White Ribbon Campaign

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The White Ribbon Campaign and the Atlanta Massacre
On December 6, 1989, a gunman walked into an engineering school classroom at École Polytechnique in Montreal and murdered 14 women. On March 16, 2021, a gunman walked into three Asian-owned spas and massage parlors in Atlanta and murdered eight victims: Hyun Jung Kim, Suncha Kim, Yong Ae Yue, Xiaojie Tan, Daoyou Feng, Soon Chung Park, Paul Andre Michels, and Delaina Ashley Yaun.

In the École Polytechnique massacre, the perpetrator blamed feminists for his application to the school being rejected and "ruining his life." In the massacre on Tuesday, the perpetrator blamed the women who worked at the spas and massage parlors for being a "temptation" for his self-diagnosed sexual addiction—a form of fetishizing Asian women that's rooted in racism, misogyny, and often anti-immigrant sentiment and classism.

Following the Montreal attack, men founded the White Ribbon Campaign to encourage other men to work to end gender-based violence. Last week's attack targeting Asian women is another tragic call for us to deepen our work.

Hatred builds on hatred. Misogyny and racism overlap and fuel each other. To end domestic and sexual violence, we must also commit to ending racism and all forms of oppression. Read below to learn more about how violence, racism, and other forms of violence intersect and find resources on how to support ending them.
The Deep American Roots of the Atlanta Shootings
In a New York Times op-ed, writer May Jeong traces the history of the stereotype that Asian women are simultaneously hypersexualized and submissive, and how that fetishization leads to violence. From 19th-century Western imperialism, to 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, to the Vietnam and Korean Wars, to Tuesday's attack, Jeong writes: "The Asian woman became an object of hatred, and lust, a thing to loathe, then desire, the distance between yellow peril and yellow fever measured in flashes."

She ends the op-ed by writing, "Georgia reminds us—I hope—that anti-Asian violence is also anti-women violence, anti-poor violence, and anti-sex-work violence, that our fates are entwined, that fighting oppression means fighting oppression not just in one’s own narrowly defined community, but also everywhere."

Read the full op-ed below and see resources to learn more and how to help.
Futures Without Violence: Anti-Racism Resources
Our mission at Vera House is to advocate for all members of our community. In order to do so, it is important to examine how systemic racism and oppression have informed our work in the past. By working to dismantle the white supremacist and racist foundations of the anti-violence moment and in our own work, we strive to create a world free or violence and abuse for everyone.

Futures Without Violence is committed to facilitating these conversations with organizations across the country. The videos below feature advocates and organizers sharing their personal journeys practicing anti-racism and include discussion guides to help facilitate these conversations within your own community.
Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women: MMIWG2S
4 out of 5 Native women are impacted by violence and American Indian women are 10 times more likely to be murdered than the national average. The abuse of Native Americans, particularly Native women and children, dates back to the Spanish and Euro-American invasion of their sacred lands and bodies.

The Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women is working to bring light to MMIWG2S (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Womxn, Girls, and Two-Spirit). Learn more about the scope of the issue and how to get involved below.
Indigenous Ally Toolkit

Read the Indigenous Ally Toolkit from the Montreal Indigenous Community NETWORK to find how to lend your voice, facilitate conversations, and actions you can take today.

Read more
physiotherapy.ca
The Rape of Recy Taylor 
The history of American chattel slavery is not just one of forced labor, but also sexual slavery. Black Americans, especially Black women, have been on the frontlines of working to end violence for centuries. 

On September 3, 1944, Recy Taylor was walking home from church with friends when six white men kidnapped and gang-raped her. She reported the assault and helped identify her rapists, but none were arrested. In response, Rosa Parks, the Montgomery NAACP Secretary, established the Committee for Equal Justice to demand prosecution. In February 1945, an all-white, all-male grand jury refused to indict the perpetrators, even though one had confessed.

Taylor kept speaking out. "I can’t help but tell the truth of what they done to me," she said more than 70 years after the attack. Her courage and pursuit of justice for herself continue to empower survivors and advocates around the world.
Fatal Violence Against the Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Community in 2021
Transgender and gender non-conforming people are facing alarming rates of violence. At least 11 transgender or gender non-conforming people have been fatally shot or killed by other violent means already in 2021. The actual number of victims is likely higher, as many of these crimes go unreported or misreported.

The known victims' names are Tyianna AlexanderSamuel Edmund Damián Valentín, Bianca “Muffin” Bankz, Dominique Jackson, Fifty Bandz, Alexus Braxton, Chyna Carrillo, Jeffrey “JJ” Bright and Jasmine Cannad (who were siblings), Jenna Franks, and Diamond Kyree Sanders. Many of these victims were also people of color, a painful reminder of how transphobia and racism intersect.
So You Want To Fight White Supremacy
After the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, writer Ijeoma Oluo created a list of questions people can use to identify areas where they can dismantle white supremacy in their own lives. The questions are broken out into seven categories: schools, work, money, politics, family, and socially. The article is an excellent introduction to ways to begin to engage in one's own anti-racism work.
So You Want To Fight White Supremacy

There are countless opportunities every day to disrupt white supremacy—especially if you are white. If you need inspiration, here are a few ideas.

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medium.com
"Next Man Up": A Conversation on Masculinity, Health, and Community
Tonight we have one of our final, thought-provoking White Ribbon Campaign events. In partnership with Syracuse University, Vera House is honored to host a conversation on Masculinity, Health, and Community with Don McPherson, Syracuse alum and author of “You Throw Like A Girl: The Blind Spot of Masculinity.” Join us tonight at 7 p.m. on Zoom.