We are lifting up Black women and challenging our community to remember that doing the work of creating racial justice must also include addressing other false hierarchies that are often deeply unconscious in us as individuals and are also cultural, structural, and institutional. We encourage you all to engage with the vast body of work by Black feminists that has been largely buried by both white feminism and by patriarchy and to think more deeply about both gender and racial justice.
After the Buncombe County Domestic Violence Fatality Review Team reported their findings to commissioners on February 1, the YWCA, Faith 4 Justice, and the RJC collaborated with survivors of domestic violence who live at the intersections of racial and gender injustice to develop some requests of our commissioners and we invite you to read the letter yourself, which we will print in full below. We also invite you to reach out to the County Commissioners yourself and express your support for Black victims and survivors of domestic violence. You can email them using this form. Here is some content you can adapt and use as you see fit:
Dear County Commissioners,
I am writing today about the important intersections between racial justice and the need to prevent and address intimate partner violence. I encourage you to listen to the wisdom of survivors of color, and particularly Black women, and to carefully consider the guidance offered by the YWCA, Faith 4 Justice, and the Racial Justice Coalition in their recent letter to you.
Thank you for your service.
In Solidarity,
The RJC Team
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Letter to County Commissioners from YWCA, Faith 4 Justice, and the RJC