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How to Solve Domestic Violence: Through the Eyes of Black Men

Systemic racism, a history of racist policies, and racist social structures all contribute to Black women and Black men experiencing intimate partner violence at a disproportionately high rate, according to a 2020 study released by the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV).

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A key to solving domestic violence is the participation of the whole family in the treatment process.
A key to solving domestic violence is the participation of the whole family in the treatment process

By Charlene Muhammad | Special to the Oakland Post

Black male peace advocates working to eradicate domestic violence in their communities say a key solution is providing more education and resources to those who harm their partners, children or others living in their homes.

Systemic racism, a history of racist policies, and racist social structures all contribute to Black women and Black men experiencing intimate partner violence at a disproportionately high rate, according to a 2020 study released by the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV).

That NCADV report found that over 45 % of Black women and over 40 % of Black men have experienced intimate partner physical violence, intimate partner sexual violence or intimate partner stalking in their lifetimes.

Separation is a key to safety and survival, DV experts say, but in some cases, it is only a temporary solution. There are countless stories of women who have filed restraining orders and fled to a safe house with family or friends — sometimes even remote strangers — only to return to toxic environments, where some unfortunately have been killed.

So, advocates feel it is important to increase awareness among males and recruit male allies to become active in making a change.

“That’s one of the things that’s going to be really important in terms of addressing and curbing some of this, other men stepping up to the plate, supporting other men and holding other men accountable to stop the violence by modeling it in on their own lives and through their own behaviors,” said Edward L. Moore, an Oakland-based certified life coach and batterer’s intervention specialist at Men Creating Peace, a community-based organization.

He currently works with Oakland’s violence prevention program helping young men understand how they can avoid domestic violence and intimate partner violence.

“When men do become batters, the approach we take is more punitive,” said Moore, before clarifying that he is not suggesting there shouldn’t be consequences or men shouldn’t be held accountable.

“But the approach has been through a more judicial than social lens,” he observed. “For example, most of the men I get in support groups come through mandatory classes, which feels very punitive to them.”

According to Moore, 85 % of those seeking services are court-ordered and 15 % of them are self-referred – men who have started to feel the impact of their violence and are seeking change. Regardless of race, socio-economic status, background, upbringing, culture or religion, men from all walks of life seek their help, he pointed out.

According to Moore, facilitators do their best to hold batterers accountable, while letting them know they made a mistake that doesn’t necessarily define who they are.

“We really show them not only how to impact themselves, their children, their families, the person that they caused the violence against, but then ultimately, their community,” said Moore.

“The number one thing that gets men’s attention is when I show them how they first of all impact themselves through their violence,” he continued.

His own breakthrough came while incarcerated, during a visit with his own son, who counted the days until they were reunited, and he could freely touch his father’s hand. It also came through reflections on the love of his grandmother. She never drove a car, but had to go miles, then wait in long lines to visit him,” said Moore.

When men join his program, Moore asks them to identify everything they have lost due to their violence. Next, he has them identify what their family and children have lost. Then, he asks them to examine what the person they were violent to lost, and what did their community lose.

“It’s one of the most impactful tools that I’ve used to help men be invested in stopping their own violence,” said Moore.

The men he serves say the biggest thing they need to help make a change is education. Second, they say they need sincere advocates to help hold them accountable.

“Most of the time hurt people hurt people. I often tell the guys the things that happened to you over the course of your life are not your fault, but as an able-bodied adult, it’s your responsibility to get the healing that you need so that you don’t bleed on people that didn’t cut you,” said Moore. “You must temper accountability with compassion, and it’s a delicate dance and you must know when to do which, but both are needed,” he said.

Dr. Aquil Basheer, founder and executive director of the Professional Community Intervention Training Institute (PCITI) – a community-based organization based in Los Angeles – is a certified “violence-intersession, gang-hostility intervention training specialist.”

Basheer has conducted trainings worldwide. Black men who commit acts of domestic violence are attempting to heal themselves, he says.

“When we see traumatized people using what so many of us would consider anti-social means, they’re doing it to get well, using it to try to create some degree of wellness and restoration. Somewhere in the process, they bought into the idea that it was okay,” said Basheer.

According to Basheer, pursuing non-conventional solutions amounts to “thinking systematically.”

“If, in my perception, domestic violence is okay to me, because it creates some degree of wellness and healing for me, I’m going to continue to use it if I have no other options that can give me the same result that the domestic violence is giving me,” Basheer points out.

A key to solving domestic violence is the participation of the whole family in the treatment process, argued Basheer.

The individual cases may differ, and no cookie-cutter approach can be applied, but looking at the root causes, you can find common denominators that help you get to the bottom of the problem among Blacks, Asians, Latinos, and others, Basheer added.

“You’re looking at a perpetuating cycle, where if every individual’s needs and wants are not taken care of, you are going to continue with that broken cycle,” he said.

Nat'l Correspondent for The Final Call Newspaper - Founder-Host- Liberated Sisters on KPFK.org & Liberated Sisters Radio - Wife/Mom/Sister

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Activism

Oakland Post: Week of March 15 – 21, 2023

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of March 15 – 21, 2023

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The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of March 15 - 21, 2023

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.

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Activism

Richmond Promise Scholarship Application Deadline Closes March 17

Qualifying applicants can receive up to $1,500 annually for four years toward their post-secondary educational goals at a two-year or four-year college and/or while pursuing a Career Technical Education Certificate at any not-for-profit institution in the U.S. 

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Scholarships are available for high school graduates who want to go to a two-year or four-year college or a nonprofit vocational/technical school. Photo courtesy of Richmond Promise.
Scholarships are available for high school graduates who want to go to a two-year or four-year college or a nonprofit vocational/technical school. Photo courtesy of Richmond Promise.

Calling all high school seniors from Richmond and North Richmond: The Richmond Promise Scholarship Application period for the 2022-2023 school year closes on Friday, March 17.

High school seniors and GED students under the age of 24 who reside in Richmond and North Richmond and attend public, private, or charter schools in West Contra Costa County are eligible to apply for the scholarship.

Qualifying applicants can receive up to $1,500 annually for four years toward their post-secondary educational goals at a two-year or four-year college and/or while pursuing a Career Technical Education Certificate at any not-for-profit institution in the U.S. 

Students can also petition for an additional two years of extra funding. Throughout the process, the program provides supportive services to participating scholars from high school through college graduation, including support with identifying and applying for financial aid.

Richmond Promise launched in 2016 with a $35 million, 10-year investment by Chevron Richmond. The funds are part of a $90 million community benefits agreement between the City of Richmond and Chevron connected to the $1 billion Refinery Modernization Project.

To apply for the Richmond Promise Scholarship, go to https://richmondpromise.tfaforms.net/81. Need some help? Reach out to Richmond Promise at scholarships@richmondpromise.org. Learn more about the organization https://richmondpromise.org/

Kathy Chouteau contributed to this report

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Bay Area Native Dr. Terri Jett Honored by Indiana’s Butler University

Terri Jett arrived at Butler University in 1999 to begin her teaching career as an assistant professor of Political Science and Peace and Conflict Studies after earning her Ph.D. in Public Policy and Public Administration from Auburn University. Originally from California, Jett was unfamiliar with the Hoosier state, but was drawn to the energy of the faculty and students she met at Butler and the opportunity she saw for connecting her teaching and research with the broader Indianapolis community.

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Dr. Terri Jett poses with Butler Blue, the mascot of Butler University. Photo courtesy of Butler University Stories.
Dr. Terri Jett poses with Butler Blue, the mascot of Butler University. Photo courtesy of Butler University Stories.

By Jennifer Gunnels
Butler University Stories

Bay Area native Terri Jett was received a Distinguished Faculty Award at Indiana’s Butler University.

Terri Jett arrived at Butler University in 1999 to begin her teaching career as an assistant professor of Political Science and Peace and Conflict Studies after earning her Ph.D. in Public Policy and Public Administration from Auburn University.

Originally from California, Jett was unfamiliar with the Hoosier state, but was drawn to the energy of the faculty and students she met at Butler and the opportunity she saw for connecting her teaching and research with the broader Indianapolis community.

More than 20 years later, Jett has excelled at the work she set out to do. Last year, she was named a 2021-22 Distinguished Faculty Award recipient for her profound contributions to Butler University over the course of her career.

In many ways, Jett has been a trailblazer at Butler, including becoming the first Black female to earn tenure, and in 2020 becoming the first Black female to be promoted to full professor. Along with her teaching responsibilities as a member of the faculty, Jett has taken on numerous additional roles over the years including faculty director of the Hub for Black Affairs and Community Engagement (the Hub), member of the Steering Committee of the Race, Gender, Sexuality Studies Program (RGSS), faculty senator, and Faculty Fellow at the Desmond Tutu Peace Lab Think Tank. She also served as Department Chair from 2007-2014, a role she has currently resumed as interim while the current Chair is on sabbatical.

Jett has developed almost two dozen courses — core, departmental, honors, and even taught in our Washington D.C. Semester Program — and is always eager to seize on opportunities to take her students beyond the borders of campus. She has led students on numerous occasions to Selma, Alabama with the Honors course Voting Rights in Black and White: The Case of the Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights March. She says walking across the Edmund Pettus Bridge is always a moving and eye-opening experience for her students that brings the Civil Rights Movement to life in new ways.

Of the many courses she has taught, Jett says one of her favorites to teach is the Politics of Alice Walker, which she teaches nearly every summer. Prior to the pandemic, Jett also offered the course several times at the Indiana Women’s Prison and was able to bring some of her Butler students to visit her class in prison.

Jett is committed to doing good things in the world herself and is known in the Indianapolis community for her service and activism. She currently serves on the board of Indiana Humanities and is appointed by Mayor Joe Hogsett to the Indianapolis Land Improvement Bond Bank Board. She also moderates a series on local PBS station WFYI called Simple Civics, which provides short civics lessons and was nominated for a Great Lakes Region Emmy in 2020 and again in 2021.

Jett says her community activism is inspired in part by a desire to demonstrate how to be an engaged citizen for her students as well as a desire to connect her teaching and research to issues happening within the community.

“And I do it because it’s fulfilling,” she said.

Though Jett has various roles within and outside of Butler, she finds satisfaction in discovering ways to integrate her teaching, research, and service. For instance, her research focuses on agriculture and food justice, and last year she leveraged her area of academic expertise and her role as Faculty Director of the Hub to partner with Indy Women in Food in hosting the organization’s first conference on Butler’s campus focused on food insecurity in the city.

“I’m thrilled when I’m able to do that,” Jett said. “All of the hats that I wear are sort of constantly engaged at the same time, and I like that I get to work like that. I’m not running from one thing to the next, I feel like my work is layered with multiple connection points.”

This article is part of a series honoring the 2021-22 recipients of the Butler University Distinguished Faculty Award. Printed with permission.

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