   |
| WLP GHS discussing Step Up campaign |
 | |||
| WLP 2014-2015 |
By Issachar Curbeon
We are
excited about putting together a powerful visual project to spread awareness
about the sexual harassment and verbal abuse young Black women are experiencing
in the LAUSD. The campaign will be developed during January-March 2016 and will include Gardena HS, King-Drew Medical Magnet and Crenshaw HS.
To
provoke conversation In November 2015, during our first session with
Women’s Leadership Project's Women of Color in the U.S. class, we administered a survey to gauge the self-esteem
of the girls in the class. The survey was designed to find out if young women felt safe,
supported and respected on campus.
Unfortunately,
we were not surprised when the survey revealed that more than half of the girls
had been sexually harassed on campus or in their communities; and that more
than half of the class recognized disrespect towards Black girls as a major
issue on campus.
To create a sense of sisterhood among the girls we decided to do an adaptation
of an exercise called Step Forward, Step Back tailored to show them that they
were not alone in their experiences of harassment on campus.
Step
Forward, Step Back is traditionally a privilege exercise where participants
stand in a straight line in the middle of an empty space and respond to
statements about their personal social class experiences. With each true
statement (i.e ‘step forward if your parents went to college) individuals
either step forward representing experiences and circumstances that have
afforded wealth, education, health, and wellbeing; or step backward
representing experiences that frustrate educational, economic and social
advancement.
The
exercise reveals that success in our society is not an equal race, there are in
fact, experiences that marginalized people face due to racism, sexism and
economic inequality that act as major obstacles to resources and opportunities
to succeed.
The campaign will involve the following elements:
Ongoing
Slogan tweets and posts (via
Instagram and Twitter)
·
Descriptions
of forms of sexual harassment
·
Responses
to harassers
·
Images
on street harassment, sexual harassment and sexual violence
·
Stats
on sexual violence affecting Black girls, Latinas and other girls of color
·
Short
video clip observations on what can be done to stop harassment
Short blog articles (via Facebook and
WLP blog)
·
Reflections
on a harassment experience
·
Poems
and spoken word challenging harassment and the responsibility of men/boys to
get involved as allies*
Interviews
I.
February 23-25 (King-Drew Medical
Magnet & GHS)
Hip Hop, Sexual Violence and Sexual
Harassment Forum
·
Student-facilitated discussion on sexual harassment,
sexual violence and media images in hip hop and popular culture
o
Participants:
§ Women’s Leadership Project/Women’s Day
§ Young Male Scholars
§ Media Done Responsibly
II.
February 11-March 10th
Video piece
·
Small
group discussion about images of Black women and women of color in the media
·
One-on-one
interviews about WLP members’ perspectives
·
Whole
group “Step up/Step Back” exercise with filmmaker Elizabeth Bayne
