save-wiyabi-project

[save-wiyabi-project]

Criminal Justice 2016: VAWA and Mass Incarceration

The 2016 Election Season has been an important one for addressing mass incarceration, state violence, racial profiling, and police killings. Thanks to many amazing activists, organizers, writers, and educators we have national attention on the problems of the criminal justice system.

The state of that system finds many of its roots in 1994, when the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, also known as the Crime Bill, passed. This was the largest piece of anti-crime legislation in United States history, directly paving the way for the disastrous War on Drugs, the strengthening of a racist Prison Industrial Complex, and the continued militarization of the police force. We are now privy to the fact that a carceral state, and the criminalization of drug use and poverty, doesn’t alleviate social ills; it further unfairly punishes people and breaks up communities.

On a national scale, what has been mostly absent during the campaigns thus far is the realization that the Crime Bill is as much a gender issue as it is a racial one, especially at the intersection of race and gender: in fact, a key provision of this anti-crime law was the introduction of the Violence Against Women Act, hailed as one of the most important pieces of federal legislation to address violence against women. And what is left out in our mainstream discussions of mass incarceration is that the policies which have bolstered more policing, prisons, detention centers, and harsher sentences, have largely backfired on women. Women of color have become the fastest growing prison population to the tune of a 800% increase since these severe anti-crime/poverty/drug strategies took effect.

Introduced under the pretext of “protecting women,” mandatory and dual arrest, failure to protect, and mandatory minimum sentences have all negatively affected battered women and threatened women’s ability to self-defend. By making arrest, criminal charges, separation of the family, and loss of home and income the consequences of calling self defense -- or even calling for help -- we put victims of domestic violence at further risk of harm and even death. Meanwhile, the introduced (and continually reinforced) anti-sex and human trafficking portions of the Crime Bill have disproportionately harmed voluntary sex workers, while doing little to solve the issues facing actually sex-trafficked women and young girls. And we now have more women, especially women of color, in the prison population than ever before.

The discussion on the legal system needs to be focused on these strategies if we are to achieve any justice. We call on the candidates and voters in our concerns about mass incarceration and that we need to also see and center how it has specifically harmed women.

Decolonizing the Anti-Violence Movement: VAWA and How Anti-Violence Has Backfired http://save-wiyabi-project.tumblr.com/post/99990469876/decolonizing-the-anti-violence-movement-and

Decolonizing the Anti-Violence Movement: Overview http://save-wiyabi-project.tumblr.com/post/84750719041/decolonizing-the-anti-violence-movement-an

[save-wiyabi-project]

This year at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas we will be presenting on a panel called "Technicians of the Sacred" about our use of digital feminism and technology to address violence against women and girls. This will be during the SXSW Interactive week. Part of the presentation will include the re-launch of our updated and revitalized map and database of missing and murdered Indigenous women, which we've been working hard on re-designing and expanding. [To see part of the map & database, which is currently under construction, please visit: missingsisters.crowdmap.com] If you are attending SXSW make sure to come see us on our panel! Additionally we are beginning to plan and grow our educational efforts again, particularly for the upcoming Sexual Assault Awareness Month in April. If you'd like to support these efforts, especially assisting in us getting to SXSW in Austin, you can donate and support here: http://save-wiyabi-project.tumblr.com/donate We are not a 501c3, all of our work is grassroots and community-based, so any and all contributions are very much appreciated. Thank you!

[save-wiyabi-project]

Today is Valentine's Day, it is also the day to honor the lives of missing and murdered Indigenous women. There are marches, teach-ins, vigils, and other memorial events happening today across Canada and the United States. We are excited to contribute with a Twitter chat called #HowWeDisappear, beginning at 11 am EST.

For an outline to the conversation, which is expanding our ideas and framework of what we mean by "missing" and "disappearance", please check out our outline, readings, and join us during the chat.

Missing in Life, Missing in Death PDF: http://freepdfhosting.com/562aa66185.pdf

[save-wiyabi-project]

On Saturday, February 14 please join us for a Twitter chat, and an in-person teach-in at the Yale University. The Twitter chat will start at 11am EST and the teach-in will be at 3pm-5pm at the Native American Cultural Center (26 High Street, New Haven, Connecticut).

Both events will take place as it is the annual day to honor missing and murdered Indigenous women, and they are to coincide with the memorial marches that take place across Canada. We are very honored to continue the conversation and work across the continent, as this type of violence and category of femicide is prevalent across the continent. We will also to continue to discuss all of the levels and forms of erasure Indigenous [and Black, Indigenous] women experience outside of physical acts of violence.

Please join us for Missing in Life, Missing in Death: #HowWeDisappear both online and in-person.

[save-wiyabi-project]

My culture tells me that pride has what kept our culture thriving through colonization and occupation. Pride for our language, our people, our customs. And, yes, pride has indeed helped preserve our language and our way of life for thousands of years. There is no doubt of this. But pride has also...

[save-wiyabi-project]

Pocket these 10 for vacation reading!

1.THE ABORTION MINISTRY OF DR. WILLIE PARKER, John H. Richardson

This quote is from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Lutheran pastor who wrestled with “Thou shalt not kill” before joining a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, and I found in this...

[save-wiyabi-project]

Pocket these 10 for vacation reading!

1.THE ABORTION MINISTRY OF DR. WILLIE PARKER, John H. Richardson

This quote is from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Lutheran pastor who wrestled with “Thou shalt not kill” before joining a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, and I found in this...

[save-wiyabi-project]

As we write this piece, we have to turn our phones on silent to drown out the frenzied buzzing of our inboxes and texts. We’ve gone on strike. It’s not the kind of strike you are used to, like an MTA shutdown or a crowd outside of Walmart with picket signs. We are Black Women, AfroIndigenous and...

[save-wiyabi-project]

For #GivingTuesday fund grassroots work, not the Non-Profit Industrial Complex. You can donate to Save Wiyabi Project here: http://save-wiyabi-project.tumblr.com/donate And you can give to blackfoxx, blackamazon, janetmock, gradientlair, so-treu, and bad-dominicana as listed above.

[save-wiyabi-project]

We along with artist Stormie Perdash are excited to donate beadwork to the freemarissanow campaign and store. The proceeds from this set will go directly to the Marissa Alexander Freedom Fund. If you can't purchase this you can still donate any amount to her campaign. Her upcoming retrial is scheduled to begin December 8th. Please support today! Free Marissa Store: https://www.zibbet.com/freemarissaalexander/native-american-beadwork-lanyard-earrings Direct link to fundraiser: http://gogetfunding.com/project/marissa-alexander-freedom-fundraiser

[save-wiyabi-project]

Decolonizing the Anti-Violence Movement and Domestic Violence Awareness Month Reading List.

  Week 4: The Non-Profit Industrial Complex and Co-Opting of the Movement

1. The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex (in full): http://www.academia.edu/5959367/The_Revolution_Will_Not_Be_Funded_Beyond_the_Non-Profit_Industrial_Complex

2. My Exile From the Anti-Rape and Anti-Domestic Violence Fields  http://www.usprisonculture.com/blog/2012/05/14/my-exile-from-the-anti-rape-the-anti-domestic-violence-fields/

3. Summer School: NPIC, AIC, and co-optation http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7TNxg8cYhBY

4. Summer School: NPIC, AIC, and co-optation pt. 2: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7TNxg8cYhBY

5. The Anti-Violence and the Non-Profit Industrial Complex https://archive.org/details/AndreaSmithTheAntiviolenceMovementAndTheNon-profitIndustrialComplex

6. Government shutdown leaves domestic violence victims stranded http://www.salon.com/2013/10/04/government_shutdown_leaves_domestic_violence_victims_stranded/

7. Disrupting the relationship between the anti-violence movement and the PIC http://www.usprisonculture.com/blog/2012/09/06/guest-post-disrupting-the-relationship-between-the-anti-violence-movement-and-the-pic-by-chez-rump/

8. Disloyal to Feminism: Abuse of Survivors Within the Domestic Violence Shelter System http://eminism.org/readings/pdf-rdg/disloyal.pdf

9. Abusive Power and Control With the Domestic Violence Shelter http://eminism.org/readings/pdf-rdg/wheel-sheet.pdf

10. Chanel: Co-opting feminism at Paris Fashion Week http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/30/chanel-karl-lagerfeld-feminism-paris-fashion-week

11. Women's NGOs Under Conditions of Occupation and War: http://www.solidarity-us.org/node/576

12. How feminism became capitalisms handmaiden - and how to reclaim it http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/14/feminism-capitalist-handmaiden-neoliberal

13. Forget the Foundations http://inthesetimes.com/article/3229/forget_the_foundations

14. Repressing Social Movements http://monthlyreview.org/2013/01/01/repressing-social-movements/

15. Why Misogynists Make Great Informants: How Gender Violence On the Left Enables State Violence In Radical Movements http://inciteblog.wordpress.com/2010/07/15/why-misogynists-make-great-informants-how-gender-violence-on-the-left-enables-state-violence-in-radical-movements/

16. How corporations and spy agencies use "security" to defend profiteering and crush activism http://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2013/nov/28/war-on-democracy-corporations-spy-profit-activism

17. The Facebook Manipulation Study's Mysterious Connection to the Military http://mashable.com/2014/07/02/facebook-study-military-connection/

18. When Feminist Hashtag Activism Goes Corporate http://www.refinery29.com/when-feminist-activism-goes-corporate

19. Raving Amazons: Anti-Blackness and Misogynoir in Social Media http://modelviewculture.com/pieces/raving-amazons-antiblackness-and-misogynoir-in-social-media

20. Everyone Watches, Nobody Sees: How Black Women Disrupt Surveillance Theory http://modelviewculture.com/pieces/everyone-watches-nobody-sees-how-black-women-disrupt-surveillance-theory

21. Hashtags as Decolonial Projects with Radical Origins https://modelviewculture.com/pieces/hashtags-as-decolonial-projects-with-radical-origins

22. In Defense of Twitter Feminism https://modelviewculture.com/pieces/in-defense-of-twitter-feminism

23. Interlopers on Social Media: Feminism, Women of Color, and Opression http://www.usprisonculture.com/blog/2014/01/30/interlopers-on-social-media-feminism-women-of-color-and-oppression/

[save-wiyabi-project]

For the second week we covered childhood abuse and adult survivors, and transformative and victim-centered justice. We looked at non-carceral interventions and how to support people who've been harmed.

[save-wiyabi-project]

Decolonizing the Anti-Violence Movement and Domestic Violence Awareness Month Reading List. Week 3: Free Marissa, VAWA, and How Anti-Violence Backfires 1. #DecolonizeSAAM Week 2: Carcerality and Militarism http://save-wiyabi-project.tumblr.com/post/81986752616/decolonizesaam-week-2-carcerality-and-militarism 2. Marissa Alexander and Mass Incarceration Through Domestic Violence Laws https://storify.com/ChiefElk/marissa-alexander-and-mass-incarceration-through-d 3. No Selves To Defend: A Curriculum for Marissa Alexander Teach-In http://www.usprisonculture.com/blog/2013/09/27/no-selves-to-defend-a-curriculum-for-marissa-alexander-teach-in/ 4. On Marissa Alexander and the Politics of Defenseless Defense http://www.usprisonculture.com/blog/2014/02/11/guest-post-on-marissa-alexander-and-the-politics-of-defenseless-defense/ 5. Making Connections: Domestic Violence <-> Mass Incarceration http://www.freemarissanow.org/october-action.html 6. “The Perfect Victim” A Film About Criminalizing Women Who Fight Back http://www.usprisonculture.com/blog/2013/10/12/the-perfect-victim-a-film-about-criminalizing-women-who-fight-back/ 7. Summer School: #AbuserDynamics - Free Marissa, IVAWA, and the state https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEkvdN0HJVc 8. When anti-violence backfires http://www.salon.com/2012/06/02/when_anti_violence_backfires/ 9. The Protection Battered Spouses Don’t Need http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/07/opinion/07iyengar.html?_r=0 10. The Cost of Mandatory Arrest: 600 Lives a Year http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-cost-of-mandatory-arrest-600-lives-a-year-106884073.html 11. Who’s Failing Whom: A Critical Look At Failure-To-Protect Laws http://www.thelizlibrary.org/liz/fugate.pdf 12. Failure to Protect Laws: Protecting Children or Punishing Mothers? http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/561281 13. An Evaluation of No-Drop Policies: Two Central Values In Conflict https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/199719.pdf 14. VAWA: A Victory for Women - But Which Women? http://inthesetimes.com/article/14668/vawa_a_victory_for_womenbut_which_women#.UTIkcq99RK0.twitter 15. VAWA - A Black Feminist Dissent http://computerblu.tumblr.com/post/38322273971/vawa-a-black-feminist-dissent 16. Gender violence and the prison industrial complex http://www.incite-national.org/page/incite-critical-resistance-statement 17. My Exile from the Anti-Rape & the Anti-Domestic Violence Fileds http://www.usprisonculture.com/blog/2012/05/14/my-exile-from-the-anti-rape-the-anti-domestic-violence-fields/    18. Police domestic violence nearly twice average rate http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Police-domestic-violence-nearly-twice-average-rate-2536928.php 19. Letter to the Anti-Rape Movement http://carceralfeminism.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/lettertoantirapemovement.pdf 20. Restraining orders often slowly or rarely served http://khon2.com/2013/05/22/restraining-orders-often-slowly-or-never-served-2/ 21. Policing Gender http://incite-national.org/page/policing-gender 22. Domestic Violence Awareness Month: Black and Native Women http://www.gradientlair.com/post/65348109628/chief-elk-black-native-women-domestic-violence 23. Arrested Justice at the Experimental Station http://save-wiyabi-project.tumblr.com/post/90087837286/arrested-justice-at-the-experimental-station 24. Protecting Native Mothers and Their Children: A Feminist Lawyering Approach http://web.wmitchell.edu/law-review/wp-content/uploads/Volume40/documents/3.pdf 25. A Victim-Centered Approach To Domestic Violence Against Native Women (Resource Guide For Drafting and Revising Tribal Laws Against DV); http://www.tribal-institute.org/download/DV_Code_Resource_Feb_08.pdf Native Women and State Violence https://www.socialjusticejournal.org/SJEdits/98Edit.html When Prison Abolition Was A Feminist Concern http://www.usprisonculture.com/blog/2013/05/13/when-prison-abolition-was-a-feminist-concern/ 26. Feminism and Abolition Lecture with Angela Davis http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0ieCAUWGnM 27. Repeal Mandatory Minimums: A Racial Justice & Domestic Violence Issue http://www.freemarissanow.org/repeal-mandatory-minimums.html 28. Stop Law Enforcement Violence Toolkit http://incite-national.org/page/stop-law-enforcement-violence-toolkit 29. To Stop Gender Violence, Start Changing The Tune http://www.connectnyc.org/docs/To_Stop_Gender_Violence_-_Andrea_Smith.pdf

[save-wiyabi-project]

Decolonizing the Anti-Violence Movement and Domestic Violence Awareness Month Reading List.

Week 2: Childhood Survivors and Victim-Centered Justice

1. The ways childhood trauma and abuse can affect survivors http://www.asca.org.au/survivors/how-can-abuse-affect-me.aspx 2. The Effects of DV on Children http://www.acadv.org/children.html 3. What Would Make You Believe A Childhood Survivor of Sexual Abuse? http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2014/02/04/make-believe-survivor-childhood-sexual-abuse/ 4. Dehumanization, Disbelief, and Disenfranchisement: Why We Must Believe Survivors http://diannaeanderson.net/blog/2014/2/dehumanization-disbelief-and-disenfranchisement-why-we-must-believe-survivors 5. I Am A False Rape Allegation Statistic http://freethoughtblogs.com/almostdiamonds/2013/08/23/i-am-a-false-rape-allegation-statistic/ 6. 8 Guaranteed Ways to Emotionally Fuck Up Your Kids http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sherrie-campbell-phd/8-guaranteed-ways-to-emotionally-fck-up-your-kids_b_4619389.html 7. On Boarding Schools from the Boarding School Healing Project http://www.academia.edu/1835202/Boarding_Schools_and_Reparations_A_Critical_Appraisal  and Soul Wound http://www.amnestyusa.org/node/87342 8. Victim-Centered Restorative Justice: An Essential Distinction http://justalternatives.org/VCRJ.pdf 9. Transformative Justice and Community Accountability http://www.usprisonculture.com/blog/transformative-justice/ 10. “But What Can I Do?” Helping Victims of Domestic Violence http://literacy.kent.edu/Oasis/abuse/0300-23.pdf 11. Good Practice Guidelines When Supporting a Victim of Domestic Violence and Abuse http://www.safetotalk.org.uk/professionals/good-practice-guidelines-when-supporting-a-victim-of-domestic-violence-and-abuse/ 12. Trauma informed services and care http://www.wcsap.org/sites/wcsap.huang.radicaldesigns.org/files/uploads/resources_publications/special_editions/Trauma-Informed-Advocacy.pdf 13. Childbearing 101 for Abuse Survivors http://www.utne.com/mind-and-body/childbearing-101-for-sexual-abuse-survivors-ze0z1405zhou.aspx#axzz32Nb1ZoNB 14. Why is Victim a Dirty Word? http://thecurvature.com/2008/12/13/why-is-victim-a-dirty-word/ 15. Exploring alternatives to the heteronormative “victim to survivor” discourse http://eminism.org/blog/entry/291 16. Negative survivorship: Reclaiming “Victim” and Embracing Unhealthy Coping http://eminism.org/blog/entry/357 17. Beyond Eve Ensler: What Should Organizing Against Gender Violence Look Like? http://andrea366.wordpress.com/2013/12/13/beyond-eve-ensler-what-should-organizing-against-gender-violence-look-like/ 18. The Revolution Starts At Home http://lgbt.wisc.edu/documents/Revolution-starts-at-home.pdf

[save-wiyabi-project]

Following #DecolonizeSAAM and Sexual Assault Awareness Month we are continuing to decolonize the anti-violence movement for Domestic Violence Awareness Month w/#DecolonizeDVAM. Our goal continues to be to reassess, re-conceptualize, deconstruct, decolonize, and re-center the anti-violence movement.

[save-wiyabi-project]

Decolonizing the Anti-Violence Movement and Domestic Violence Awareness Month Reading List. Week 1: "What is Domestic/Intimate Partner/Relationship Violence? What Are Healthy Relationships?" 1. Violence Breakdown: Understanding Abuser Logic, Tactics, and Behavior: http://save-wiyabi-project.tumblr.com/post/85330036466/violence-breakdown-understanding-abuser-logic 2. Understanding the Nature and Dynamics of Domestic Violence http://www.selfrepresent.mo.gov/file.jsp?id=11251 3. Biderman’s Chart of Coercion http://niastories.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/bidermans_chart_of_coercion.pdf 4. The Violence Matrix http://niastories.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/the-violence-matrix.pdf 5. Sexual Violence in Intimate Partner Relationships http://www.fvrc.org/simplesmall/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Sexual-Violence-Within-Domestic-Violence-Handouts.pdf 6. Reproductive Coercion: Connecting the Dots Between Partner Violence and Unintended Pregnancy https://www.arhp.org/publications-and-resources/contraception-journal/june-2010 7. Domestic Violence and Birth Control Sabotage http://www.impactresearch.org/documents/birthcontrolexecutive.pdf 8. A High-Tech Twist on Abuse: Technology, Intimate Partner Stalking, and Advocacy http://www.mincava.umn.edu/documents/commissioned/stalkingandtech/stalkingandtech.html 9. 15 Signs You Have An Abusive Friend http://thoughtcatalog.com/gaby-dunn/2013/01/15-signs-you-have-an-abusive-friend/ 10. I Was In An Abusive Relationship With My Best Friend http://www.xojane.com/it-happened-to-me/it-happened-to-me-contest-entry-i-was-in-an-abusive-relationship-with-my-best-friend 11. When the Bully Is a Sibling http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/17/when-the-bully-is-a-sibling/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0 12. Is It Romance, Or Stalking? http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2009/07/07/is-it-romance-or-stalking/ 13. On Pop Culture That Romanticizes Unhealthy Relationships http://freethoughtblogs.com/brutereason/2012/12/30/writing-a-better-love-story-on-pop-culture-that-romanticizes-unhealthy-relationships/ 14. Ways We Violate Other People’s Boundaries http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/12/18/4-ways-we-violate-other-peoples-boundaries/ 15. Respecting Boundaries Curriculum http://barcc.org/assets/pdf/respecting_boundaries_curriculum.pdf 16. You Are Allowed To Have Boundaries With Family http://www.baggagereclaim.co.uk/you-are-allowed-to-have-boundaries-with-family/ 17. Navigating Teen Relationships http://idvsa.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/High-School-Parent-Handbook.pdf 18. Intimacy: The Whys, Hows, How-Nots and So-Nots http://www.scarleteen.com/article/politics/intimacy_the_whys_hows_hownots_and_sonots 19. Consent in Long-Term Relationships http://ueafeminism.wordpress.com/2013/10/21/honey-not-tonight-consent-in-long-term-relationships/ 20. Be Your Own Superhero: Learning How and When to Stand Up For Ourselves http://www.scarleteen.com/article/politics/be_your_own_superhero_learning_how_and_when_to_stand_up_for_ourselves 21. Characteristics of Healthy, Functional Romantic Relationships http://www.campbell.edu/pdf/counseling-services/characteristics-of-healthy-romantic-relationships.pdf 22. Personalized Safety Plan http://www.domesticviolence.org/personalized-safety-plan/ 23. The Revolution Starts At Home http://lgbt.wisc.edu/documents/Revolution-starts-at-home.pdf

[save-wiyabi-project]

For Domestic Violence Awareness Month and #DecolonizeDVAM we are having a contest. The winners will receive beadwork (courtesy of Stormie Perdash) featured above. It is an artwork contest and we want you to demonstrate what decolonizing the anti-violence movement means to you. Some of the topics we are going to cover in our teach-in series this month are: Healthy relationships, what DV/IPV is, carcerality and the problems with VAWA, #FreeMarissa, the state and non-profit co-opting of the Battered Women's Movement, and victim-centered/transformative justice. Your art can be digital, graphic, and/or hand-drawn. It can also be in the form of photography. Get creative! You can submit your piece to Save.Wiyabi.Project@Gmail.com and we will be selecting 3 winners. This is contest is open everyone, we cannot wait to see your submissions!