Transformation_v11.no4.1996.Fall.pdf

Title: Transformation_v11.no4.1996.Fall.pdf
extracted text: Property of the Center

Vol. 11 Issue 4
Fall 1996

Looking Back/Moving On
Suzanne Pharr

BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Juanita Weston - Little Rock
Betty Cole - Colt
Freddie Nixon - Little R~k
Onie Norman - Dumas
Amy Edgington - Little Rock
Euba Harris-Winton - Ft. Smith
Estella Morris - Little Rock
Celia Wildroot - Hot Springs
Annette Shead - Little Rock
Carol Nokes - Little Rock

n September 7, 1996the Women's
Project celebrated 15 years of
working for social justice. Many
of you joined in helping us to celebrate
by attending the wonderful concert
that was presented by Odetta.
In our 15th Year Anniversary Program Book we described the work we
have been involved in for the last 15
years. In this newsletter we wanted
to share some of that same information with you and let you know in
what direction we will be moving in
the future.
This year we are taking stock of our
work, our fundraising capacity, our effectiveness in the community, and the
changes in our society which require
different responses from us.
Over the past 15 years, we have
been working on a project-by-project
basis to keep a progressive agenda
alive in Arkansas, as well as to influence the national progressive agenda.
Consequently, we have worked on a
wide variety of organizing projects (as
described in this newsletter) and,
when other groups have been willing
to take them on, we have moved on
to other things. While being an effective strategy to get "high-risk" projects
such as providng mv/ AIDS training
or confronting rightwing bigots or
working with women in prison to be
considered acceptablein the state, it has
also kept us running in many directions.
At the moment, we are dealing
with two realities: it is more and more

Transformation
Published four times a year
by the Women's Project,
2224 Main Street, Little Rock,
Arkansas, 72206.
Phone: 501-372-5113
Letters to the editor are
welcome.
Editor
Sumnne Pharr
Art Director
MelissaBrittonJames
Women's Project Staff.
Linda Coyle
FeliciaDavidson
Lynn Frost
JanetPerkins

Suzanne Pharr
JudyMatsuoka
SofiaMemon
©1996 The Women'sProject

difficult to raise money to support
these projects which require long
years of work to realize success; and
the needs of the community are changing. The Right's strategy to "defund
the Left" is beginning to be felt and
many organizations who once received government funding are now
seeking those funds from private
foundations and individuals, our major sources of funding.
In light of these two realities we
have examined our work and our effectiveness in the community. We are
proud of our organizing over the years
and feel that some of our most effective work for change has been in helping people understand the interconnection of oppressions and the necessity for oppressed groups to join together to make change. Our strongest
work has been our political education
work, our technical assistance to
struggling groups, and our convening
of groups to work together. This will
be the focus of our work beginning
next year.
Our goal is to create a population
of progressive people who understand
the politics of our time, along with the
interconnectedness
of issues and
people, and are hopeful enough to be
committed to work for social change.
Wewill accomplish this through workshops, trainings, cultural activities and
in other forums designed to build the
skills and strengths of communities
and individuals to make justice for all
a reality.
■

• American Foundation for AIDS
Research

New YorkCity

• AngelinaFund

About th£

I

Wom€n's Proi€ct,

NewYorkCity
, Arkansas Con:m:us-sion on Rape &
Sexual Abuse

five VISTA volunteers, four African American women and two white

• Arkansas Dept. of

women working across the state to provide community education and

Health
• Arkansas Humani-

ties Council
• Astraea Foundation
NewXo/kCity
• Bert & MaryMeyer

Foundation
Orlanilo,FL
• Bydale Foundation
WhitePlains,NY

In 1981, Suzanne Pharr founded the Women's Project with a staff of

self-empowerment to women on a broad range of issues. By the end of
the first year, Reagan-era cutbacks put an end to VISTAand the Women's
Project focused its work on combatting violence against women and children and bringing social and economic justice to all women. By 1987, the
Project had moved into its present quarters at 2224 Main. In 1989,we purchased the building and the adjoining carriage house to help ensure our
stability in the neighborhood. The next year we built a ramp and remodeled the building to open up a large meeting space and make one of the
bathrooms wheelchair-accessible.

• Chicago

ResourceCenter
Chicago,
IL
• Oaretian Social
Development Fund
OakPark,IL
• Combined

Federal Campaign
United Way
Little Rock,AR

In 1991,Janet Perkins became the new director of the Women's Project,
and in 1993, Suzanne Pharr moved to Portland, Oregon and opened a
satellite office of the Women's Project to continue her work against the
right-wing movement on a national level. The Project has remained small,
with no more than five or six paid staff, around 500 members, and over
100 active volunteers, but our vision and our work remain disproportionately large.
We believe that racism, sexism and all other forms of oppression are

• Fund of the Four
Directions

inseparably linked and are rooted in economic and social injustice. It is

New YorkCity_

impossible to eradicate any oppression without tackling them all. We do

• Funding Exchange
NewYorkCity_
• KimberlyCI~rJc
Conway,AR

local, state, regional and national work. Much of our work is educational
and cultural, such as this event tonight. We also give technical assistance
and training to a wide variety of groups. At any one time we have three to
five major projects under way, each lead by a staff member, involving the

2

/

-

• The League to Make
A DifferenceUttle
Rock;AR
• Levi Strauss

LittleRock

• Ms.Foundation
New YorkCity
• The Needmor Fund
Boitlder,CO

many volunteers who give muscle to our work. We organize conferences,
retreats, workshops, and support groups. Our political actions include silent vigils, demonstrations, press-conferences, and testimony before state
and federal c~vilrights committees.
Because we are a small organization with a broad agenda, a major part
of our work involves forming coalitions to address the injustices we· see.
We have worked with and learned from hundreds of groups over the last
fifteen years. We have tried to be a catalyst for the work of others, to develop and strengthen progressive organizations on a local, state, regional
and national level, while we in tum were enriched by their vision and
skills.
Our financial support comes almost equally from individual donors,
memberships, fund-raising events, book and merchandise sales and from
private foundations, churches and other organizations. You will see a
sidebar containing the names of these funders to the left.
On the following pages you will find excerpts from our newsletter, Trans-

formation,.which we hope will illuminate the issues we believe are crucial

• New World
Foundation

New YorkCity
• Oxfam.America

Boston,MA
• Public Welfare

Foundation Washington,DC

• Share Our Strength

Washington,
DC
• Ralph L. Smith
Foundation Portland,
OR
• Threshold
Foundation

SanFrancisco,
CA
• Tides Foundation

SanFrancisco,
CA
• United Methodist
Church

excerpts on each page, you will see a box which contains a list of some of

• Women's BureauU.S.OOL
Dallas,TX

our coalition partners or some of the projects, political actions, educational

• Unitarian Universal-

to the liberation of all women, and indeed, of all people. Following the

and cultural work we have done around those issues. These are necessarily short lists, since it would be impossible to be comprehensive in the
space available here.

W€ hop€ th€s€ poq€s will qiv€ 4ou a qlimps€ ot not just
what W€ do, but wh4 w€ do it.

ist VeatchProgram

Manhasset,
NY
• ValentineFoundation
BrynMawr,PA
• Wmthrop Rockefeller Foundation
Little Rock

3

-

Sofflf:olour
coalition partners:

Local Organizations:

• Advocates for Battered
Women

I.--Our
Vision
ot f'E:mjnism
1

• Arkansas ACLU
• Boys,Girls, &Adults
Community Develop-ment Center, Marvell,
AR

• Arkansas Economic
Coalition
• Arkansas Liberty
Alliance

• Deaf People Against
AIDS/HIV
• Ryan White Center

• AIDSOutreach of
Arkansas
• Arkansas Education
Msodation
• Pfl.AG-Little Rock
Chapter

tions"-Suzanne

Pharr, 1987

During the first and second wave of the women's movement, the media (and
many women) kept focused only on the white middle and upper class women
who were activists, not on women of color, poor women, and lesbians ....The
white women of the first wave have been criticized for their willingness to sacrifice the inclusion of black women in order to gain the inclusion of more white
women and the support of white men in the struggle for the vote.
The second wave, which covers the period from the late sixties until about
1980,has been criticized for its white dominance and its concentration upon the
Equal Rights Amendment and abortion rights and for its middle class goals of
reform rather than radical change. Many people have felt it was characterized
by a desire for making white women equal to white men instead of bringing

• The Parent Center

about liberation and equality for all women.
It sought to place more women in positions traditionally held by men within
a system that continues to oppress women of color, poor women, lesbians, the
differently abled, older women, etc., leaving the traditionally voiceless and under-represented at the bottom of an economic system that thrives on their labor.
What has gone unnoticed by the media-and by many mainstream feministsis that there is a growing swell of a third wave of the women's movement that is

• Diamond State Rodeo
Assoc.

making connections among all women and therefore among all oppressions,
nationally and internationally, and is looking at liberation in a much more all-

• Dignity of Little Rock

encompassing way than before. This movement is made up of battered women,
lesbians, poor women, old women, prostitutes, differently abled women who

• Arkansas NOW
• Arkansas Dept. of
Correction
• GLAAD-Little Rock
Chapter

• Brotha's & Sista's
• RAPPS

• Jewish Federation of
Little Rock
• Mainstream & ADAPT
• Nat'l. Conferenceof
Christians &JewsLlttleRock
• Arkansas Coalition for
Choice

4

"The Third Wave of the Women's Movement: Making the Connec-

see that the majority of the world's women suffer from more than one oppression and that all of these oppressions are connected .... It sees no single issues.
This movement sees no one group or type of woman as being more acceptable than others. It works for the empowerment of individuals, for the development of real coalitions, for a new distribution of resources, for shared ownership
and decision-making, for peace in the home and in the world. It is a movement
of high energy, of great struggle, and of extraordinary commitment and hope. It
works not for integration of women into an oppressive system but for the deep
lasting chanq€ that will brinq social justic€ and t:qualih.1tor all womt:n.

Thanks to th€s€ VOLUNTEERS
• Planned Parenthood
• Rape Crisis
• Arkansas Coalition
Against Domestic
Violence

• Advocates for Battered
Women
• Arkansas Dept .of Health

• Arkansas AIDS Brigade
•RAIN

• Black Female Action
• Dermott Concerned
Citizens
• Hispanic Ministries
• Black Community
Developers
• UALR Black Forum
•NAACP
• United Methodist
Women
• Unitarian Universalist
Church

• Center for Democratic
Renewal
• National Coalition
Against Domestic
Violence
• People's Institute for
Survivaland Beyond
• Southerners on New
Ground (SONG)
• Department of Labor,
Women's Bureau
• National Black Women's
Health Network
• Applied Resean:h
Center
• Political Resean:h

Associates
• Center for Constitutional Rights
• Coalition
Dignity

forHuman

• American Friend~
Service Comnuttee

• Congregation B'nai Israel

• Center:, h.1r Dl -.al-I~
Control

• Arkansas Gayand
Lesbian Task Fcin:e

• Hig I· nder Research &
Education Centei:

• Coalition for Education
and Action on Sexual
Issues at Hendrix
College

• Institute tor first
Amendment Studies

• Grassroots Women's

PfOject
• Women Involved in Pamt
lkmomksin the Delta
• Women's Forum for
Economic Development
in Marvell
National Organizations:

• Human Rights CampaignFund
• National Gay& Lesbian
Task Force

• Lambda Legal Defense
& Education Fund
• Nat't. Coalition fot Ule
Defense of Battered
Women
• People foi the
American Way
• Rural Organizing
Project
• Klanwatch
• Urban-Rural Mission
• Western States Center
•WHISPER

for h€lpinqto mak€ our work possibl€:
Frances Pritchett
Andrea Cuchetto
Cindy English
Karen Patton
Dana Shook
Tammy Roberson
Renee Delapp
Dudley
Sofia Memon
Kelly Shinn
Andre Guerrero
Kelly Henry
Charmaine Brooks
Monisa Shackleford
Phoebe Haddad
Kathy Wilkinson
Beverly Nelson
Debbie Hall
Esther Gordon
Dee Dee Green
Kelli Paremba
Elizabeth Fowler
Tammy Bugarin
Carolyn Reed
Jannas Rice
Betty Stephens
Deen Taylor
Denise Dorton
Shayne Cole
James & Susan DeVito
Kathy Wheeler-Scruggs
Jan Baker
Shana Saunders
Henry Lee
Tyra Reid
Nancy Harm
Gary Sullivan
Becca Carey
Anne Jarrard
Kathy Wheeler-Scruggs
Karmen Hopkins
Kathy Lindsey
Ellie Martin
Mattie Mae Rice
Rita Sides
Martha Altom
Jeanette Bell
Sue Brain
Sid Brain
Ernestine Brooks
Carol Brown

Kathy Crone
Frances Dalme
Jean Davenport
Teresa Dairs
Betty Ruth Gilmer
Janet Gilmour
Keith Goza
Danny Dean Harris
Claudia Herren
Mary Holley
Treva Holt
Martha Jane Johnson
Willene Kirkland
Mardell McClurkin
Joy Ramsay
Doris Sandusky
Max Sandusky
Angie Santos
Bill Thomas
Debbie Thomas
Karen Schutte
Doris Sibley
John Silversmith
Gwendolyn Silversmith
Vivian Simindinger
Robbie Stephenson
Celia Sykes
Mary Ann Taft
Lorene Thompson
Ora Lee Torry
Sue Trotter
Helen Vargo
Diane Vogler
Jeanne Whitesell
Donna Davis
Nancy Williams
Mollie Wiseman
Melissa Snow
Tracey Ritchey
Susan Ross
Jane Miles
Viola Meadows
Bobbie Burney
Sylvia Wray
Wanda Anderson
Edgar Anderson
Tom Slinkard
Claudette Ehrhardt
Tom Barth
AnnAdams
Elaine Burns
5

-

How the Women's
Project works to encl

S£xism

sexismond violence
aqainst women:
SouthernTechnical
Assistance Project:
• state-wide and regional
support to 69 battered
women's shelters and rape
crisis programs

aqainst

Vio1€nC€
Wom€n and

and

L===Childr€n---"Hate Violence Against Women" -by

Suzanne Pharr, 1990

Women'sWatchcareNetwork:
• the only US S(OUP that logs
murders of women as
incidents of hate violence

This country minimizes

hate violence

against women because women's lives are not

• Memorial J)ay mock
cemetery on the Women's
Project lawn, mourning
women killed by hate
violence

valued, because, the violence is so commonplace that people become numb to it, because
people do not want to look at the institutions
and systems that support it, and because

• Protest of the release of rape
victim's name in UA dorm
incident, 1991

people do not want to recognize how widespread the hatred is and how many perpetrators there are among

• Training manual for teachers
on child sexual assault

ued that this violence will be eliminated. All of us must stop mini-

• Educational film loan
program

mizing this violence against women. We must bring it to the fore-

• Educational bookmarks
distributed to schools

front of our social consciousness and name it for what it is: not the

• Conference on teen dating
violence
• National conference at Blue
Mountain Center on '' A
Working Dialogue on
Violence Against Women"
• Support group for adult
survivors of incest
• Worked with the National
Coalition Against Domestic
V10lenceto address the issue
of lesbian battering
• Women's Wall of Honor:
commemorative tiles that
salute women who ~ye
·been a ~jot influence in the
donors' lives

6

us on every level of society. It is only when women's lives are val-

gentler, less descriptive words such as family violence, or domestic violence, or wife or spouse abuse, or sexual assault, but hate
violence ... It does not erupt naturally or by chance from the domesticity of our lives; it comes from a climate of woman hating.
We must create a society that does not give men permission to
rape and kill women. We all must believe that women's lives are
as important as the lives of men. If we created a memorial to the
women dead from this war against them-just over the past decade-our

memorial would rest next to the Vietnam Memorial in

Washington in numbers and human loss to this nation.

Th€ massacre must €nd.

Commentsbij

----Wom€n in

DeidraGadd'-'

~--Prison
"Supporting
Lobel,

Women's

Efforts

To

Take

Control

Of

Their

Lives"

-by

Kerry

1991

For me, prison work raises two important questions-one

moral and one prac-

tical. First, are we directly or indirectly treating the women with whom we work
as "our" property? And secondly, are we involving prisoners in planning and
implementing an agenda that works for them?
The women as "property" notion is easily illustrated. In many states, for example, if a woman spends time in the sun and becomes sunburned and unable to
work, she could get a reprimand because she has damaged state property. If a
woman gets a jailhouse tattoo, or in any way changes her physical appearance,
she can be reprimanded or disciplined because she has altered state property. The
prison advocate perpetuates this notion, too, when she says "my women, my prisoners, my inmates, my girls."
So in our case, as a freeworld person, I work with women inside on a project

and then take our joint work to the Department of Correction. I become intermediary. At any point in this process it would be easy for me to withhold the information that women inside need to do their work. At any point in the process it
would be less time consuming for me to act on my own. But I have also come to
realize that with information comes involvement and ownership. I do not own
our prison work. To the extent that the residents of the prison shape it and guide
it, it is theirs. A.nd,th€r€ is pr€cious littl€ that is th€irs within that s4st€m.

Som€ of our work in th£ prisons:
• Staff have led weekly battered women's group for nearly 7 years.
• MIWATCH program pairs children who are unable to visit their
mothers with volunteers who transport them for monthly visits.
• Retreats for these children and their caregivers.
• Parenting groups for inmates.
• Non-traditional jobs training.
• Advocacy for individual inmates.
• Support for formerly incarcerated women.
• Collaborated on "Second Genesis,"half-way house for incarcerated women.

''
lhavebeena
member of the Battered
Women's Group within
the Arkansas Department of Corrections [at
the Women's Unit in
Pine Bluff]for over a
year;... The Battered
Women's Group here
has become a haven
and a beacon for many.
I have watched women
come and go but for
those of us who have
held on for the stretch
the blooming begins
and continues, because
once you have had a
taste of your own God
given rights, it's very
difficultto pretend you
do not have any
because now you know
the truth.:
It is not okay or
acceptablethe deplorable way that our
judicial system handles
domestic violence. They
attempt to sweep it up
under the rug with the
other issues that do not
have any thing to do
with the impediment of
the rights of the white
male. That's j1,1Stthe
way it is, but through
the love and assertiveness of Women,
ALL WOMEN, we can
rwtke some serious
changes happen. We
already have! , ,

7

-

Somcotour

HIV/AIDS
prevention
work:
• HIV/ AIDS training
for inmate peer
counselors in the
Women's Unit at
the Deparbnen.t of
Corrections
• Preparation of

mv/ A.IDstraining manual by
inmates
• Volunteers have
gone into the streets
to give AIDS education and safe sex
kits to prostitutes
and IV drug users
• Volunteers have
taken AIDS education and safe sex
kits to manylocal
beauty parlors
serving African
American women
• Volunteers host
houseparties to
introduce lesbians
to safe sex educa*
tion
• Helped organize
DiningOut for
AIDS

• Campus AIDS
awareness training
at Philander Smith,
UALR, and Shorter
College
• HIV/ AIDS and
safer sex awareness
classes in Lake
Village, Dermott,
Eudora, Marvell,
Marianna, Holly
Grove and Helena

8

HIV and AIDS S€rViC€S
in Und€r-s€rv€d

======Communiti€s
"Women, Incarceration and AIDS" -by

Cindy Haltom-Fox, 1993

I've been teaching HN / AIDS classes for over two years now and as of this
date, over 308 women have completed the four-hour course. 1n addition, two
more 19-hour workshops have been conducted, and a total of 54 women received
their certification in HNI AIDS counseling. We have established a program that
ensures that an inmate certified through the Arkansas Department of Health is
situated in every unit on the compound in order to provide ongoing education
and counseling to the inmates living there.
Kerry and I have co-authored a book, "HN, AIDS and Reproductive Health:
A Peer Trainer's Guide, which was funded by grants from the Arkansas Department of Health, the American Foundation for AIDS Research (AMFAR) and INSURE. We are giving the manual our own personal test drive - our newly-certified counselors each received a copy, and are using it to guide them in conducting
their own monthly classes. The book has exceeded our expectations in providing
the information and format necessary in order to establish a structured class on
HNI AIDS and STDs. We hope and pray that this manual will be eventually
distributed to every penal institution in the U.S.
The women on the compound are no longer afraid. Concerned, yes, passionate, yes, but we are no longer paranoid, suspicious or misinformed. There is peace
of mind that comes with this confidence in our roles ....
Joyce Copely put it vey nicely when she said, "I have learned how the AIDS
virus got transmitted and hopefully with what I've learned, I can help some of the
younger kids understand about AIDS and what to use to keep themselves safe
and healthy ....! also know what to use myself." Knowing how to protect ourselves
is the first step; once we realize that its our own actions that put us at risk, we are
granted that very rare and precious sense of control that is so hard to have in here.
....Being incarcerated doesn't mean we must be ignorant of an issue that affects the entire human race. We belong. We have the power to make a change, to
protect ourselves and others, to help in any way we can.

That tE:E:ls
qood.

Property of the Center

~ Th€

Riqht Winq

Mov£m£nt and
--Hat€
Vio1£mc£
"An Open Letter to the Conservative Right" -by

Suzanne Pharr, 1990

It seems to me that you're always talking about wanting to save the "unborn
child." Well, what about the children already born and those policies you promote and support that lead to their early deaths or diminished lives because of

How the Women's
Project Hqhts
riqht-winqCldiVtt4
and hate violence;
• The Women's Watchcare Network: a statewide volunteer network
monitors incidents of
hate violence against
women, people oicolor,
Catholics and Jgws,
lesbians and gaymen
and the activities of
white supremacist
groups and individuals

poverty? What about the regulation of greed that leads to poverty for the many

• Local and statewide
training conferencesfor
Watchcarevolunteers

and obscene wealth for the few? I believe you are the fellows who scream about
no new taxes for the rich, "read my lips", and then seek a balanced budget by

• Worked with AETNon
hate violence documen-

cutting benefits to the elderly, assistance to farmers, and social programs that
provide that fine, vulnerable screen that keeps most people in this country
from falling off the edge into total disaster. You're the same ones who supported the deregulation of the airlines and jumped transportation prices out of
sight, the deregulation of the S&Ls that promoted so much unbridled greed
that the taxpayer is now sacked with a bill in excess of $100 billion. You support our entrance into Saudi Arabia, and this bogus war for oil and greed will
quite likely end up taking the lives of countless adults and children, along
with depleting the monies here at home that help keep people alive. And you
continue to fight a national health care bill that would ensure the health of
children and adults who cannot afford to purchase the high free market rate of
competitive health care.
Why are you not roaring with rage from every pulpit and from every
politician's favorite media spot about the destruction of women's lives through
battering, rape, incest, and murder? ....Why are you not insisting upon such a
high taxation for U.S. companies exploiting cheap labor overseas that those companies would willingly return to this country and institute fair labor practices
and provide decent employment for the increasingly underemployed here? ....
Why aren't you crying out for free pre-natal care, child care and health
care for all our people so the children born into this world could have a chance
to live productive lives? And if you are so obsessively focused on abortion,
wh4 don't 4ou work on pr€v€ntion and fiqht lik€ h€1lfor th€ d€v€lopm€nt of simpl€, df€ctiv€, acc€ssib1€ birth control for both m€n and
wom€n?

tary
• Communityeducation
meetirlgs on the rightwing al college campus~ throughout
Arkansas and elsewhere

• Keynotespeechei, on
hate violence across the
state arid nation
• National gatherings of
leadets working against
the right wing
• Workshops on the rightwing at NGLTFCreating CijangeCom~~
ences,the National
Lesbian Conference and
i;n,an,tmpi:e

• Suzanne Pharr participateft with Oregon
Coalition for Human
Pignity and the Lesbian
C~unity
PrQjectin
the No on Nine campaignro Oregon
• Publication of ln the
Time of the Right: Re•
flectio,ason Libera#on
by$uzamePharrml996

9

-

How we work to

cndradsm
• The AfricanAmerican Institute
for SocialJustice
seeks to empower
AfricanAmerican
women to take
control of their lives
and bring justice to
.our communiti s

Racismand Vio1€nce
aqain st P€op1€
of Color
"African-American Women's Self-Empowerment''-by Janet Perkins, 1992

African-American women have struggled since the very beginning to

• Researchproject on
the impact of racism
on jobs, education and
housing

be recognized just as human beings ...To some we were and still are akin to
work animals- much like the ox, mule or plough horse. We are recognized for being strong, healthy and producers of many babies for labor,
which is either free or cheap. African-American women have always been

• Monthly discussion
groups

seen as being able to work long hours with little rest, requiring very little
to survive and always being available to tok€ car€ ot th€ n€€ds ot oth€rs.

• Two state conferences
for AfricanAmerican
Women and Oilldren

"Cultural Imperialism" -by

• Conferencefor African
American Mothers
artd Daughters

I hardly ever see positive images of myself as a dark-skinned, broad-

nosed, full-lipped, big-hipped, nappy-headed African-American woman

• North/South Grassroots Dialogueon
Drug Issues

affirmed. I can barely contain my rage when I think about all the little
black girls in America who daily watch TV looking for images of themselves and instead only witness black people who look white, black people

• Support group for
AfricanAmerican
TeenageWomen at
Central High

who look nothing like the people in their families and neighborhood ....
Making these admissions was not easy. I debated whether I should expose my self-doubt, especially to white women. But I decided that my
sisters would benefit from reading about my/ our pain in hopes of beginning to heal and develop self-love, and that white women would develop
a more profound understanding of what racism dOE:sto its victims.

• Petition drive with
NAACPin Warren,
Arkansas
• Press conference
demanding a new
trial for convicted
rapist Ba.tryLee
Fairchild

"In Danger: African-American Youth"-by Janet Perkins, 1990

When the savings and loan crisis was made public, I can't remember one
news report that deemed the situation unsolvable. On the heels of making
us aware of the crisis came the information that it would cost each American approximately $2,000per year to bail the savings and loans out. Why is
it that some problems have solutions and others don't? Why is it that poli-

• Counter-demonstrations against the KIan
• Protests against white
supremacists Thont
Robb,Richard Barrett
and David Duke

cies can be made to aid foreign countries much swifter than strategies and
commibnents to improvinq tht: qualih,1of lift: for African-Amt:ricans?
I

10

Kelly Mitchell-Clark, 1990

-=--==::::are

----Social

~~

Justic£
"Living in Arkansas as a Jewish Woman" -by Kerry Lobel, 1991

When I moved to Arkansas 6-1/2 years ago, I was struck with how pervasive the influence of Church was on most everyone I met. Church and
Christianity were everywhere. Meetings began and ended with prayers.
Assumptions were made that everyone is Protestant. At my first meetings
with many stx:angers, I was often asked, "What Church do you go to? I then

-

How the Women's
Project works for
soc:ioljustice:
• The SocialJustice Project
has presented hundreds of
workshops on racism, sexi$n\ homophobia, and
internalized homophobia
in40states

• A conferenceof 50 African
American women and 50
white women formulated
an ArkansasWomen's
Agenda for SocialJustice

had met. During my years here I have heard these phrases: You don't look

• The Lesbian Network, a
social and discussion
group

Jewish, You Jews are so good with money, and occasionally people have
asked where I hid my tail and horns. All myths and stereotypes ....

• Protest of the release of
names of men arrested in

would explain that I was a Jew. For many people, I was the first Jew they

But it is not these incidents which cause the deepest injury. It is the damage done every day by living in a culture that does not recognize your existence - that holds you invisible. That sees the space that you occupy, but
doesn't understand what moves you. That does not celebrate your holidays,
know your history, or recognize your writers. That because it holds your
full self invisible, can never see you. Can never see what hurts you. And in

th€ €nd, not know how to 1ov€4ou.

"Toward a Concept of Wholeness" -by

Suzanne Pharr, 1988

Society's treatment of lesbians and gay men displays so very clearly the
controls and limits placed on a particular group's ability to achieve wholeness. It says to a lesbian or gay man, as long as you are self-negating and act
without wholeness, without integrity, we will accept you. As long as you
hide who you are as a human being, the truth of your reality, we will accept
you. On the other hand, if you act with integrity and wholeness, if you are
open about your life and let us know you are a lesbian or a gay man, we will
punish you by taking your job and economic survival from you, by taking
your children and access to other children from you, by limiting housing,
health care and insurance, by providing you no legal protection, by attacking your credibility and your character, b4 isolatinq 4ou within 4our

communih.,, or b4 thr€at€ninq 4our lit€.

BoylePark
• Testimonybefore Arkansas Advisory Committee
to theu.s Commission on
Civil Rights on civil rights
for lesbians and gay men
• Prote.t calling for Bishop
McDonald to oppose the
Vatican'sstand against
civil rigl)ts for lesbians
andgaymen
• Pro-Choice"Die-in"at the
NatlonalLifeChain in
Little Rock
• Counter-demonstrations
to.oppose Rev. Otwell and
his God Said Ministries
• Clinic defense against
Operation Rescue
• Publicationof Homophobia:
a WeaponofSexism(1988),
by SuzaxmePham used in
classroomsat over 150
collegesand universities,
now in its 6th printing
(28,000 copies)

11

-

Howwcwork
for economic
justice:
• The Economic
Justice Project
educates and
empowers women
about economic
issues

t.
~us 1c€

£conomic,

"Enough Blame to Go Around, Or Recycling the Poor" -by Janet Perkins, 1994
I agree that welfare has outlived its intended purpose and it is time for some changes
to occur, but the motivation behind the changes can't be driven by seeing welfare

• Women :inKontraditional Jub::;

recipients as scum and unfit animals who we are tired of supporting. The motivation
for welfare reform must be that each human being in this world has value, deserves

Research Project

to be treated decently with respect and no one in this country should be poor. Along

• Womenand Work:
Breakingthe

with making changes in the welfare system, measures should be taken to restructure

Barriers: m•cr 500

women nit:i:i 't!d
informationabout
non-tT.il itinnal
jub~; 132 participant~ cnmpletcd
job !>kilLtraining

large corporations and the government which plays a major role in making it im-

possiblE:for pE:oplE:
not to bE:poor.
"Trying to Walk the Talk" -by

Suzanne Pharr, 1996

Much of our political analysis is focused on economics as the root source of inequality, and we have seen it at work everywhere. Daily, we witness women unable
to leave their batterers because they cannot afford to feed their children. We witness

• Poultry Project;
research on
conditions jn the
poultry indU!>try
in Northwest

Arkansas
• Fuod bank projt!<t
in Marianna

• Servedon the

boardof.the
Southea t
Women's Employment Coalitit'ln
and a founding
member of the
Arkansa:!.'

~\'omen's Economic Ce1alition

• The Facesot,
J•or;,~rty: lVomen

& Children in
Arkansas--a.
conferencewith
k.eynotl." speaker,

Or. J,,celyn Elders

12

people condemned because of their poverty. We see the poverty of people of color
viewed as an indication of their lack of value in society. Hence, we decided to address
the internal issue of economics first. We pay everyone at the Women's Project the
same salary, no matter what job she does, and no matter how long she has worked
there. At any time we have only four to five full-time employees, and pay others such
as a bookkeeper, child care providers, and newsletter designers on an hourly basis at
the same rate the full-time staff is paid. Longevity is rewarded with other forms of
compensation: a month yearly vacation after two years of employment; a retirement
pension after five years; five months paid sabbatical after every five years worked.
We believe that an hour of one woman working as hard as she is able is equal to
another woman's working hard, no matter what the task at hand: whether it is writing funding proposals, providing care for children, giving speeches, clipping newspaper articles and logging violence, or cleaning the office.
I am often told that such a pay structure could work only in such a small place.
Perhaps so, but ...larger organizations could create a policy to allow no more than a
20% differential between the highest paid employees and the lowest paid. If we do
not do this, then the structure of our social change organizations reflects the economic pyramid of this country. Those at the apex (the fewest) make the most money
and have the most power (control of decision making and distribution of resources).
Accountability is vertical rather than horizontal. Thos€ at th€ bottom mak€ th€

lE:astand or€ not allowE:dto takE:part in th€ dE:cisionsthat aftE:ctthE:ir livE:s
and th€ lit€ of th€ orqanization and its constituE:nc4.

Education,
Communication
and

Cultur€

"Growing Up With Racism"-by Amy Edgington, 1996

Feeling at a soul level my indebtedness to African Americans has allowed
me to know how much I need people of color as my allies in this world and to
care enough about what happens to them to risk my safety and privilege.
Caring me~s going back to school, because being white has meant never needing to think about race, being sure that my view of the world meant "reality",
tuning out the feelings, culture and experiences of people of color. As one
way of learning, I have immersed myself for the last ten years in fiction; poetry and biographies by people of color, particularly African American women.
This literature is kitchen table talk brought to a high art form. It speaks to me
with an intimacy that few people of color can risk with me in person. It has
been a fountain of wisdom that allows me to begin to appreciate both what we
have in common and the various, unique flavors of African American life.
This literature delights while it educates, but it does not romanticize. The
myth that oppression makes people noble pervades our society .... African
American literature brings home the truth: racism wounds and scars people,
including those who manage to survive and even thrive. It is interesting to me
to see the amount of attention paid in our popular culture to the lifelong damage individuals suffer from such traumas as incest, child abuse, neglect, rape,
and battering. I am glad notice is finally being given to these issues. But I
would also like to see our culture acknowledge that racism, although different, is surely as devastating, particularly when combined with the horrors of
poverty. How, exactly, is a person of color supposed to escape a dysfunctional
relationship with white society? Where can one go to recover from racist abuse
that never stops? African American literature makes it clear that people behave nobly, when they do, at great cost and in spite of injury, not because of it.
I am glad that oppression does not ennoble us. If racism were about turning
people into saints, why would we want to stop it?
No amount of reading could teach me to know racism from the inside. People
of color will always be the experts and the leaders on this issue. As a white
person I've been taught that the only worthy results are those that surpass
others. To devote mvself to understanding racism and pursuing justice, when
I am guaranteed never to reach the top, flies in the face of conditioning, but it
fills other needs: not to be the best at others' expense, but to do better by everyone; to contribute through action, instead of profiting by doing nothing.
As I do so, I become smarter and tougher in my struggles as a woman, a lesbian, a person with disabilities. And I qoin pow€rfu1o1Ji€S.

-

Someof the

culturalwork we
use to communi-

cate and educate:
• Lending library of
over 4000 books,
periodicals, audio
and videotapes by
women and people of
color
• Transjo,mation
Newsletter

• Bookstore specializing
in materials of interest
to feminists, African
Americans, women of
colot, lesbians and gay

men
• State-wide film loan
library specializing in
films on economic
issues and sexual
assault
• Out and About Project
mails videos and
books to gay and
lesbian groups around
the state
• Lectures by Barbara
Smith, Maria Theresa
Tula,Leslie Feinberg
and others
• Workshops, panels,
and discussion groups
• Concerts by JaneSapp,
Gayle Marie,
Casselber.-yand
Dupree, Sweet Honey
in the Rock, and
Odetta
• Two cultural festivals
• Women's Coffee
House
• 2 "Reel Women" Film
Festivals

13

Wishlist
Another way to help the work of the Women's Project is by donating much needed supplies and
equipment. These tax deductible gifts will facilitate our work while reducing our operating expenses.
Needed items include:
Office Supplies
• photocopier paper
• black pens and markers
• red pens and markers
• Post-It Notes
• manila file folders
• 8-1/2 x 11 inch writing pads
• 9x12 mailing envelopes
• double density
3.5 inch diskettes
• 3.5 inch diskette
storage boxes
• Royal Alpha 6000
typewriter

• box sealing tape
• Imagewriter printer ribbons
• Apple laser printer cartridges

For the Library
• bookcases
• gently used books
For Meetings and Events
• flip charts
• serving platters
• serving bowls
• serving utensils
• conference room chairs

For MIWatch Program
• infant and child car seats
For Accessibility
• raised toilet seat
• doorbell on ramp
For Marianna ,------~
Food Bank
• Macintosh
computer &
printer

The

American Civil Liberties Union
ofAr~ansas
invites 4ou to attend our

•••
••
••
••
••
•

••
••
••

CONGRATULATIONS

•

1996

Banquet

honoring

CivilLbe,fa,lanofthe Vea,

to form€r Staff M€mb€r
KERRY LOBEL

<!!Jre88ie@lvixon
with

on being named the new
Executive Director of the National
Gay and Lesbian Task Force
Kerry was a lead organizer at
the Women's Project from 1985
through 1994. She takes over the helm
at NGLTF on December 1, 1996.
••

Good luck K€rr4,
and W€ miss 4ou!
14

••
••
••
•

featured speakeP

Wednesdo~,
October30, 1996
NorthOaksEventCenter
Coclloils of 6
Dinner of 7

$75
($56.25

per person
fox..Jeduclible)

Property of the Center

"Hotne for the Holidays"
An International Celebration
of Holiday Decoration

.,.
N oveinber 3rd
Noon- 6:00
Excelsior Hotel
Noon -2:00 Craft fair
2:00 - 4:00 Friday's Flowers esents
"Decorating your home or t
a presentation by Litt Rock's top
4:00 - 6:00 Silent auction, drinks & ho

''Home for the Holiday's" is a fundraising event for the Women's Project
sponsored by Friends of the Women's Project and Friday's Flowers

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I cannot attend but would like to support The Women's
Project with my tax-free contribution of$ ___ .
Mail to 2224 Main, Little Rock, AR 72206
15

Women's
Project

Non-Profit Organization
U.S. Postage Paid
Little Rock, Arkansas
Permit No. 448

2224 Main Street
Little Rock, AR 72206
ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED

rlERLAND
SISTER RES.
231::.: NW39TH

OKLAHOMA
CITY Ok 73112

Part of Transformation : v.11:no.4(1996:Fall)