National Organization of Sisters of Color Ending Sexual Assault I s s u e 2 F a l l 2 0 0 5 Happy Autumn! Welcome to Sister Pages Fall 2005 E-Newsletter! In this issue, we are including information about the reauthorization of VAWA; stories related to our communities, upcoming national conferences, and a little bit of poetry. It's been an eventful Summer and it looks like the Fall is going to be even busier! We thank all of you for continuing to support our efforts. National News and Updates: Hurricane Katrina SCESA has joined other national violence against women organizations to support sexual assault victims and programs impacted by Hurricane Katrina. There are a number of funds being set up to receive donations to provide assistance. SCESA is trying to connect with culturally specific programs in the affected states to ensure that the needs of Communities of Color are included and the funds are accessible to these programs. WE NEED YOUR HELP to identify these programs. If you are aware of a culturally specific program or victims in any of the affected states that need assistance please call us or send us an email. More information about funds can also be found at: ( http://relieffundforsexualassaultvictims.org/) this is the Relief Fund for Sexual Assault Victims and the National Network to End Domestic Violence (nnedv.org). SCESA Women of Color Leadership Institute In July, we held our Women of Color Leadership Institute 2005 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It was a wonderful success. We had over 150 Women of Color attend from all across the country including Sisters from the Virgin Islands and local programs in Puerto Rico. This year we also had participation from high school and college students. Overall the Institute received much praise and positive remarks. Participants consistently noted the opportunity to come together learn, share experiences and just “be in a space” with Women of Color as critical to what made this Institute a success. Comments included “The information shared and the knowledge of the presenters was amazing”...“Sessions offered very specific information on how to do the work” …. “This was an excellent gathering, well organized and practical”….“The information gained was valuable but it was the overall feeling of sisterhood”…”I finally realized that we are powerful women”…...”I have a better appreciation for the perspective of other Women of Color”...”This was a life changing experience” Puerto Rican Leader passed on Many Puerto Ricans are mourning the recent death of nationalist leader Don Filiberto Ojeda-Ríos. Filberto Ojeda-Rios died on September 23, 2005 on a Puerto Rican national holiday commemorating el Grito de Lares (organized outcry for liberation from Spanish regime in 1868). This was a sacred day for Puerto Rico’s movement towards independence. Filiberto Ojeda Ríos was the leader of the Boricua Popular Army—also known as Los Macheteros ("The Machete Wielders"), and previously known as the Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN), a clandestine paramilitary organization supporting the independence of Puerto Rico. The National Organization of Sisters of Color Ending Sexual Assault (SCESA) is a Women of Color-led nonprofit committed to ensuring that systems-wide policies and social change initiatives related to sexual assault are informed by critical input and direction of women of color. P a g e 2 Policy Update: Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act 2005 Recently, both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate passed versions of the Violence Against Women Act. This reauthorization is critical to continue much needed services and to respond to gaps in current services. This is great news but we still have a little way to go. We need Congress to agree on one bill that can then go to the President for his signature. Coming up with one bill is a process within itself. We need to ensure that throughout this process the needs of Communities of Color are not left out. We need to be concerned because in the House version, there was a damaging amendment related to racial/ethnic communities that was passed. This amendment stripped the VAWA reauthorization bill of language that aimed specifically to help racial/ethnic communities. Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), the ranking Democrat on the committee along with Rep Hilda Solis (D-CA), strongly opposed the amendment, making an argument for the needs of Communities of Color when impacted by violence against women. The amendment barely passed, 225 to 191. This debate made history for us as Advocates working to end violence against women in racial/ethnic communities. Issues pertaining to Communities of Color were heard on the floor of the House of Representatives, which itself is a huge accomplishment. However, we just don’t want healthy debate– we want true social change for our communities. The amendment can still be addressed during the process of coming up with a final bill, but not without your help. We will be calling on you to contact your House of Representatives and members of the Senate making a plea for this critical language about racial and ethnic communities to be included in the final version of VAWA. Stay tuned! For more information, contact Luz Marquez-Benbow, 860.693.2031 or [email protected] P a g e 3 Art and activism…... Assata’s Roar By Leah Prescott And I be there screaming NOOOO less! For how could they do this to my: SISTA, BROTHA, ELDERS, ANCESTORS, BABIES Who be beaten into submission Who’s pelvis has been contaminated by Power thirsty blood hungry villains Not seeking ‘cuz nipples be ripe It be about power Not reaching out ‘cuz “abs” be tight Let’s talk about control! The control you wish you had so you violate innocence Stolen ripped from the core The control you gotta have so you destroy Ain’t planning on building unless it’s satan’s armies! ‘Cuz you rob the youngest to the oldest SO I SAY NOOOO! For sista’s that didn’t speak! For brotha’s that couldn’t speak! For babies raped without words to speak! For nations or disabled persons! For granny’s & pop-pop’s lying under covers scared of rapists Disguised as nurses! For inmates locked in hell all by themselves! Unwilling, unwanted, non-consensual gestures Let me see them try to rape the thoughts of NO They can’t! It’s Final! Complete! But oppression be the keys that LOCK Mothers, daughters, sons, fathers, grandparents She, he me, you, WE Down against our will not of our own consent written or verbal Ripping away our innocence Using sex as a weapon I SAY NO! YOU SAY NO! WE SAY NOOOO Roundup of Immigrants in Shelter Reveals Rising Tensions By CHAD TERHUNE and EVAN PÉREZ P a g e 4 This article appeared in THE WALL STREET JOURNAL October 3, 2005; Page B1 LONG BEACH, Miss. -- Last Wednesday, police and the U.S. Marshals Service swept into a Red Cross shelter for hurricane refugees here. They blocked the parking lot and exits and demanded identification from about 60 people who looked Hispanic, including some pulled out of the shower and bathroom, according to witnesses. The shelter residents were told to leave within two days or else they would be deported. "They asked me where I wanted to go: to Houston, Atlanta or back to Mexico," said Jose Luis Rivera, 39 years old and an undocumented construction worker from Veracruz, Mexico. Mr. Rivera said he had been sleeping in a tent outside the large shelter building since Hurricane Katrina struck just over a month ago, flooding his second- story apartment in nearby Pass Christian and destroying all his belongings, including a pickup truck. "I lost everything I own in the storm. But they said they didn't care. They told us that if we didn't leave they would return on Friday with buses to take us away," he said. Fearful they would be forced to leave the country, Mr. Rivera and most of the other Hispanic men left the Red Cross shelter the next morning. Local contractors agreed to house workers they are hiring for cleanup work and other jobs in tents at worksites. Mr. Rivera set up his tent at a Baptist church that told him it had room for Hispanics from the shelter. The incident was confirmed by the shelter's staff, including an assistant shelter manager and volunteer Jesse A. Acosta, who said he, too, was asked by a local police officer to show identification. After flashing his Red Cross badge, Mr. Acosta, a former Marine who served in Vietnam, was told to show another form of ID and then had to wait 20 minutes while being screened for outstanding arrest warrants. The line of men, women and children included no whites or African-Americans, he said. "I was singled out because of my skin," Mr. Acosta said. "These people went through Katrina and went there to be taken care of and not to be hassled." A spokesman for the U.S. Marshals assisting in Long Beach said the Wednesday night incident was led by the Harrison County Sheriff's office, and referred calls to it. Harrison County Sheriff's Department Capt. Windy Swetman said no one at the shelter was threatened with deportation, adding that law-enforcement officials wanted to make sure everyone staying at the shelter had been displaced by the hurricane. "We were concerned with the growing numbers of the Hispanic population and whether or not we had displaced residents of southern Mississippi from the hurricane or workers brought in from other areas using the shelter as base camp," he said.