Violence Against Minority Women Understanding the Problem Increases Your Ability to Help

1. Violence Against Minority Women: Understanding the Problem Increases Your Ability to Help We have a huge problem verging on Canada and States: violence minority women. This is not a new issue, as you’ll read below, but it has reached crisis proportions comparison progress made in modern- day civil rights. genocide the in United against in to other Understanding violence against Black women, Indigenous women, and other minorities, including those who identify as female, is crucial if we are to move forward as a society that claims all people are created equal and should therefore be treated as such. When you truly comprehend how violence against minority women is permitted and perpetuated in Western culture, your cultural awareness, empathy, and ability to be supportive will vastly improve. www.toughconvos.com

2. Shocking Statistics About Violence Against Black Women Many people are not aware of how bad the violence problem for minority women is. This is partly because issues pertaining to Black men tend to eclipse those of women in the media, especially when it comes to police brutality. Let’s examine some facts about violence against Black women in the US as an example. It would probably shock you to learn the following: Black women experience higher levels of law enforcement violence than other women. Black women make up 13 percent of women in the US but account for 20 percent of women killed by law enforcement and 28 percent of unarmed shootings. Excessive force is frequently used against young Black girls without cause, such as body slamming, being knocked unconscious, and violent arrest. Police sexual assault and abuse of Black females is commonly dismissed or hidden from the public, often with the assumption that this demographic lacks the ability to fight back. Black women are nearly twice as likely as their white counterparts to be incarcerated. The message here? We not only live in a racist society; we live in a patriarchal one as well, giving Black women not one but two battles to fight. www.toughconvos.com

3. Violence Against Indigenous Women: A Canadian National Crisis While there are differences between racism in the US and in Canada, the latter is not without its share of violence against minority women. In particular, Indigenous women have been targeted for homicide and kidnapping, and this occurs in areas with a high concentration of Native Americans in the United States as well (see below). To the north, it has become such an urgent problem that it has been labelled a Canadian genocide. Indigenous women and girls constitute only 4 percent of the population in Canada. And yet they make up 16 percent of total Canadian homicides between 1980 and 2012, a period studied as part of a national inquiry. To put it in perspective, 1,000 Indigenous women were murdered during those three decades. From 2001 to 2015, Indigenous women were killed at a rate six times that of other Canadian women. In some provinces with larger percentages of Native American, Inuit, First Nation, and Métis women, the rates were even higher. And that is only addressing homicides. There are thousands of missing Indigenous women and girls who have never been located but may have been murdered as well, although some are suspected to have been sold into sex trafficking. They are often referred to by the abbreviation MMIW: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. www.toughconvos.com

4. In the US, Indigenous women have murder rates that are more than 10 national average. women and girls between the ages of 10 to 24 years old, homicide is the third highest cause of death. industries (fossil fuels, mining, and logging) contributor to these statistics. Once again, we see multiple crises intersecting, patriarchy and racism are ignited by environmental policies. times the Among Extractive are a large where careless The Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Initiative The National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls was initiated in 2016, independent from the Canadian government, as it was felt that the government’s response had theretofore been completely inadequate. Activism is ongoing, with marches, calls for justice, and the start of an MMIW database from information collected by MMIW organizations. www.toughconvos.com

5. Who Is Affected by MMIW and Violence Against Minority Women? Contrary to unfortunate popular belief, violence against minority women is not just a problem for them. It’s a problem for all of us. A thread that is woven among all the history and statistics discussed here is the dehumanization of the victims. In fact, the perpetrators of violence against these women didn’t even see them as victims but rather deserving of the harm they received. History tells us dehumanizing of others is the gateway to further atrocities. We’ve seen this in the last century, with events like the rise of Nazi Germany, the Ukrainian Holodomor, apartheid South Africa, and lynching of Black citizens in the United States. Not only should violence against minority women trigger your empathy and outrage as a human, but it should also move you to do something. If Black or Indigenous women are subhuman today, who will be considered so tomorrow? People of different religious beliefs or LGBTQ people? Artists? Dissidents? Members of the “wrong” political party? You’ve probably seen some of the seeds sown in that direction already. We must prevent going further down that road by standing up for people who are being dehumanized today, even if we ourselves feel safe from the violence or “it isn’t our problem.” www.toughconvos.com

6. How do we do that? It starts with a dialogue, and these can be challenging conversations to initiate. That’s what Tough Convos is all about. We come to your company, nonprofit, or school to help facilitate these discussions to get the ball rolling. Tough Convos also assists with reassessing brand values and building a more diverse and inclusive culture. To learn more or set up the first dialogue with your group, call Tough Convos at 858-876-8176, or reach out online to let us know what we can do. Tough Convos, Canada Tel: 1(858) 876-8176 www.toughconvos.com