By Genoa Barrow | OBSERVER Senior Staff Writer
Domestic Violence Awareness Month just ended, but conversations about prevention must continue. That message was driven home as community advocates, policy experts and other leaders joined to center Black voices in the work of breaking the cycle.
The discussion, held at CalMatters, was co-hosted by the Blue Shield of California Foundation and the California Black Freedom Fund. The Blue Shield foundation’s efforts are in keeping with President Joe Biden’s National Plan to End Gender-Based Violence. The foundation said domestic violence impacts more than 10 million people annually and costs the economy more than $8 billion per year.
Marc Philpart, executive director of the California Black Freedom Fund, said survivors will continue to pay the ultimate price if change doesn’t happen.
Philpart shared why the work is important to him. “My story with domestic violence began on Nov. 1, 1965, in downtown Los Angeles, where my mother’s mom, Lorena Thompson, a grandmother I never knew was murdered by her second husband,” he said.
“Shortly after my mom and uncle entered primary school, Lorena divorced my grandfather and started dating. Within a year she remarried and found herself in an abusive relationship. In two years she was dead.”
Before shooting his grandmother down while she waited in an unemployment line, the man had previously shown a handgun to Philpart’s mother, who was just 7 years old at the time, saying he was going to kill her.
“This dramatic moment tore our family apart and permeated my mom’s relationship decisions and experiences with violence. She wasn’t comfortable sharing this story with me into her late 40s. When I reflect on my grandmother’s tragic murder, I believe it could have been prevented,” Philpart said.
There were likely moments where intervention might have saved a life, Philpart said.
“Many moments where he could have been supported and engaged, before his rage turned lethal. But none of that happened in a real meaningful way. It was clear to me from my family’s experiences and looking at the data that our society is too heavily invested in systemic responses that are not rooted in cultural realities, not rooted in the cultural realities of our communities that are punitive rather than healing-centered, that are inadequate when it comes to countering a culture of racism and violence.
“Ultimately, we spend way too much on these things,” he said. “We spend way too much on child welfare, we spend way too much on police, we spend way too much on prisons, and not nearly enough on all the things that will actually prevent violence, or interrupt cycles of harm, or help people heal from trauma. Without investing in these things, it’s not possible to have a culture of safety.”
In addition to sharing his personal story, Philpart led a conversation with guest speaker Angela Davis, whom he called an “acclaimed activist, author and champion for Black freedom and liberation.”
“[We’re] discussing an issue which first became a part of public discourse over 50 years ago. This is the most widespread pandemic form of violence in the world,” Davis said. “And with all of the actions that have happened with all of the domestic violence centers and crisis centers and so forth, the actual incidence of violence has not changed very much.”
Philpart interjected: “While it hasn’t become what I think we want it to be, it has still grown by leaps and bounds. And I think in part because of Black feminists who have really stepped in and tried to drive the field to a direction that aligned with their experience.”
Davis, who is a professor, author and a former member of the Black Panther Party, shared reflections of coming across domestic violence in her personal space and in her activism work. She counts herself fortunate that no one in her immediate family had direct experiences with domestic violence, but remembers hearing stories from friends and other relatives.
“I can remember at that time, just feeling absolutely incapable of doing anything because the available discourse was that this was just a natural phenomena. This was just something that existed and nothing could really be done about it except to find solutions involving escape, but not changing the frame. Not challenging whether violence was necessarily a part of human relationships,” she said.
“When I compare that period to today, we have made progress that would have been unimaginable then. I think about back in the ’90s, when many of us were doing organizing around critical resistance and first began to do abolitionist organizing. I can remember that we felt that it was so important to incorporate our political insights regarding domestic violence that was connected to street violence. And sometimes people are really unwilling to enter into these big conversations, because it appears that nothing can be done.”
In 1970, Davis became only the third woman to ever be listed on the FBI’s most wanted list. She sparked an international “Free Angela” campaign and after being released in 1972, continued to champion the cause of the incarcerated.
“I can remember that women who were in prison were describing how they felt as prisoners of the state and the violence they experience and them saying that this doesn’t feel very different from the violence I experienced at the hands of my former partner,” Davis said. “I work with an organization in Australia that developed a campaign called ‘Stop State Sexual Assault’ and they were talking about the state as perpetrators of violence. Gender violence. They were talking about the violence that is inherent in strip searching and cavity searching. That was a very enlightening moment.”
The conversation with Davis was followed by a panel of leaders who are also “doing the work.” Moderated by PBS Southern California journalist Bonnie Boswell, the panel discussion featured remarks from Kelli Dillon of Oakland’s department of violence prevention; Karen Earl, Jenesse Center; Eric Morrison-Smith, Alliance for Boys and Men of Color; and Trina Greene, Parenting for Liberation. Their comments included getting to the root causes of domestic violence.
“I think really being able to put all this in context, a larger context of the violence that has accompanied the development of this country is really critical,” Boswell said. “Which is why going back to education is important, because if we silence that part of it, but we don’t have context for it, and if we don’t see what’s happening in our current world, and seeing that there’s a relationship to how we dispense money, what our priorities are, then we tend to focus outside as opposed to looking holistically.”
Speakers pointed to Black women in California being disproportionately impacted by domestic violence. Studies often cite economic stress, childhood trauma and experiences with violence, substance abuse and racism as causes of domestic violence in Black communities and families. According to the Black Women’s Health Project, 40% of Black women will experience domestic violence in their lifetimes, compared to 30.2% of White women.
Blue Shield of California Foundation CEO Debbie Chang also participated in the awareness discussion.
“We want to change the conversation from a focus just on treating the problem of domestic violence to actually preventing it from happening in the first place. How do we prevent domestic violence? By addressing its root causes: racism, economic insecurity and gender inequities,” Chang said. “We want to change the conversation and talk about domestic violence as a health equity issue. We also want to talk about domestic violence as a multigenerational cycle, where everyone can play a role in preventing it.”
Editor’s Note: OBSERVER Senior Staff Writer Genoa Barrow sat for an exclusive interview with Angela Davis, the internationally renowned political activist and women’s rights warrior. Barrow spoke with the icon about the root causes of domestic violence, the banning of her books and misogyny in today’s music. Davis also spoke about the hope she feels in seeing a younger generation of activists step up. View the interview.