#HerDreamDeferred
A Weeklong Online Event Series Dedicated to the
 Status of Black Women
March 30—April 3, 2015
In honor of Women's History Month and the UN Declaration of 2015 as the International Decade for People of African Descent, please join the African American Policy Forum, the Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies at Columbia Law School, the Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Institute for Women's Policy Research, NOW, Black Women's Blueprint, PACE, Free Marissa Now, Sister Song and other leading racial and gender justice organizations for a weeklong series of online activities focused on elevating the crisis facing Black women.
JOIN THE CONVERSATION ONLINE
#HerDreamDeferred

PROGRAM
**All activities will take place at 3pm EST**
MONDAY, MARCH 30:
#SayHerName: Towards a Gendered Analysis of Racialized State Violence
REGISTER HERE
 
FEATURED SPEAKERS:
Kimberle Crenshaw, Executive Director of the African American Policy Forum and the Columbia Law School Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies
Barbara Arnwine, Executive Director of the Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
Andrea Ritchie, Police Misconduct Attornery, Soros Justice Fellow and Co-Author of Queer (In)justice: The Criminalization of LGBT people in the United States
Charlene Carruthers, Director of Black Youth Project 100
Priscilla Ocen, Associate Professor of Law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles
Moderated by Janine Jackson, FAIR
Although Black women are killed, raped and beaten by law enforcement officials, their experiences are rarely foregrounded in the narrative surrounding state violence. Through uplifting the cases of Black women who have been killed by the police and broadening our understanding of racial violence to include sexual assault, incarceration and other inequities confronted by Black women, we hope to build a framework within which to comprehend and foreground their experiences. As AAPF prepares to release its forthcoming brief on Black women and state violence, please join us in our efforts to shed light on why it is absolutely imperative that we build a gender-inclusive racial justice movement.
 
TUESDAY, MARCH 31:
Ending Violence Against Black Women:
The Movement to Combat Sexual Assault and
Intimate Partner Violence in Our Communities
REGISTER HERE
FEATURED SPEAKERS:
Terry O'Neill, National Organization for Women
Farrah Tanis, Black Women's Blueprint
Aleta Alston Toure, Free Marissa Now!
Nona Jones, PACE Center for Girls
Moderated by Janine Jackson, FAIR
According to Black Women's Blueprint, nearly 60 percent of Black girls are sexually assaulted by the time they turn 18. Homicide by a current or former partner is a leading cause of death for Black women ages 15-34. Although they comprise 8 percent of the population, Black women represent nearly 1/3 of the intimate partner homicide victims in the US. Despite the centrality of their well being to the overall health of Black communities, we are often silent on this widespread issue. Our fear of validating pervasive stereotypes about Black men and furthering their marginalization contributes to a broader narrative that Black women’s lives are unimportant and that the violence perpetrated against them is normal and justifiable. Join us as we call for elevating private violence within the broader civil rights movement, and push back against a deadly, patriarchal narrative that harms some of us in the name of all of us.
 

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1:
Black Women’s Median Wealth is $5. Why Don't We Care?
REGISTER HERE
FEATURED SPEAKERS:
George Lipsitz, Professor of Black Studies at USCB, Chair of the Board at AAPF, Board Member at the National Fair Housing Alliance.
Terri Dotson, Healthcare Specialist
William Darity, Professor of Economics at Duke University
Mary Frances Berry, Professor of American Social Thought and History at the University of Pennsylvania
Moderated by Janine Jackson, FAIR
Over the last year, Black women are the only group whose unemployment rates did not improve. Black women ages 18-24 have the highest unemployment rate amongst women nationwide and, during the Great Recession, lost more jobs than their male counterparts. The median wealth of single Black women is just $5.00 - lower than every other group, including Black men. Moreover, Black women were more impacted by the housing crisis and face a higher risk of foreclosure than any other group.
Given that Black women are the primary caretakers of their families, their economic and social well being should be of critical importance to our communities as a whole. Join us as we explore this issue, and call for the development of an economic agenda that includes Black women at its center.
 
THURSDAY, APRIL 2:
 Black Women Have Not "Made It": How the Current College Enrollment Narrative Undermines the Real Educational and
 Socioeconomic Barriers Facing Black Women
REGISTER HERE

Featured Speakers include a roundtable of young Black women college students and recent graduates speaking about the social and economic challenges that they continue to face, even with degrees.
The fact that Black women are slightly overrepresented in 2-year college enrollment--making up 15 percent of female high school graduates but 16 percent of female enrollees--has led to the common interpretation that Black women and girls are doing well, and thus, do not need the same targeted support as their male peers. Yet making it to college--while critically important--does not mean that Black women and girls have surmounted every obstacle in their paths. Institutional barriers to their success continue to stymie Black women during and after college graduation. In 2013 an African-American woman with an associate degree was less likely to be employed than a white man with less than a high-school diploma. Black women, including those who are college-educated, have made the least significant gains of any group, including their male peers, during the national economic recovery. On average, Black women earn 64 cents for every dollar a white man makes, and 82 cents for every dollar a white woman earns.
Join us for a roundtable conversation with young Black women in higher education as we elevate issues related to Black women’s educational attainment and push back on the narrative that Black women’s enrollment in college makes them immune to broader societal inequality.

FRIDAY, APRIL 3:
Are Racism and Patriarchy Making Us Sick?
 Black Women, Societal Inequity and Health Disparities
REGISTER HERE

FEATURED SPEAKERS:
Monica Simpson and Amber Phillips, Sister Song
Ladonna Redmond, Founder of the Campaign for Food Justice Now
Amani Nuru Jeter, Asssociate Professor of Epidemiology, Community Health and Human Development at UC Berkeley School of Public Health
Lorece Edwards, Director of Community Practice and Outreach and Associate Professor in the Department of Behavioral Health Sciences at the Morgan State University School of Community Health and Policy
Moderated by Janine Jackson, FAIR
Many argue that if we adjust racial disparities for indicators of class, we will see great reduction in, or even elimination of, racial difference. Haven’t middle-class and professional Black women “made it”?
But the notion that the effects of racism are eliminated through pay raises and professional success is untrue. The stress of anti-Black racism and sexism, coupled with serving as the primary caretakers of their communities, can take a toll on Black women’s health, even if they have the economic privilege to send their children to good schools, live in a wealthy neighborhood and have a high-level career. In fact, well-educated Black women have worse birth outcomes than white women who haven’t finished high school. Join us as we elevate the health disparities facing Black women, and call for acknowledging and addressing racism and patriarchy as health determinants in public health research and policy interventions.
Institute for Women's Policy Research | iwpr@iwpr.org | Institute for Women's
 
Policy Research | 1200 18th Street NW, Suite 301 | Washington, DC 20036