A proud sister, aunt,daughter, and friend–Denicia couldn’t imagine herself without all the strong women that have shaped her. As a welder and sculptor, Denicia knows that some ways of knowing and understanding can only be expressed through art. Denicia holds a BA in History with a concentration in Diaspora Studies from Amherst College.

Forward Together at 25: New Mexico Youth Lead The Way For Net Neutrality

The following post is by Alanna Offield, Campaign Coordinator at the Media Literacy Project in New Mexico, and is part of our 25th anniversary blog series.

Every movement or organization has “their person”: the person they want to move to support their cause and community. For the media justice movement that person is the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), a commission of five appointed people that regulate our communications. And here I was this past June organizing an event for Media Literacy Project (MLP) and hosting the chairman at a time when he had recently proposed rules that would destroy the Internet (Let John Oliver break it down for you).

FCC Chair Tom Wheeler with youth organizers

This was the first public event Chairman Wheeler would speak at since he proposed an Internet “fast lane” that would give priority to companies that could pay more for their content to be more visible. All eyes were on us to push him to reject the proposed rules and enact real net neutrality with no paid priority service. We also needed to get real with him about what he will do to get more New Mexican families connected to reliable and affordable Internet and phone service. As campaign coordinator at MLP, I was the lead in organizing this event. No pressure.

We had intentionally focused the event on youth voices as the FCC has no formal youth engagement. Every day people were crawling out of the woodwork to give me some ageist lines about how involving youth was a nice idea but do I really believe youth can understand media policy issues? As a young person myself it was hard to hear this. If people didn’t think youth could pull off an event like this, what about me?

Throughout the month of June MLP had been working flat out with limited volunteer support. We were expecting almost 300 people, and we needed more helping hands. I can’t even count the amount of times I had cried with the stress of wanting to do something that would make my community feel and be heard. With only a few volunteers on board I had become convinced that I was doing it all wrong. One night it was 7:30 p.m. and I was still at my desk running through the program for the 100th time and refreshing the volunteer signup sheet over and over hoping more people would help us. I was just about to pack up and go home when I heard my email notification. All of the staff of Strong Families New Mexico had signed up to volunteer with the added note “available to help anywhere I can.” I sat at my desk and cried. Just this one small act made a huge difference in my attitude and from that moment on I knew it would be okay.

This act is just a small example of how Strong Families New Mexico supports not only MLP but all the other organizations they work with. They understand how important it is for us to support each other in this work. They saw that we were trying to provide a space for dialogue between New Mexican youth, their families, and the FCC. They got on board with us and helped to plan and promote the event. They were there the night of the event helping to prep young people who wanted to give testimony to the chairman and tell their story. During the event, an older man rushed up to the microphone and took time away from the young people who had worked so hard to put the event together. This man didn’t ask a unique question, but felt that because a young person had addressed his issue, it hadn’t really been asked yet. Most of the youth were able to speak that night and before I knew it the event was over.

I was getting the post-event organizer blues playing mind games about what I should have done differently. I walked outside the event venue and the Strong Families New Mexico team was there telling me how great the event was and even if everything didn’t go to plan they could see that the community was engaged. It was exactly what I needed to hear after weeks of hard work.

Strong Families always has the Media Literacy Project’s back and makes the connections between media justice and thriving families in our community. That night and so many other times I saw how we really are stronger together. The staff of Strong Families New Mexico has supported me in some of the biggest projects I have ever taken on professionally. They take time to ask us how we can be supported and provide constructive feedback so we can come out strong. They truly understand that our issues are connected and that media justice is something we need for all of our families.

Alanna Offield is a community organizer and activist from Northern New Mexico. She has worked on a range of issue-based campaigns dealing with human rights, racial justice, gender justice, and environmental justice. Since her early teenage years she has been active in various social justice and human rights organizations including serving as the New Mexico Student Activist Coordinator for Amnesty International and as Program Coordinator for the Railyard Park Stewards of Santa Fe. As a queer chicana and single mother, Alanna feels drawn to social justice work as a way to protect the rights of her community and to make sure their voices are heard. She works within a solidarity framework and believes that the power to create lasting change comes from the grassroots. Alanna is a student at the University of New Mexico focusing her studies on the intersections of race, class, and gender in American society through an American studies degree with a minor in Chicano/ Chicana studies. She is on a new journey as a parent to her daughter, Hickory, and is dedicated to creating a more equitable world for her to grow up in.

Forward Together at 25: #NoTeenShame for Young Moms

The following blog is from Natasha Vianna, co-founder of #NoTeenShame, to commemorate Forward Together's 25th anniversary.

When I gave birth to my daughter at 17, I finally met the person who would drastically change my life. With trembling hands, I held her close to my skin and cried in a way I never cried before. There was this moment of overwhelming emotion, having felt a different kind of love I never knew before, but I felt a deeper darkness lurking within me. I was young and afraid that what everyone told me would come true – that the baby lying on my chest would ruin my life. Months after my daughter’s birth, those harmful words were constantly being repeated in my mind and I questioned whether I would ever be capable of being a good mother.

Pushing back against negativity and judgment is difficult when you don’t recognize it as a problem, but only see it as your reality. Until there were people who stood up with young moms, I didn’t even realize there was something to stand up for or that my destiny didn’t have to be pre-determined. The pain and discomfort I often felt eventually pushed me to start asking questions and wonder why I was not seen as a valuable woman in our society – but I didn’t want to stand alone. So when I discovered that Forward Together and the Strong Families Coalition members recognized the need to include young mothers and fathers within their intersectional movement, it helped reinforce that feeling that, yes, I am valuable. Having a powerful and inclusive group of people who dedicated themselves to loving a stranger in the struggle, like me, I had the fuel I needed to keep going and start speaking out.

I wasn’t just raising a child, I needed to overcome intentionally difficult obstacles, disprove stereotypes, and watch my every step or risk losing my child to the system because I was Latina, because I was 17, and because society labeled me as a bad parent before my child was even born. Every time I would stand up tall and feel like I was getting close to accomplishing something great, there was always a system ready to shut me down. In 2006, I was told that my baby would interfere with my motivation to finish high school and go to college, but the only people interfering with my education were people with power who focused too much on regurgitating statistics on my likelihood of graduating instead of getting out of my way.

Why are we pushed to the side, strategically isolated from support systems, asked uncomfortable questions about our lives, and pressured to make decisions that align with societal expectations or risk the possibility of losing our children? When there are overwhelmingly negative messages in the media, narrowly framed data, and biased images of teen parents influencing everyone around me, it felt impossible to try to accomplish anything. Why would anyone listen to me when there’s contradicting data from an academic organization? I learned quickly that by ignoring some of our individual voices, it’s easy for many to render us invisible or exceptionalize our success, but together our voices build power. And that is why Forward Together’s work is so meaningful and important to me and my community.

One of the most valuable things I learned through my partnership with Forward Together is how a healthy relationship with an organization should feel. While there are so many predatory nonprofit organizations who simply seek to exploit the lives of marginalized communities for their own funding and public relation needs, there are few organizations that work to build a better world for us, our families, and families everywhere through patience, respect and meaningful engagement. They work hard to listen, learn, and help us move forward together.

Natasha Vianna is a Boston-based Latina activist, public speaker, and a co-founder of #NoTeenShame. As a former teen mom, Natasha works with activists and organizations across the country to launch and support strategic messaging campaigns that dissect the realities of teen pregnancy while eliminating the unnecessary stigmatization of young families. Recently, she took the stage to share a TEDx talk on the culture of shaming young mothers for their reproductive choices. Follow her on Twitter: @NatashaVianna.

Forward Together at 25: Forward Together Youth Take It To The Streets

In honor of our 25th anniversary, let's take a look back and honor the Forward Together youth organizers and leaders who helped to transform communities and make them safer for all families. 

Incinerator flyer and protest picture from 2001: 

A flier and photo from a campaign that our youth were part of, to shut down one of the last remaining medical waste incinerators in the country, located in East Oakland. Our youth brought a youth voice and gender lens to the campaign, revealing the particularly harmful impacts of Dioxin (a reproductive toxin) which is one of the chemicals that was spewing out of the incinerator. We won that fight and the incinerator was shut down.

Collective Voices (2009):
Collective Voices is a print newsletter by SisterSong that highlights work in the RJ movement. This article was written by Diana Ip (former FT staff) about our work to support Asian parents to talk to their kids about sex and sexuality. It highlights the toolkit we created for this purpose, called “Transforming API Community: Tools for Sexuality Education.”

Urban View & HOPE Freedom Tour Flyer (2001): In 2001, members of the HOPE Organizers-In-Training program spent 4 months surveying welfare recipients, interviewing Oakland students about sexual harassment, and protesting the medical waste incinerator in their neighborhood. These Asian youth organizers then took their research to the streets with a Reproductive Freedom tour of their community.

Forward Together at 25: The Power of Collaboration and Community

As we commemorate Forward Together's 25th anniversary, we are celebrating the work of our various programs and partnerships. The post below was authored by Maia Weiss of Health Initiatives for Youth.


I work for an organization called Health Initiatives For Youth (HIFY), and I’ve been very fortunate to have had the opportunity to collaborate with Forward Together. I first met Forward Together Youth Program leaders Deanna Gao and mai doan at a Queer/Trans Network meeting, a place where a variety of organizations regularly meet with the goal of improving the services we can provide to LGBTQ youth in Alameda County. Recognizing that both of our organizations strive to provide community, safe spaces, leadership opportunities and health education to young queer folks in Oakland, we decided to see how HIFY and Forward Together could support one another.

As this partnership has grown, I have been so impressed by the youth in Forward Together’s afterschool leadership program, and deeply moved by the community and culture that the adult leaders have helped to shape. My first visit to Forward Together headquarters in Downtown Oakland was to facilitate a workshop for the youth on Allyship and the LGBTQ Community. Entering their space felt a little like going to my grandmother’s house. I was asked to take off my shoes and to help myself to snacks. Youth were hanging out, cooking food and doing homework. The environment felt so warm and inviting, I understood why young people would gravitate to this space. As we began our workshop, youth were eager to participate and ask questions. I heard them challenge each other respectfully and affirm diverse points of view; I could tell this was a space where youth engagement was celebrated and the young people felt empowered to make their voices heard. This is both a testament to the incredible youth in program and to their passionate and dedicated adult leaders.

Forward Together and HIFY partnered to throw a mixer for young people interested in connecting over their shared passion for LGBTQ activism and allyship. We held the event at HIFY’s drop-in space for queer youth in West Oakland, and invited BAY Peace, another Oakland youth organization, to lead us in a movement workshop exploring gender identity. It was so exciting to see youth leading both youth and adults in a series of movement and improvisation exercises which stretched many people’s comfort zones. Simultaneously laughing and perspiring and having intimate, difficult conversations about gender, I felt a powerful sense of community in that room that evening. I am so grateful for the work that Forward Together is doing to empower these communities today, and eager to see the new generation of change makers that emerges as a result of Forward Together’s support.

Maia Weiss is a Lead Trainer at Health Initiatives For Youth. At HIFY, she facilitates groups for LGBTQ street-involved youth and leads trainings on a variety of social justice and health education topics. Find out more about HIFY’s work and our queer youth drop-in space at www.hify.org

Forward Together at 25: What is "Forward Stance" Anyway?

So what exactly is this "Forward Stance" thing that you hear us talk about? The Forward Stance Leadership model is a mind-body approach that cultivates fierce individuals, effective organizations, and powerful movements that strengthen our families and communities. It is an empowering way to learn and gain new insight through physical movement and by reconnecting our bodies with our minds. It is the secret to our longevity as we celebrate 25 years of #buildingpower so all families can thrive.

It makes more sense when you see it, and even more sense when you do it. The video above is the best way to highlight how we are #buildingpower through Forward Stance leadership.

Forward Stance Leadership means:

• Stepping into leadership: embracing our personal power and strengths to provide vision, energy and expertise in service to social change.

• Non-violent communication: assuming that disagreement is an opportunity for growth transformation and finding ways to build common ground or agree to disagree while moving forward together.

• Building leadership opportunities for others: there are actually no bounds in terms of the amount of leadership our movement can contain.

It is not something we do, rather it is something we are and embody through daily practice. It is the strategic basis from which we move.

Will you join us in building power to create a better world for our families?

Forward Together at 25: #buildingpower so all families can thrive

As we commemorate our 25th anniversary, Forward Together's Executive Director, Eveline Shen, reflects on where we were, where we are, and where we are headed.

Twenty five years ago, our founders recognized that while all women need rights and  resources to insure their reproductive health, too many women of color and low-income have needs that are not recognized by the established leaders of the reproductive rights movement.

Our founders – a group of passionate Asian women – knew that in order for Asian women and other women of color to have the agency and access we all need to make decisions about our sexuality and reproductive lives, our voices need to be heard. In particular, they knew that in our communities, it was young, low-income Asian women who were facing some of the biggest challenges when it comes to having the agency and access to make decisions about their reproductive lives and sexuality.

So they did something that seems so common sense, but at the time was in fact revolutionary: They talked to young Asian women about what they need in order to thrive. They started where they were, in Oakland. And they asked them: what challenges are keeping you from living the life that you want to live? And they listened. And they learned. And they partnered with young Asian women and together began advocating for themselves and their needs: Comprehensive sex education. Access to culturally relevant health care. A healthy environment for their families. Safety from the harassment that keeps them from reaching their educational goals.

None of these issues were being addressed by the mainstream reproductive rights movement at the time, but all are essential to helping women and girls of color to access the power and resources we need to make our own decisions about our bodies, our families and our lives. Through the leadership of our young Asian women, we won concrete policy changes that have improved their lives and their communities.

Our early successes generated more opportunities to lead, so we began advocating at the state level, and partnering with other groups across the country to bring the needs of women of color to the center of the conversation about reproductive health.

Together, we formed a movement of people who sought reproductive justice, a calling that goes beyond the legal right to choose, and also recognizes that real, meaningful change that challenges the power structures that oppress our communities must be led by the people most affected by the issues we are seeking to change. For us, this meant always centering the leadership of women and girls of color.  

The term “Reproductive Justice” was getting so popular that the women of color who were doing this work were being sidelined again in its uptake. Seeing a need to establish women of color and their voices as the core of the emerging field, we generated a definition and framework of Reproductive Justice.  Published in 2005, A New Vision is still the most widely used text on the issue.

Our paper defining and recognizing the Reproductive Justice Movement put us on the map with funders, organizations and decision-makers nationwide. Our phones were literally ringing off the hooks from people across the country who saw the power and potential of this framework to be a game changer. The attention was sometimes overwhelming for our small staff, but we also knew it was a huge opportunity to harness the excitement and build momentum.

We began to grow. Through the use of Forward Stance – a mind-body approach that allows us to learn and gain insight through the use of breath, voice and physical movement – we developed an innovative leadership model that allowed us to evolve tremendously. We grew from a local organization working with Asian women and girls into leading a national network that bridges diverse communities toward a common purpose.. THs   The Forward Stance Leadership model allowed us to stay grounded and focused throughout the evolution, and has been the secret to our success and longevity.

In recent years, Forward Together has worked with more than 200 organizations across the country to build a strong and vibrant Reproductive Justice Movement. Through values-based collaborations, we shared resources, built strategic alliances and began taking collective action. From this work, the Strong Families initiative was born. Through Strong Families, we are working together to change culture and policy to reflect the realities of our families so that all of us can thrive.

Our campaigns emerge from the real concerns of real people who are standing up for ourselves and our families. We continue to recognize, call out and eventually overcome the roadblocks that pop up in the intersections where our race, class, gender and sexuality are used to keep us from the future we want for all of us.

And through it all, we continue to train Asian youth in Oakland to advocate for themselves, their families and their futures.

  

We listen. We learn. We lead. And we move forward, together.

Echoing Ida Educates Us on the History of Gynecology the Impact on Black Women's Bodies

Last week, Echoing Ida writers Cynthia Greenlee and Gloria Malone showed us the impact that history has on our present day views of Black women's bodies and the way we treat them.

At The Guardian, Cynthia Greenlee discussed the recent Johns Hopkins Health System settlement that saw a $190 million payout because over 12,000 victims were recorded during pelvic exams by a physician and his pen camera between 1988 and 2013. While this news may shock some readers, Cynthia explains that this isn't really a new phenomenon - in fact, it's this type of invasion of privacy that gynecology was founded on.

As "women's medicine" became a more popular specialty, medical students often polished their skills, such as they were, on black women because it was distinctly improper to lift the skirts and peer at the genitalia of white women. J Marion Sims, called the father of gynecology, honed his craft and developed his namesake Sim's speculum – one of the essential medical instruments for OB-GYNS to this day – through public and private examinations and operations on enslaved women (and later on impoverished Irish immigrants) suffering from gynecological conditions like fistulas. He performed these procedures mostly without anesthesia because, like many of his colleagues, he opined that black women were almost impervious to pain. Today, he's memorialized by statues in New York's Central Park and at the South Carolina State Capitol. 

The Hopkins settlement is thus the latest chapter in an all-too American story: black women's bodies have rarely been seen as private, are rarely accorded the same feelings or rights to consent as white women's bodies and were more often subjected to individual doctors' prurient interests or medical research.  

To this day, women who are poor, urban, black and brown have fewer choices of physician or facility. Specialists are often few and far between in America's urban corridors and rural spaces, and the numbers dwindle when you consider those who accept Medicaid. It's particularly difficult for patients – and particularly low-income ones – receiving subsidized care to question men in white doctors' coats. And in a system where a few doctors or clinics hold the key to services, it's understandable that you wouldn't want to jeopardize your care with even a valid complaint – or that lingering feeling that those brushes against your breast weren’t accidental.

Over at RH Reality Check, Gloria Malone, who recently visited Kara Walker's A Subtlety, or the Marvelous Sugar Baby, noticed that people were posing in sexual and obscene manners with this beautiful and moving piece of art. She illustrates the connection between these acts of degradation towards Black women's bodies and the historic, yet inhumane actions of Dr. J. Marion Sims.

While some people regard the photos as a “joke,” critics saw the photos as a continuation of the pain Black women have lived with and continue to live with, from the forced sterilization of many Black women and women of color in the past and today, and Black women and women of color having birth control tested on them.  

The controversial photos taken at the exhibit are not only troublesome because they disrespect the art, but because the mocking and dehumanization of the Black female body has a long history in our society. 

After seeing the photos, I wanted to know how spectators could in good conscious photograph in sexually suggestive ways an installation that eerily replicated a position of one of Dr. J. Marion Sims’ enslaved Black female victims; this photo is one of the few available that presents as human mostly nameless and devalued Black women whose bodies were used to build the modern field of women’s reproductive health.

While we can't change the past injustices that were done to hurt, violate, and humiliate our foremothers, we can explain how history is doomed to repeat itself unless we value Black women's bodies and stop viewing them as 'things' to experiment on. Perhaps once we view Black women as human, they will be able to to receive empowering care to keep their bodies healthy - like the healthcare they were harmed to create.

Gloria Malone Dispels the Myth of the #NiceGentrifier

by Gloria Malone

While conversations about gentrification have taken off in the mass media, people of color who live in communities that are being gentrified have been dealing with systemic displacement long before these conversations started.

One of the most recent catalysts for the gentrification conversation came from film director Spike Lee in response to a question asked by an audience member at an event. Lee spoke fervently about his opposition to gentrification and the notion that it somehow improves the lives of the very same people and families it displaces. The myth of the “nice gentrifier” has emerged as a way to continue the myth that gentrification improves the lives of long term and often times lifelong poor individuals who live in communities they are being priced out.
This is something I know all too well. I’ve heard comments like, “I would be the best gentrifier ever”, “I’m a nice gentrifier because…[insert reason here]”, and “I’m not gentrifying a community, I’m improving it.” These comments are dangerous because they are a way for a gentrifier to continue to take part in the systemic removal of poor people from their communities. They are harmful because this lie is perpetuated in their circle of friends or investors causing more to flock to the ‘new place to be’ while raising the cost of living and forcing poor people to be removed from their homes. While the ‘nice gentrifier thinks they are ‘saving’ a community, they are not and that belief is from their own savior complex; a belief that a community needs to be ‘fixed’ and ‘saved’ and unable to support themselves.

After reading an article about a coffee vendor being told he can no longer sell coffee because Starbucks moved into the same business plaza, I could not help but to think of the ways in which individuals who believe gentrification is good would explain this away. I created the #NiceGentrifier hashtag as a way to highlight the “nice gentrifier logic” and explain how flawed, ridiculous, and harmful this thinking is.

To those who say simply tweeting #nicegentrifier is not enough, you are right. However, it was a way for me to explain my frustrations with gentrification and elevate the conversation. The hashtag was not created to fix anything. There are many local organizations, in the very same communities being gentrified, who have been fighting for decades for equal and affordable housing and supporting local business, with little to no financial support. Look them up in your community, donate to them, and volunteer for them. Go to your local public hearings about raising rent and zonings, look up your local community board and attend meetings, volunteer for local officials who campaign for affordable quality housing opportunities in your community (but make sure they are not funded by major real estate brokers who have a history of not supporting our communities).

#NiceGentrifier is an addition to an ongoing conversation. Let’s keep talking.

Echoing Ida Writers Explain How the Hobby Lobby Decision Hurts Black Women

As you may have heard the Supreme Court issued a disappointing 5-4 decision on Monday stating that Hobby Lobby's owner's religious beliefs can extend to the company, thus creating another barrier to birth control for working families. At a time when women are already facing so many challenges to accessing healthcare, this decision cuts a deeper wound for Black women.

Echoing Ida writers: Amber Phillips, Elizabeth Dawes Gay,
Gloria Malone, Renee Bracey Sherman

The decision allows for-profit companies to refuse to cover emergency contraception and IUDs, which can cost up to $1,000 without insurance. In her dissenting opinion, Justice Ginsberg noted that this could cost a minimum wage employee their entire month's paycheck. “It bears note in this regard that the cost of an IUD is nearly equivalent to a month’s full-time pay for workers earning the minimum wage," she writes.

In March, our Echoing Ida writers were at the Supreme Court speaking about the need to protect access to contraception for our communities. They foreshadowed the issues that we will now be facing with this new decision. This week, the Echoing Ida writers were out in full force writing about the devastating impact this decision will have for Black families.

At EBONY, Elizabeth Dawes Gay explains how many families receive their insurance from private companies and illustrates the widespread impact it could have.

"In 2011, more than half of Black people were covered by private (usually employer-sponsored) health insurance, either through their own employer or that of a family member, and 57 million adult women of all races were covered through employer-sponsored insurance.  If the behavior of companies like Hobby Lobby becomes the norm rather than the exception, it could impact contraceptive access for millions of people in the U.S. and have a disproportionate impact on Black women who, with lower income and wealth on average, may not be able to afford to pay for their contraception out-of-pocket."

For RH Reality Check, Renee Bracey Sherman reminds us that Black women have a maternal mortality rate three times that of White women. Withholding access to contraception can lead to death for many women.

"As with all women, Black women use birth control for both medical conditions and to prevent pregnancy—but Black women have a maternal mortality rate three times that of white women. When employers deny access to birth control, they are actually putting Black women’s lives in danger."

In her piece, Echoing Ida writer Cynthia Greenlee highlights the need to have a range of birth control options for Black women. She explains that the Hobby Lobby decision is tantamount to birth control method discrimination.

"According to 2009-2012 statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 58 percent of non-Hispanic black women 20 years and older are considered obese. Of that same population demographic, some 44 percent have high blood pressure. Those women probably shouldn’t access some of the most popular forms of hormonal contraception or should do so under a doctor’s care. Either way, they need a full slate of contraceptive choices, and men and women who are happy with their contraceptive choices are more likely to use them correctly."

Over at Colorlines, Miriam Zoila Perez explains three ways the Hobby Lobby decision is worse for women of color. In addition to highlighting Dawes Gay and Bracey Sherman's articles, Zoila Perez points out the historical context of this issue as well.

"Women of color have already had to deal with a long history of reproductive control at the hands of employers and the government. From slave owners’ manipulation of Black women’s reproduction, to non-consensual sterilization of Latinas in public hospitals, to welfare reform and family caps limiting the number of children welfare recipients can have, women of color have long had to fight for the right to control their own reproduction. This case just adds another layer to controlling fertility, this time at the hands of employers."

We know this issue isn't only about Hobby Lobby and its employees - it's also about the 71 other companies with pending litigation and refusal to cover birth control, their employees, and families across the nation. As the old adage goes, 'history repeats itself'. Let's work together, organize, and make sure that this decision doesn't hurt our communities like it has in the past.