Task Force Mission: The purpose of the Social Justice Task Force is to address the intersections of violence, racism, sexism, homophobia, economic injustice, and other oppressions in the lives of survivors of domestic and sexual violence and their children. This will be accomplished by promoting social change and individual and collective accountability in our work.
Goals:
1.) To actively raise difficult issues about oppressions which may lead us within the Alliance to challenge ourselves and each other and to question our own assumptions and actions
2). To raise and actively promote awareness about these issues in the Alliance membership, Sexual Assault Crisis Centers and Domestic Violence Programs
3). To actively promote racial equality and economic opportunities that include but are not limited to, access to healthcare and living wage jobs within our organizations and through the Commonwealth of Virginia
4.) To support and work collectively with other task forces and caucuses which address specific oppressions.
Vision: The Intersection of Oppressions
In order to promote substantive social change and effective service delivery, advocates must recognize and address the intersections of other forms of oppression with domestic violence and sexual assault (DV/SA). These other forms of oppressions include, but are not limited to, racism, sexism, homophobia, classism, ableism and ageism.
There are many ways to understand how the link between domestic and sexual violence and other oppressions operates. These perspectives are not mutually exclusive:
- Layers of oppression make some people more vulnerable to DV and or/SA
- DV/SA are sometimes used as tools of other oppressions (ex: homophobic man raping a woman because she is perceived to be a lesbian)
- Some forms of oppression contribute directly to perpetuating DV and SA. (ex: lack of economic justice and a living wage keeping a woman in an abusive relationship because she cannot support her children without the abuser’s income)
- DV and SA are forms of oppression in and of themselves. Victims of DV and SA are disempowered, judged, and marginalized because of the violence they have experienced.
People who have experienced DV and or/ SA and are also oppressed in other ways because of their race, class, sexuality, gender, etc. face multiple intersecting barriers to equality and safety. (ex: if an African American woman is raped by a white man, did sexism or racism or both contribute to her experience? What additional oppression might she face as she tries to recover or seek justice?) The fear has been expressed that “adding” an analysis of other oppressions to our work would take a way from the “real work” of addressing DV and SA. However, these other oppressions are already there and not separate in the lives of many people we serve (or should be serving). The Social Justice Task Force recognizes that survivors deserve to have all barriers they face understood and addressed comprehensively by service providers.
All oppressions, including DV/SA, are perpetuated by the belief that power must be power over, not shared power. If we really want to end DV/SA, we have to strive for equality and shared power. In order to accomplish this goal we must take a stand against all forms of oppression and modeling the values of equality and shared power in the way that we do our work. If you have questions about the meetings or the task force call 804-377-0335.
For more information call 804-377-0335 . E-mail is not a secure form of communication. To ensure confidentiality please call the Family Violence & Sexual Assault Hotline at 800.838.8238 (V/TTY).
