Bay Area
Black, Vulnerable and Trafficked, Part 6: How Selling Sex Impacts Black Mental Health
Although California Senate Bill 357 was intended to alleviate arrests of willing sex workers under anti-loitering laws, it opened up a Pandora’s box loophole that hinders the ability of law enforcement to halt human trafficking, especially of young Black and Brown girls.
By Tanya Dennis and Vanessa Russell
Although California Senate Bill 357 was intended to alleviate arrests of willing sex workers under anti-loitering laws, it opened up a Pandora’s box loophole that hinders the ability of law enforcement to halt human trafficking, especially of young Black and Brown girls.
Over the last five weeks we’ve covered multiple ways that SB 357 and legislation like it allows sex buyers to prey on the vulnerabilities and ongoing economic instability of Black communities.
Each of the vulnerabilities – repeated trauma of poverty, racism, drug addiction, broken families — paint pictures of the difficult position that Black girls are placed in as they choose the sex industry over homelessness and hunger.
But is it really a choice when you have no other options? Black people are continually faced with coercive opportunities from the sex industry. Because they are overrepresented in the sex industry, many may think they want to be there or that they should be there, but a deeper look reveals that sex work for many is not a choice but a means to survive.
Being trafficked, aka sold to a sex buyer against one’s will, has a tremendous impact on mental health causing Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD), General Anxiety Disorder (GAD), depression, and panic disorders.
In a Psychology Today article, survivors share similar feelings:
- “I was going through life on auto-pilot”
- “I was always self-blaming”
- “I felt shame and fear”
- “I was not in touch with myself”
- “With so many secrets I felt I had to keep, I didn’t want to get really close to anyone. I didn’t want people to know what I had been through, and I didn’t want to face these things myself.”
Even those who say they voluntarily worked in the sex industry said that being reduced to a product affected their mental health.
In a Proletarian Feminist article titled “Sex Work,” Esperanza, a socialist, feminist, transgender Latina woman, and survivor of the sex trade shared that “the reality of being a transgender prostitute was not so simple. What started out as empowering in my mind quickly became a trap I couldn’t escape.
In general, 16% of the Black population is experiencing mental illness, according to a Mental Health America story on the subject. It’s no surprise that mental disorders are so prevalent in the Black community where 40% of those who are sexually exploited are Black and 1 in 5 Black women are survivors of rape.
One study reported by University of Pittsburgh Professor Rebecca Thurston in 2021 showed that people who experience sexual assault are at a higher risk of brain damage including cognitive decline, dementia, and stroke
Solving the Black mental health problem is complex. First, mental health services are not widely accepted in the Black community. There is still a stigma about seeking help, LCSWAmy Morin wrote for VeryWellMind in October of 2020. Historically, the Black community has characterized traditional counseling as something that you do when you are crazy and have completely lost control.
Talking about feelings in a chaise lounge chair and needing to take medicine can be viewed as a sign of weakness. Also, when Black people do buy into receiving mental health services, they want them from someone they feel comfortable with, someone who is culturally astute.
Unfortunately, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) reports that “only 2% of the estimated 41,000 psychiatrists in the U.S. are Black, and just 4% of psychologists are Black.”
What would happen if we had more representation in the Black mental health space that integrated important parts of our faith with clinical educational insights that can inform our healing?
We could help Black people understand that they can rewire their brains with an improved thought life and at the same time continue to pray about negative thoughts as they arise.
Several evidence-based studies have shown that prayer is highly effective in traumatized patients and yet government agencies fight tooth and nail to keep faith-based practices and services separate from government sanctioned clinical versions of mental health services.
The Oakland Frontline Healers has formed a Black mental health providers coalition. This group is making great strides to meet the needs of Black clients in non-traditional ways.
Unfortunately, when bills like SB 357 are passed without consideration for these issues and allocating funding to exit services including mental health, we are not able extend these resources to the people who need it the most.
Most of the services that Black people receive are pro bono which is indirectly taking from the Black clinician that has earned their way into this profession but once again cannot serve their own people without going broke.
This vicious cycle of Black people having to make all the sacrificing for our own people must end. It is time for legislators to discontinue using black pain to pass legislation and leave Black people with the bill.
Robust funding of exit services such as mental health, outreach, housing, workforce development is long overdue.
Tanya Dennis is the facilitator for Oakland Frontline Healers and Vanessa Russell is the executive director of Love Never Fails.
Activism
Oakland Post: Week of April 24 – 30, 2024
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of April 24 – 30, 2024
To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.
Alameda County
DA Pamela Price Stands by Mom Who Lost Son to Gun Violence in Oakland
Last week, The Post published a photo showing Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price with Carol Jones, whose son, Patrick DeMarco Scott, was gunned down by an unknown assailant in 2018.
Publisher’s note: Last week, The Post published a photo showing Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price with Carol Jones, whose son, Patrick DeMarco Scott, was gunned down by an unknown assailant in 2018. The photo was too small for readers to see where the women were and what they were doing. Here we show Price and Jones as they complete a walk in memory of Scott. For more information and to contribute, please contact Carol Jones at 510-978-5517 at morefoundation.help@gmail.com. Courtesy photo.
Bay Area
State Controller Malia Cohen Keynote Speaker at S.F. Wealth Conference
California State Controller Malia Cohen delivered the keynote speech to over 50 business women at the Black Wealth Brunch held on March 28 at the War Memorial and Performing Arts Center at 301 Van Ness Ave. in San Francisco. The Enterprising Women Networking SF Chapter of the American Business Women’s Association (ABWA) hosted the Green Room event to launch its platform designed to close the racial wealth gap in Black and Brown communities.
By Carla Thomas
California State Controller Malia Cohen delivered the keynote speech to over 50 business women at the Black Wealth Brunch held on March 28 at the War Memorial and Performing Arts Center at 301 Van Ness Ave. in San Francisco.
The Enterprising Women Networking SF Chapter of the American Business Women’s Association (ABWA) hosted the Green Room event to launch its platform designed to close the racial wealth gap in Black and Brown communities.
“Our goal is to educate Black and Brown families in the masses about financial wellness, wealth building, and how to protect and preserve wealth,” said ABWA San Francisco Chapter President LaRonda Smith.
ABWA’s mission is to bring together businesswomen of diverse occupations and provide opportunities for them to help themselves and others grow personally and professionally through leadership, education, networking support, and national recognition.
“This day is about recognizing influential women, hearing from an accomplished woman as our keynote speaker and allowing women to come together as powerful people,” said ABWA SF Chapter Vice President Velma Landers.
More than 60 attendees dined on the culinary delights of Chef Sharon Lee of The Spot catering, which included a full soul food brunch of skewered shrimp, chicken, blackened salmon, and mac and cheese.
Cohen discussed the many economic disparities women and people of color face. From pay equity to financial literacy, Cohen shared not only statistics, but was excited about a new solution in motion which entailed partnering with Californians for Financial Education.
“I want everyone to reach their full potential,” she said. “Just a few weeks ago in Sacramento, I partnered with an organization, Californians for Financial Education.
“We gathered 990 signatures and submitted it to the [California] Secretary of State to get an initiative on the ballot that guarantees personal finance courses for every public school kid in the state of California.
“Every California student deserves an equal opportunity to learn about filing taxes, interest rates, budgets, and understanding the impact of credit scores. The way we begin to do that is to teach it,” Cohen said.
By equipping students with information, Cohen hopes to close the financial wealth gap, and give everyone an opportunity to reach their full financial potential. “They have to first be equipped with the information and education is the key. Then all we need are opportunities to step into spaces and places of power.”
Cohen went on to share that in her own upbringing, she was not guided on financial principles that could jump start her finances. “Communities of color don’t have the same information and I don’t know about you, but I did not grow up listening to my parents discussing their assets, their investments, and diversifying their portfolio. This is the kind of nomenclature and language we are trying to introduce to our future generations so we can pivot from a life of poverty so we can pivot away and never return to poverty.”
Cohen urged audience members to pass the initiative on the November 2024 ballot.
“When we come together as women, uplift women, and support women, we all win. By networking and learning together, we can continue to build generational wealth,” said Landers. “Passing a powerful initiative will ensure the next generation of California students will be empowered to make more informed financial decisions, decisions that will last them a lifetime.”
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