How does Domestic Violence in Black families Undermine Our Social Efforts?

Topic
Title: Black Hearts: How culturally specific programs can benefit African-American women leaving abusive relationships
Research Question:
How will the implementation of culturally specific domestic violence programs decrease the number of times African-American women return to abusive relationships?
Purpose Statement:
The purpose of this study is to determine whether or not the intersection of race makes a difference in providing support to African- American women in transition after abusive relationships. This project will examine the demographics of women who most frequently return to abusive relationships and whether or not education, employment and racial dynamics of the treatment program can improve the outcomes after shelter. African-American women will be surveyed in two groups those who return to the same or different abusers within a six month period after a shelter stay and after completing a culturally specific domestic violence program. The information obtained from these surveys can be used to develop intensive culturally specific treatment program to provide assistance to African-American women who are the least paid women in the United States and who may be most vulnerable to return to violent relationships.
Problem Statement
Despite the gains of the civil rights movement 40 years ago black women remain the least paid across the board. (U.S. Census, Current population reports, 2007) 32% of black households have an average income of less than $15,000 each year this figure is nearly equal to the combined percentages of the Hispanic and Asian population with income less than $15,000 annually. (U.S. Census, Current population reports, 2007) Domestic violence advocates note that one of the main reasons for women in general to return to abusive home lives is that they lack the financial ability to remain in safe environments. (Landes, 1995) Dr. Joy Leary also adds that African-Americans in particular suffer from Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome, hundreds of years after the Transatlantic Slave Trade because of the actual event of enslavement and subsequent centuries of multigenerational abuse. (Leary, n.d.) Dr. Leary argues that “research has shown that severe trauma can affect multiple generations,” (Vasilikas, 2005, p. 152) similar to the trauma that Jewish people have suffered even when they were not directly injured in the torture camps of Hitler. “There are many manifestations of trauma, so it is no wonder the list of post traumatic slave syndrome symptoms described in this book is long and varied” according to Pamela Hammond’s and Bertha Davis’ review of the Leary’s book that is entitled the same as the condition. Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome affects blacks in America by damaging their ability to parent, interact socially with each other, and in their sexuality among a myriad of other areas in their lives despite the perceived advances from the Civil Rights movement.
The majority of domestic intervention programs only use the cultural model established by adherents of Western culture rather than a holistic view that Africans have subscribed to for centuries. African Americans have a different ethos system than the prevailing ethos system of the U.S. Blacks in America have a more community oriented world view rather than a possession oriented world view. (Karenga, 2002) The damage caused by embracing Western beliefs is evident in Haiti which is the poorest country in the Americas. (Gage & Hutchinson, 2006) Studies in Haiti indicate, “…the importance of adopting a multidimensional approach to the measurement of power in sexual relationships.” (Gage & Hutchinson, 2006, p. 21) Meaning there has to be a significant effort to redirect the beliefs that men have regarding gender roles as well. Those facts, among others leave black women in double jeopardy in terms of breaking the cycle of violence. Researchers hypothesize that school performance decreases with exposure to violence. “Dora Black found that children exposed to disaster were twice as likely to develop psychological disorders,” according to an article published in the Journal of the National Medical Association. (Shakoor & Chalmers, 1991) Previously Joy Osofsky concluded, “Adolescent problems related to violence exposure have been most visible, both in the literature and in the media.” (Ofsofsky, 1995, p. 783) However; very young children exposed to violence, although research is limited, also exhibit stress from violent relationships. (Ofsofsky, 1995) Osofsky also adds that the experience of experiencing violence in relationships has a negative affect on parent’s ability to parent effectively. (Ofsofsky, 1995) In the end the effects of violence end up being passed down to children. Children who witness violence in the home have a propensity to commit violent crimes later in life, are more likely to become delinquents. (Margolin & Gordis, 2000) It is imperative that this public health emergency be resolved.







References
Gage, A. J., & Hutchinson, P. L. (2006). Power, Control, and Intimate Partner Sexual. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 35(1), 11-24. doi: 10.1007/s10508-006-8991-0
Karenga, M. (2002). Introduction to Black Studies. New York: Univ of Sankore Pr.
Landes, A. (1995). Violent Relationships Battering and Abuse Among Adults. Wylie: Information Plus (TX).
Leary, J. D. (2001). A disertation on african american male violence: "trying to kill the part of you that isn't loved (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Portland State University.
Margolin, G., & Gordis, E. B. (2000). The Effects of Family and Community Violence on Children. Annual Review of Psychology, 51(1), 445-480. Retrieved November 29, 2009, from http://proxy.thechicagoschool.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&AN=3076152&site=ehost-live
Ofsofsky, J. (1995). The Effects of Exposure to Violence. American Psychologist, 50(September), 9th ser., 782-788. Retrieved November 29, 2009, from http://proxy.thechicagoschool.edu:2052/ehost/detail?vid=4&hid=107&sid=edcadd10-bfbe-4458-95e8-6f75f0b984f4%40sessionmgr113&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=pdh&AN=amp-50-9-782
Shakoor, B. H., & Chalmers, D. (1991). Co-victimization of African-American children who witness violence: effects on cognitive, emotional, and behavioral development. Journal of the National Medical Association, 83(3), 233-238.
United States of America, U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Commerce. (2007). Current population reports (pp. 60-233). Retrieved November 1, 2009, from http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/tables/09s0668.pdf
Vasilikas, A. (2005, February). Breaking the Chains. Essence, 150-153.

An Enemy of the STATE!!!

Recently I was watching a television news program that reported 1 in 5 black women are overweight. On the surface it would seem that black women need to eat less and move more. However, since I am a part of that number I thought to myself, "I am constantly moving more and I never get to eat. It seems like I'm always running around somewhere hungry..." For those examining that statistic from outside of the community it may lend to a belief that black women are simply greedy and lazy, but that can't be it. It caused me to do some real evaluation of my own situation and led me to create this series. A few years ago while at National Council on Black Studies conference I listened to a presentation about black women's lives in East St. Louis, Mo. The poverty level in this area is greater than the national average. The study found that black women work harder, get paid less and are responsible for more people and this trend holds true regardless of geographic location. These conclusions caused me to do some tretrospective thinking in my own life regarding weight. I've identified some "Enemies of the State" in terms of black women's health and wellness that apply to me but the many women I've come in contact with over the years from many parts of the country. The thre main recurring themes in black women's lives that may contribute to an ability to maintain healthy weight are a.) disorganization, b.) stress and c.) poverty of course these three things are not the only reason however; many of the underlying issues can be attributed in some way to one of these things.

In order to successfully attack weight issues women who carry so much responsibility are going to need to choose a different apporoach from the conventional methods and understanding. We are not simply cattle who can be fed less and trotted around the barnyard more and voila we're healthy. We have a connection to the earth and spirit that no other woman has. We were here first and we carried mankind from the tip of South Africa to the southern tip of South America on our backs and in our bellies. From the time the Creator formed a human regardless of your world view that woman was black and without us there would be nothing and nobody. Now let's unpack this together.

DISORGANIZATION Black women lead communal liees despite the political climate of the day or the influence of Western culture. In my oppinion it would be abnormal for black women to proclaim an independence from being an integral part of the lives of people around her. When you hear people give the message "you have to break away," in order to succeed they are usually trying to impose a western world view on you. You are "Superwoman" and anything less than honing your super powers is nonsense. We can't live our lives on the life lessons of white women because we are the creation that brought woman hood to town. We have and will carry many burdens. Why do you think so many of our gospel songs in the Christian realm carry messages of a day when burdens will be over? Because we are carrying burdens, you are not likely to sing of burdens unless you have them. The problem with carrying the world on your shoulders is that you are constantly juggling... Imagine a juggling act in a circus... The juggler starts out with three balls then adds a couple more... then releases 1 and ands 2 more without stopping the movement. Our lives as black women can become quite chaotic indeed. How many times have you been disturbed in sleep or in leisure because one of the people or situations in your life (balls) has entered or exited? We're going to get organized together in this series! And this is the perfect time sisters as we approach the holiday season. Regardless of your spiritual beliefs and practices you are more than likely required to honor the traditions and beliefs of others. Even if Christmas and Thanksgiving don't fall on your doorstep more than likely it occurs for people you love and all the chaos and tress caused by these holidays is enough to cause anyone to end up with some unwanted weight gain in the end. We are going to identify chaos and how disorganization effects some of our eating habits and try to tackle those issues.

STRESS - Emotional eating - I do that and We are going to keep a journal throughout this to address those things. No matter what you weigh stress is a killer and I beleive that alleviating stress is necessary to weight loss and quality of life. This thing is going to be a deep and personal inventory. I'm going to share my personal battles with you and I'm hoping that each of you share yours with me.
Stress is also a belly fat creator. I recently watched a speech given by Dr. Harris-Lacewell a black scholar from Princeton who is ofte called to speak on cable news networks about the black perspective. This particular speech she spoke about how negative thoughts and feelings create an increased production of cortisol and cortisol increases belly fat.
Stress also creates a breeding ground for stress related illnesses like hypertension. You can't just stop eating salt and then inadequately handles stress and expect hypertension to be alleviated.

POVERTY - Black women are the least paid and the hardest worked. We are required to care for more people with the least resources. We are going to learn how to work with what we have to achieve our goals. Sometimes transportation to stores that serve healthy foods is an issue. Sometimes we have to sacrifice quantity over quality.

Of course there is an element of truth to portion control and exercise. We will of course integrate those things into our personally and tailor made "Home Improvement" program. After all Home is where the heart is... And of course we will have guest bloggers which have areas of expertise in helping us to achieve our goals.

Here's the plan ladies... Monday mornings we will have our initial weekly post... not just boring me blogging about my particular issues but, we are going to involve guest writers who have something to add to the discourse. Monday mornings are going to be a time of thought provoking discovery of the weeks topic and we will have a small assignment. NO BIG ASSIGNMENTS WE HAVE ENOUGH TO DO ALREADY. Wednesday we will check back in together and discuss how this weeks post is applicable to our to our lives and what changes we can make to integrate a new approach in order to build a better ME! Then we will check back in together on Friday to see if the things we decided to change are practical and work for our daily lives and how we can insure that we can put these to work in our lives forever. Now mind you I am not a guru. This is a path we will walk together and we are going to take it slow. We will commit to losing 1 lb a week and if we make it ok and if not oh well we are healing our total selves 1st and I'm hoping that everything will come together from there.
This post is rather long because it is the 1st of a 52 week series... We don't have much time I know so there won't be many long posts...

1ST ASSIGNMENT --- A BUTTERFLY JOURNAL I like to think of this journey as that of a catepillar turning into a butterfly. It's easy to invest in 1 a few sheets of paper stapled or a spiral notebook. You can decorate it or choose one decorated for you. Make sure it's one that you will enjoy looking at and look forward to using week after week. Wednesday write down how each of the 3 EMEMIES OF THE STATE come into play in your life regardless of whether or not they directly affect your weight. Let's check back in Wednesday to get some responses!

Peace!

Assignment: Do something deviant... How funny...

How do deviant’s express deviance? No conversation about deviance can occur without discussing the impact that African-American’s and other minorities have on the description of deviant behavior. Most conversations of deviance begin with western input definitions and descriptions. In that light deviant behavior is any behavior deemed against the norm is defined by second hand information received by western scholars. The information can be viewed as being received as second hand because for thousands of years people were able to interact with each other without labels prior to Aristotelian categorizations. As a black woman I am personally tired of the minority group defining acceptable practices for the rest of the world simply because they have been able to successfully rob scores of the world’s people by simply inventing a gun. In essence the deviants are defining deviance throughout the world simply because of a power illusion created by money.

Deviance was constructed well before the works of the renowned scholars listed in Goode’s “Deviant Behavior”. One of the earliest attempts to associate deviance with African people was Dr. Richard Cartwright’s report in the New Orleans Medical Journal entitled, “Report on the Diseases and physical Peculiarities of the Negro Race.” (Cartwright, pp. 691-715) In this work Dr. Cartwright explained almost every difference in African’s between white people in terms of physicality rather than the cultural expressions he was describing. By carefully reading this account a roadmap to current theories psychologists and sociologists subscribe to in some way begin from this short-sighted world view. Goode states that in defining deviance there must be a “focus on the number and power of the people who define a given a given act.” (Goode, p. 16) However; I would interject that from a historical standpoint race and its subsequent spoil of victory “power” seem to have more of an impact than number in many cases. The easiest assignment that you can give a person of color is to commit an act of deviance and it is also the hardest. If one replays nearly every conversation on deviance they have ever participated or listened to African-Americans are rarely left out of the conversation. Even when there is apparent deviance operating in western culture whites in particular Africans and their descendants are foremost on the list of areas in which deviance originates. For example, many like to blame rap music lyrics as a source of the connotation of deviance when the majority of rap music is purchased by whites and the majority of record label executives that contract rappers are white. (Kitwana) The starving artist is then penned as the culprit of deviance rather than the sick people engaged in frenzy to promote dysfunction. In addition, rational people don’t use an art form to pigeon hold a group of people’s existence however, when sociologists define deviance in self-serving terms the deviant group retains authority.

An author or sociologist who defines deviance as an act against the norm and then adds that the number and power of those who judge the act as a precursor to a working thesis on the matter is also preserving cultural exclusivity in that it allows people with power to maintain the status of setting the rules. It is absolutely preposterous to believe that a small minority of people because of financial acuity and their manipulation of facts retain rights and privilege over the majority in defining normalcy. Of course the subset of “societal deviance” includes that each particular group maintains their own set of beliefs and values that must be considered however, this still promotes the idea that normalcy is found in one particular group yet members of other groups can still define normalcy of their own but, does not give it rights as the majority because of their lack of power and number.

As a black woman I wake up every morning as a deviant. Cartwright’s legacy includes that because of the color of my skin that normalcy can’t be defined with me. It was believed that Africans had more nerves so that they were unable to control impulses. When I go to the store, I’m almost certainly watched in case I may fall prey to impulsivity and steal something. Because of the neighborhood that I live in it is perceived that there will be scores of deviant activities that surround me that I can’t fight against. When I am summoned I’m considered a girl or “gal” in the South even though I have given birth to a son who is an adult. When I approach anyone about a problem I may be experiencing I am quickly scrutinized in an attempt to keep me from “getting over”, and receiving consideration without merit. When I point out issues that impact my sovereign rights I am quickly dismissed as an “angry black woman”. Every aspect of my daily interactions are inspected for deviance because it is a given that I embody deviance. I am presumed to be unable to care for my children, myself and certainly that I am unable to make decisions for the majority because I am somehow defective. Just being a college student is considered deviant as most times I am overlooked as some meritless affirmative action experiment. Simply engaging in classroom discussions is often an exercise in helping me understand the real world, rather than embracing of a different point of view. For 3 ½ years each and every classroom interaction has included some sort of degradation ceremony where I’m forced to defend my culture or “socially distance” in order to retain normalcy when in fact there is nothing any different about my existence than anyone else’s. Waking up in the morning and continuing to choose natural hair over processed is an act of deviance and a degradation ceremony all its own. By wearing my marked status I am immediately put on trial and my group loyalty is brought into question. The only way to circumvent the sentence is to punish my hair by straightening it.

Goode further impacts this rhetoric in that I do not have the number and power in the United States or throughout western culture to be normal, or at least to define deviance. Marked statuses don’t perform at any different level than any other group except that the labeling that occurs prevents the ability to acquire the money and power in order to effect change. How I wept in reading Cartwright’s condemnation of Africans in America to deviance by narrating the point that it is a peculiarity that the “Negro” responds to love and respect. (Cartwright, pp. 691-715) While Goode’s definition is true I believe a better way to study and define deviance would leave out the question of power because the powerful are often the main contributors to deviance. In discussing this dilemma with my partner Gihoon I was immediately brought back to an interaction with one of my son’s best friends who attends middle school with him. When Samnang first came home with my son I immediately recognized he was Cambodian. Long Beach California has the largest Cambodian population outside of Cambodia. My son Antonio burst into the door and said, “Mom this is my friend Sam. But, he really has another name but we call him Sam.” Then my son grabbed his backpack and showed me the letters SAMNANG written across his backpack in indelible ink. I immediately asked him, “Well how do you pronounce it?” His eyes told me a story I knew all too well for myself. He was so accustomed to his name being butchered that he was a little shocked by my desire to know how to say it. I gave it a try and pronounced, “sam yang?” His eyes lit up. “I said that’s the right way?” He answered in the affirmative. I asked him if he preferred to be called Sam or if it was just the best way for keeping his name from being mangled. He said that Sam was OK. I told my son later that there is no reason to be unable to pronounce another person’s name we all have the same lips and mouth. I asked Gihoon where he was from and then has he been asked, “Does he know Karate?” Even though Korea and karate are not synonymous I recognized that a pan-Asian stereotype may be one of his experiences as well. It seems to me as if we may be creating a majority.