In honor of Women's History Month and the U.N.'s International Decade for People of African Descent, the African American Policy Forum (AAPF) and the Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies (CISPS) at Columbia Law School will sponsor #HerDreamDeferred, a weeklong online event series designed to explore the status of black women in the U.S.
Each day during the week of March 30-April 3, AAPF and CISPS will host an online discussion targeting a set of challenges faced by black women. The topics will include: state-sanctioned violence, economic inequality, domestic violence and sexual assault, school-pushout, health disparities, and barriers facing black women and girls in higher education. Registration information for each individual event can be found on AAPF's website (www.aapf.org/herdreamdeferred).
Throughout U.S. history, black women have mobilized against societal inequality, working to advance racial justice on behalf of themselves, their children, partners, families, and communities. Despite the central role they have played in black activism, the challenges black women specifically face at the intersection of race and gender have consistently been relegated to the margins of dominant racial justice discourses. The #HerDreamDeferred series is designed to highlight this problem and build frameworks for inclusive and comprehensive racial justice reform.
"This is a critical moment to uplift the realities of Black women and girls, and to push back against the common misconception that they are doing 'just fine,'" explained Kimberlé Crenshaw, executive director of both AAPF and CISPS. "As increasing resources are directed toward black men in the United States and toward girls of color internationally, our women and girls at home are being pushed even farther toward the margins of public concern and attention."
In February, Crenshaw co-authored a report, "Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out, Overpoliced and Underprotected," showing that girls of color face much harsher school discipline than their white peers but are excluded from current efforts to address the school-to-prison pipeline. The goal of #HerDreamDeferred is to elevate these and other unique challenges facing black women and girls so that stakeholders across the country can better understand and address them. Information is key to broadening the public will to develop an inclusive social justice agenda that leaves no one behind.
#HerDreamDeferred is co-sponsored by The Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Black Women's Blueprint, National Organization for Women, Institute for Women's Policy Research, and other leading gender and racial justice organizations.
Published: Thu, Mar 26, 2015
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