 Vivian may I have your attention please I just wanted to let you know that the program will be in English and we will be offering simultaneous translation into Spanish. Let me say that in Spanish que si era anunciarles que todo el programa va a ser en inglés y tenemos interpretación simultánea al español si usted necesita el aparato por favor levante la mano para asegurarnos de que usted tiene su aparato para escuchar toda la presentación en español. Este servicio de interpretación en español es solamente para las personas que están en la sala no para las personas que no están escuchando en la televisión. This service, this simultaneous translation service is only for the audience, the people right here in this room not for the people who are watching us on television. Thank you. Good evening. I bring you greetings on behalf of Mrs. Constance Stansel director of neighborhood improvement services and on behalf of the city staff. My name is Cheryl McDonald and I'm her executive assistant. Welcome to the city of Durham 16th annual Women's Forum. At this time, I will ask the Thomas Mentor Leadership Academy to escort our panelists to their chairs. You will be introduced to our panelists momentarily. In the meantime, please allow me to tell you a little bit about the Thomas Mentor Leadership Academy. They are a nonprofit organization with a mission to empower young males between the ages of nine and fourteen and to become future leaders in their communities. The cadets are challenged and encouraged to make positive decisions are taught methods to resolve conflict and are instilled the value of self respect and respect for others. Escorting our panelists this evening are Cadet Javier Jackson, Cadet Cedric Palmer and Cadet Charles Obey. In a moment, we will acknowledge all of our youth volunteers. I now introduce you to Mayor Pro Tem Jillian Johnson. Good evening everyone. Thank you for being here and welcome to the annual City of Durham Women's Forum. So I'd first like to thank all of our city staff and community members who put in the hard work to make this event possible tonight. Our youth from the Thomas Mentor Academy and especially our moderator and our panelists for sharing their time with us this evening. We are entering an exciting time for women in politics both locally and nationally. Here in Durham, we have a women majority council for the first time. Three of us are black. One is Latina. Two are part of the LGBT community and none of us is over 40. We all have young children under 13. Before joining the City Council, we were all active members of the community working as organizers, teachers, PTA leaders, lawyers, nonprofit workers, and of course, one of some of the most important jobs, parents and homemakers. The Durham County Commission is also majority women and there are two spectacular women representing us in the North Carolina General Assembly. And I believe that these statistics and information prove that Durham really cares about electing and supporting women leaders and they're especially unique and impressive when you think about the national situation for women in politics. So women are only 20 to 25% of elected officials in the United States. There's only six women governors out of 50 states. Of the 100 largest cities in the US, only 22 have women mayors and only seven of those are women of color. So you can see that Durham is in a truly unique position with regard to having women having women in leadership. And women still do the majority of the difficult and critically value reproductive labor of taking care of our homes and families. And in the US, many working mothers return to work after only six weeks of parental leave and that's compared to a year in Canada and 12 weeks in Mexico. We say that women make only 79 cents for every dollar made by men, but for black women, it's really 68 cents. And for Latinas, it's really 62 cents. So we're both Durham is, you know, when you think about the national situation, it's clear how different our city is and how exciting, how exciting our situation are and that we're really leading the way and having women in leadership. But I believe that right now we're in a situation where the situation for women and especially for women in politics is shifting dramatically. And there's a recent article in Politico that tells us this really exciting story about women getting involved in running for election. So a record breaking number of women are running for office this year in the United States. The number of women who had contacted the Office of Emily's List, which is a national organization that helps women run for office, had increased last year by a factor of 22. So from 1,000 inquiries to 22,000 inquiries in a year. And there by in December of 2017, there were 575 women who had already filed to run for US House and Senate races in 2018. So these numbers aren't just large, they're historic for our country. And it's not just in politics. The Me Too movement has removed men from positions of authority, including taking down one of the largest media companies in the United States. And the 2017 Women's March was the largest single one day protest in US history. Had an estimated 5 million attendees worldwide. So though the situation for women is still complex, I think that things are changing. I think we're in a good moment and we can all be a part of making that change happen. So I've talked a lot about politics. So I want to leave you with the words of a woman who is arguably one of the most powerful women in America who has made her name in a very, a very different sort of work. Okay, that wasn't loud enough. Sorry. Thank you everyone for coming and have a great evening. Thank you so much, Mayor Proten, Jillian Johnson. Very happy to have you here. My name is Hilda Gurdian. I am the publisher of La Noticia, the Spanish Language Newspaper. And I'm very happy to be the moderator for the forum this evening. I'd like to start by saying that I'd like to recognize the organizer of this wonderful event, James Davis Jr. And I'd like to say that he is the manager of the City of Durand Neighborhood Improvement Services Human Relations Division. May I ask James Davis Jr. to please stand up to be recognized. Thank you very much. And thank you to every one of you for coming this evening to celebrate the 16th annual Women's Forum. This is the theme of this year, as we have said, is described as follows. Nevertheless, she persisted, honoring women who fight all forms of discrimination against women. That is a very interesting subject. And of course, I must congratulate James Davis for selecting the subject because it is something, a thing that we need to discuss, not just as a forum once a year, but as often as we can because we need to make people aware of discrimination and abuse against women so that we can talk about it, know that it exists, and then hopefully find solutions. I'd like to now introduce, briefly introduce our panelists who are really the protagonists of our forum this evening. This is going to be just a very brief introduction because they are going to speak to us in a few minutes. But right now, I am going to ask you to please stand up to my dear panelists. Please stand up when you hear your name and remain standing until I have called the three names and then we can hold the applause until the end. And then I'd like to start recognizing the first panelist, Commissioner Wendy Jacobs. She is the chair of the Durham Board of County Commissioners. Our second panelist is Dana Mangoon. She is the executive director of the North Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence. And our third panelist is Dr. Yaba Blay. She is then blue and dark chair in political science at North Carolina Central University. Thank you very much. These are three very successful women who are going to share very important information with us in a few minutes. Thank you. Now let me give you a roadmap of what we are going to do this evening. This is like what is the game that we are going to play tonight? Why are we here? Well, I am going to introduce the theme in a little bit. And then our panelists will have their opportunity to make a presentation. After that, we are going to hear from you. So that will be the Q&A session. It will be your opportunity to share your story, share a story of somebody that you know that has faced abuse or discrimination or maybe ask a question. After the Q&A, we are going to go into the reception area. And we are going to have the networking opportunity. And in case you are wondering, yes, we are going to serve food. Okay, so that's how we are going to play the game tonight. Are you ready to play with us? We women have come a long way since the day when we were not allowed to vote or to go to college or to even work. In those days, women were only allowed to work at home, like cooking and cleaning and raising children and looking after the husbands. That was all. But we have come a long way. And there have been many women who have helped us develop and be more successful by being brave, fighting for the rights and doing whatever needed to be done, making sacrifices to realize their dreams. And in doing so, they helped us. They paved the road to success for all of us to follow. Let me show you an example of some of those women, a very small example of some of those women who have contributed to many fields in society, including science, non-profit, government, business, media, many things. Let's see them right now. Just a minute, please. Okay, Amelia Earhart, first woman to as a pilot crossed the Atlantic in an airplane. Francis Perkins served as Secretary of Labor in the Presidential Cabinet of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Rosa Parks considered the mother of the civil rights movement. Hillary Clinton, first woman presidential nominee of a major political party. Michelle Obama, first African American, first lady. Sonia Sotomayor, first Latina Justice of the Supreme Court. Oprah Winfrey, with a fortune valued in $2.8 billion, she is one of the richest African American women in the world. Okay, through their successes and through our own success, we receive energy, the energy that we need to apply to face the issues that we face today. Because we no longer have those issues that I mentioned at the beginning. We now can vote, we can go to college, we can have any work that we want. However, we face a lot of issues related to abuse, sexual abuse and discrimination. And I am going to name three. One, the one is domestic violence, for example. Every nine seconds, one woman is assaulted or beaten in the USA. Number two, sexual harassment and abuse in the workplace. Very common. You have heard in the news about very powerful men who have abused women, sexually abused women. So they and the women are so intimidated that they don't say anything for fear of losing their jobs. Many of them are coming forward now and speaking and right now I do know and you have heard in the news that some of these men are being investigated and hopefully they will go to jail. I would love to see them going to jail for being sexual offenders, don't you? And the third is that I'm going to mention is pay discrimination. I mean Gillian already mentioned how discriminated it is in the workplace that we can find a woman who has the same education and the same experience as a man. However, she makes less money. She is promoted. She has she is not promoted as often as the man is. So those are the three issues in related to abuse and discrimination that I wanted to mention. And I wanted to use this as my introduction to the subject that we have this evening. Now I am going to let my panelists to continue the conversation. And I'm going to you can read the entire bios of our panelists in the program. However, I want to read for you just a little bit from the program. The first panelist is Commissioner Wendy Jacobs. Commissioner Jacobs is the chair of the current board of county commissioners. Like we said, she is a graduate of Duke University and receive her teaching certification for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Commissioner Jacobs is married to Dr. Michael Meredith, a Duke primary care physician, and they have three children. Now let's listen to Commissioner Jacobs. I'm supposed to use this one, obviously, not that one. Well, thank you so much, Hilda. And thank you to everyone who is here tonight, all the women and the children and the men and staff of Durham city and county government. I really also want to thank all the members of the city of Durham's human relations department, neighborhood improvement services, everyone who has been a part of this event. And I have to give another shout out to James Davis. He is amazing. I have been a part of many events. And I have to say that nobody organizes events like James Davis. So we have to give you another round of applause. And I also want to thank the young men of the Thomas Mentor Leadership Academy. Thank you so much for your escort tonight. I've had the privilege of being a part of this panel before, and so this is also one of my other favorite things is having all of you here with us. I'm proud to be a woman in a leadership position in Durham County. When it comes to the question of role models for women in leadership, and whether women can succeed and reach their dreams, we can look around us and see, as Mayor Pro Tem said, women in leadership and public positions of power in so many places in our community, creating policies, voicing opinions, making decisions, shaping our future. We can look to our school board, our city council, our district court judges, our state representatives, our register of deeds, our police chief and our board of county commissioners to see so many women in leadership. I am indeed proud to be serving in my second year as chair of the Durham Board of County Commissioners. A body that I am also proud to report is comprised of four women and one man. And we don't even blink an eye about this in Durham because this seems so natural to us. This is what we expect. Here in Durham, of course, we assume that every girl should be able to see herself as a leader. Every one young woman should be able to pursue her dreams and express her passion and her talent in whatever way she chooses. We know every one of us can be a leader in our own way. But the harsh reality is that when we look at the national and state level for role models and inspiration of women in leadership for this type of representation, we have a long way to go. And yes, as Mayor Pro Tem said, the tide is turning. While women make up more than 50% of the US population, only 19% of our leaders in Congress and about 25% of our North Carolina state legislators are women. I face this reality often when I sit in a meeting with hundreds of county commissioners from the 100 counties across our state. I look around the room and I see the faces of mostly white older men. And the faces of people of color, especially women of color, is even more scarce as I look across the room. So I am proud that Durham County is a leader when it comes to modeling women in positions of power and for standing up for the rights of women and children. Durham County government was the first county in the south to pass the CEDA resolution in 2017. CEDA stands for the convention for the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women. Believe it or not, this resolution was first adopted by the United States and United Nations back in 1979, but it has still not been adopted by our national government. This resolution acknowledges that it is a basic human right for women to be able to live free of discrimination. I'm also proud that in 2016, Durham County government began offering 12 weeks paid family leave for parents of birth or adopted parents. The first government in the south, according to the Institute for Women's Policy Research. Since then, other local governments and businesses have followed our lead and have adopted or are considering more family-friendly paid leave policies because we all know how important this bonding time is for the well-being of children and parents. What government does, the policies and practices we implement impact the lives of women and families and can help address discrimination against women. We have many women in leadership positions in Durham County government and our women's commission, who our chair is sitting right in the audience, Zion Tanker, right here. And now we also have a city women's council as well, works hard to keep issues impacting women a priority in our community. Many of the programs and services that Durham County government provides in areas such as public health, social services, mental health and criminal justice are in many ways attempting to counteract or alleviate the results of discrimination against women in our society. While we can feel good about seeing women in leadership throughout Durham, again, the harsh reality is that women, 50% of our population suffer from the results of discrimination. Women and children suffer from the consequences of earning lower wages. On the average, women in Durham County earn $14,000 less than men. We know that women ages 25 to 34, often single mothers, are our largest population living in poverty and struggling with homelessness and food insecurity. Women in our community are victims of partner violence and 13% of our teenagers say they have experienced sexual assault. So we have much work to do in Durham County, our state, our nation and our world to ensure that every baby girl who is born can grow into a young woman who can thrive, prosper and achieve her dreams. This is in fact why I became an elected official and love being a county commissioner because I love trying to do what I can every day to help people in our community and do what I can to help make Durham a place where everyone can thrive, enjoy life, prosper and have a sense of well-being. I'm aware every day of my life that I am the beneficiary of white privilege and an affluent upbringing, but that has not prevented me from experiencing and continuing to experience the internal and external effects of discrimination as a woman. Yes, like every other woman in this room, I have my me too experiences, and yes, they continue to haunt me. Like every mother, I've had those talks with my daughter. When she first went off to parties in high school about being careful about potential situations she may find herself in or in college it was discussions about date-right pills and drinks and walking back to her dorm alone at night about standing up for herself in classroom debates, doing only what she felt comfortable with and most importantly about always having confidence in herself, her instincts and to always follow her dreams. As women, we all have our stories of the lessons we have learned about what external male power means and how it can impact us. When I was in college, I spent a semester abroad with a professor I had idolized for his intelligence. Once overseas and being around him on a daily basis, I witnessed his blatant discrimination toward women as he mocked the female foreign teachers in our classes and made sexist and verbally abusive comments to me and the other female students. Before we returned to the States, I gathered up enough nerve to confront him. When I returned back home to my university and received my final transcript, I found that he had changed all of my final grades from A's to B's. As a proud hard-working straight A student, I was outraged. I followed a complaint with the dean but a tenured well-respected male professor versus a female college student. It was his word against mine and of course nothing happened. A difficult lesson but for me but an important one. We know that women are discriminated against at home, school, in the workplace and that we often do not have control over these circumstances but what also concerns me is the discrimination as women that we experience that may in fact be impacting our thinking about ourselves and limiting our own possibilities. The internalization of this discrimination that may impact our behavior and how we think about ourselves, about who we can be and how we perceive and treat other women is something that we must be aware of. I want to try a little experiment right now. I want everyone to close your eyes just for a minute. Everyone just close your eyes for a minute. Please keep your eyes closed and I want you to think about leadership. I want you to think in your mind about what it means to be a leader. I want you to think about the kind of qualities that a leader has. I want you to picture in your mind what a leader looks like, what are they wearing, what kind of expression is on their face. Keep this image in your mind and you can open your eyes now but I want you to hold on to this image in the back of your mind for just a few minutes. In a recent article in the Atlantic magazine about house minority leader Nancy Pelosi called the Pelosi the Nancy Pelosi problem the author wrote why is she so unpopular because powerful women politicians usually are this is the quote therein lies the tragedy Nancy Pelosi does her job about as well as anyone could but because she is a woman she may not be doing it well enough unquote. We saw this as well with Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign unconsciously or consciously we as a society often vilify ambitious strong smart successful women and researchers have documented this behavior in studies when men and women are presented with two fictional senators quote unquote with identical qualifications and characteristics except one is called John Burr and the other is called Ann Burr well when words like ambitious and will to power are used they evoke negative reactions when it's associated with the female senator. A recent New York Times article called picture a leader is she a woman looked at how holding unconscious assumptions about gender might affect people's abilities to recognize emerging leadership so let's go back to that image of the leader that you imagine in your head a few minutes ago think back to it what was the first image that came into your mind was it a man or was it a woman if we are not capable to if we are not able to imagine women as leaders or doing certain types of jobs or being capable of doing certain things then this will impact the decisions we make and the actions we take a recent study documented how a woman's potential for leadership is often overlooked by men and women if the same idea is brought up by a man it was often seen as a sign of talent or potential leadership ability when the same idea was brought up by a woman it was often unnoticed or unrecognized for its value like implicit racial bias implicit gender bias is indeed impacting us in unconscious insidious and harmful ways it is a powerful form of discrimination and like racial bias our unconscious or internalized gender bias has real consequences so what is the solution for what researchers call a cycle of self-reinforcing reinforcing confirmation bias which is impacting our vision of women in leadership I have some good news the solution is easy it is right before our eyes it is already happening here in Durham and other places in the country researchers say the solution is expose people to women in leadership so let's commit recommit ourselves to working to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women here in Durham and throughout our world and let's do all we can to make sure that when we close our eyes and when our daughters close their eyes the first image of a leader that comes to mind is a woman thank you thank you very much commissioner Wendy Jacobs that was great hold your questions in your mind okay at the back of your mind you will have that opportunity to ask her questions later now let's hear from our second panelist Dana Mangum Dana is the executive director at the North Carolina collision against domestic violence she is an expert on women's health and social issues and has worked in the corporate non-profit academia research and patient care sectors Dana earned a bachelor's of science degree in radiologic science with a concentration in nuclear medicine from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill she also holds a master of arts degree in liberal studies and health policy from Duke University let's listen to Dana Mangum good evening and thank you for inviting me here and I'd like to thank everyone for the opportunity to speak to you and I'm very humbled to be sitting here with two such esteemed women so I am a child of parents from two different cultures being a child like that I was able to expect and accept the presence of both cultures in my life every day my mother was Japanese and so some of the cultural things that she had us do was to take our shoes off when we entered the indoors we had rice with most dinners and there is patriarchy within the Japanese tradition my dad is from the American south and I learned to love bluegrass music ACC basketball and sure enough patriarchy was part of that culture as well so patriarchy is prevalent in most cultures worldwide and for those of you who aren't familiar with what it is it's a male privilege of dominance over most others in a society some societies are more patriarchal than others and I would have to say but virtually most of the societies in the world are characterized by it so it exists because men have had and continue to have political social and economic power it's been shipped away more by women who have been moving into those realms of power and also speaking through movements like the recent me-to movement which is wonderful but we still do live in a system where power is mainly bestowed to men by default so in my field of intimate partner violence many advocates understand that as long as there's discrimination like patriarchy or racism xenophobia homophobia that there is going our large institutional systems that are meant to protect people and serve all citizens are instead really resplendent with a culture that does just the opposite and can knowingly or unknowingly continue to breathe life into some of these discriminatory practices so why am I talking about this and why am I talking about racism and homophobia and classism these most people who experience this are underserved populations and it's important to understand an intimate partner violence you've probably heard that it does affect all women across all socioeconomic groups and races but I think it's important for you to know that it's significantly higher for women of color so therefore in an intimate partner violence movement if we're serious about ending it it's key to address the societal issues that keeps people from getting the help that they need so what are some of these social structures let me just first start by saying poor women of color are most likely to be in both dangerous intimate relationships and dangerous social positions like high rates of poverty poor education limited job resources language barrier fear deportation all that all these things present increases the difficulty in finding the help and the support services that they need an example of a social structure is hyper incarceration and what that is is a tremendous growth in incarceration which is concentrated in particularly geographic locations and those locations are low-income neighborhoods of color and it disproportionately affects African-Americans the trends are highest among African-American women there's research extensive research around this it includes incarceration around drug related crimes but also arrest for low-level offenses such as was the case with Eric Gardner if you remember an officer had arrested him for selling untaxed cigarettes and he was the gentleman who said that he couldn't breathe and eventually died so you can understand and maybe even picture the spiral for people that maybe get arrested for these low-level offenses for most of you who can't let me paint it a little bit so let's say someone's convicted they may be ineligible for financial aid for school food stamps barred from public housing even a misdemeanor conviction can make a person ineligible to get certain professional licenses in a number of states and in many states a criminal conviction results in a significant loss of civil rights so we know from research that a person with this many strikes against them are at a very high risk of either being a perpetrator or a victim of domestic violence in addition an unprecedented number of people are held in immigrant immigration detention and that's another form of hyperincarceration immigrant women are more likely than any other category of women in the United States to experience IPV and partner violence this includes Latina women South Asian and Korean immigrant women I can understand the struggles of immigrant women since my mother was an immigrant so while in the military my dad was stationed in Japan and met my mother while she was working in a break in a bank and they married and stayed in Japan for a while had my brother there then they moved to Los Angeles where I was born when they moved to Los Angeles my mother felt like she was on a different planet as most immigrants do she was far from understanding the language she did not have a job she couldn't drive because she didn't have to drive in Japan she felt socially isolated because she was so different from others in her community and she must have felt stress from being different she was not an IPV victim but you can imagine the many immigrants coming into this situation who experience all the things that I just explained but they're also experiencing physical and emotional abuse and being threatened by their partner who threatens to compromise their legal status saying if you don't do this if you don't do that if you don't listen to me if you don't stay away from your family I'm going to turn you into local authorities or ICE so you know these women and sometimes men are not only worried about their own health but that of their children too and this is very real I got a phone call about a month ago from the Attorney General's office and they were reached because an immigrant woman was being physically abused by her partner and she was doing everything that she could to move out of that situation she didn't know that she could report abuse but when she finally found out that information a state organization interviewer and then took her three children from her and said that she may be able to get one of them back the next day if she appeared in court and under certain conditions they weren't under the threat of being taken away because of anything that the husband was doing any threat from the husband it was really because the state agency felt that she was a threat to her children she could not express her self well she didn't understand the English language well so could not really communicate the situation as well as it will as it truly was and so you know I've thought about what actions could have helped this person because what I described really too often people end up in more dire situations in the physical and emotional abuse that they experience at home when it had been wonderful this person had gone to a place that was culturally responsive that could understand what she was saying and understood the trauma that she was undergoing and acted according accordingly with services what if this agency brought in options for safety and what if they brought in options to hold her perpetrator accountable I personally would love to live in a community in a world that has all that for everybody homophobia is another area in which systems need to improve about 30% of gays and lesbians have experienced IPV but further work needs to be done to protect them from IPV because although we have a lot of laws in North Carolina and we've increased the laws every year work with policymakers to make sure that more and more people are protected transgender non-conforming people are exposed to IPV even more because the laws don't protect them a lot of people who have control over what our laws could look like specifically do not want to protect trans or gender non-conforming people because they are trans and gender non-conforming trans people have twice the rate of unemployment they're underpaid usually less than $10,000 the highest population that make less than $10,000 a year generally lack access to education a stigma exists in this state in many other states from transphobia and many LGBT and gender non-conforming individuals do not wish to contact the police in a situation involving IPV for fear of having their sexual orientation revealed or gender status disclosed and thereby experiencing mistreatment perhaps from the police officer not saying all of them do but we do have a lot of work that needs to occur in North Carolina so you know I asked myself is it right that people in our community be this afraid of consequences when trying to escape violence and is this okay with us so what can we do to ensure that all people get the resources that they need to strengthen and empower victims number one is improving shelters there are about a hundred shelters in North Carolina one per county and counseling service at the shelters they do a tremendous job they do a terrific job with limited resources that they have but they need to continue to develop methods and complex ways to address the complex ways that various identities and social dimensions really require and converge in the lives of abused women people of color and sexual minorities in other words they really need to understand the culture what the people need how to speak to the people and get them services that's going to speak to them and funders need to help to make this happen number two I think something we can do to help the situation so all people will get services that they need is to end the devastating war on drugs the so-called war on drugs disproportionately affects minorities and women in particular women of color and their women of color are usually an often stereotype as couriers and are singled out for searches far more regularly than white women but in fact black women are nine times as likely to be searched as white women and only half as likely to be found carrying contraband as their white counterparts so we need to educate and speak out again against this another way that I think that we could have a voice is to end the war on immigration immigrant women may also feel deportation if they involve the police for any reason and this may act as a major disincentive and it does in North Carolina to involving legal on the police system to help solve abuse so although there are some legal safeguards against deportation of abused immigrant women many don't know the laws and don't trust the laws because of some of what they experienced in their own home countries and also in the United States again something that we can educate others about and speak out about and finally I think to acknowledge that some of the old policing strategies just don't work there's something called zero tolerance policing it refers to a policy of increasing police president presence and responding drastically as I was talking about Eric Garner earlier to even minor violations of the law in areas considered to be high crime and responding harshly to non-criminal activities like standing congregating sleeping eating or drinking in public as well as many other minor offenses and I told you the spiral that happens after someone's arrested and it happens all too often extensive racial profiling criminalization disproportionately targets and affects people of color and the indigent and we need to do a better job at respecting people's civil and human rights while also providing them safety and protection from violence thank you thank you thank you very much Dana with her now let's let me tell you a little bit about our third panelist dr. Yava play doctor play is the damn blue and doubt chair in political science at North Carolina Central University she is a professor and ethnographer her scholarship centers on black racial identity black aesthetic practices and black beauty with particular attention given to hair and skin color politics she received her BA in psychology from Salisbury State University her master of education in counseling psychology from the University of New Orleans and her master of arts and her PhD in African American studies from Temple University so let's listen from dr. play thank you good evening thank you all for being here and again James thank you for inviting me when James contacted me to ask if I could come and share space with you this evening on this theme of nevertheless she persisted during the city's annual recognition of women's history month it took me a minute to figure out how I would approach the conversation in fact he had asked us for a brief outline of our presentations a few weeks ago and I was like I don't know about that primarily because I'm a creative you know so I need time with my words but I'm also a procrastinator so I don't usually prepare for my talks until the day before even the day of so as I attempt to prepare for this I still found myself a little stuck the idea was that we myself and my esteemed colleagues would present to you our respective thoughts on the various forms of discrimination that women commonly face and the resilience that we have to thrive in spite of those inequalities nevertheless she persisted what are these words make me think about what do they awaken in me as I sat with these words and the idea of the panel I just kept becoming distracted like I couldn't grab on to it like it wasn't catching if that made sense it's like my mind would not process discrimination as the starting point of a conversation in the context of celebration if that makes sense so of course like a good scholar I went to Google and needed to remind myself how it was that nevertheless she persisted became a catchphrase and a hashtag in our contemporary shared experience rereading about senator Elizabeth Warren's experience on the Senate floor and being reminded that it was actually senator Mitch McConnell who made the statement I got a whole new perspective on the significance of the phrase because it became a feminist rallying cry almost instantly I think my mind concluded that the phrase had been uttered by a woman but it wasn't for those of you who like me need a refresher senator Warren was opposing Trump's nomination of Alabama senator Jeff Sessions as US Attorney General she read a 1986 letter written by Coretta Scott King where she recalled sessions antagonism of elderly black voters and as she read this letter Mitch McConnell who is the Senate majority leader interrupted her several times warning her that she was in violation of Senate rules the Senate then voted to stop her from continuing to speak during the debate and McConnell's own words he said quote senator Warren was giving a lengthy speech she had appeared to violate the rule she was warned she was given an explanation nevertheless she persisted so he wasn't applauding her he was being shady right and so when I reread this story and I'm like oh okay she's a rebel like I watched the video again oh okay she's pushing back okay we have another conversation now right it's not that she was being hindered and she thrived in spite of it no it's because she was being hindered that she persisted and really she resisted not in spite of but because of it that frames the conversation completely differently for me right now we're talking nevertheless she persisted oftentimes when we have this type of public celebration of a month black history month women's history month Latino heritage month we tend to focus on the first person to do this or the last person to do that the very best right we get caught up in names and historical memory in a way that is troublesome to me don't get me wrong I'm a historian so knowing our history is critical we absolutely need to know important names and dates and honor significant figures for their contributions to society but sometimes we do that at the expense of the everyday person and in this case the everyday woman right so while we applaud ourselves for having x amount of women in leadership positions I still question what are the lived experiences of the everyday woman to me that's our marker of progress right when I hear and say and feel those words nevertheless she persisted I think about resistance I think about tenacity I think about courage the courage to accomplish whatever it is that we set out to accomplish when I hear and I say and I feel those words nevertheless she persisted I think about my mama I think about my grandmothers I think about my aunties I think about my homegirls, I think about my daughter. I think about women who have been persisting since the beginning of the beginning, not despite the fact that we're women, but because we are women. I'm originally from New Orleans, Louisiana. And I was just there last week working on another project and I told myself I was gonna be a tourist in my own city. So I went to a place called the Whitney Plantation. Has anybody been to Louisiana, seen the Whitney Plantation? So the Whitney Plantation is about an hour outside of New Orleans in the swamps. And the thing that's interesting about the Whitney from a tourist standpoint is the only plantation in the country that centers its tours and your understanding of the space from the perspective of the children who worked there. Worked there, right? Now me, for who I am, for whatever reason, I continually have this experience when I drive through rural areas, when I drive through dense trees and things of that nature, my mind immediately goes to the women who ran. Don't ask me why. I look around, I look at trees, I look at the ground and I think they ran through this. We were driving through the swamp and I'm thinking about the women who ran. I'm thinking about the women who ran with babies on their backs and the women who ran and they were pregnant or the women who ran and they were on their cycle or the women who ran and their babies had been sold from them. Nevertheless, she persisted. Now I could continue to speak about women of Senator Elizabeth Warren's caliber, quote unquote famous women, women in history who face discrimination have been pushing back and fighting. Like Harriet Tubman, for example. Recently I was asked to name a historical figure whose work or philosophy has influenced my own and I named Harriet Tubman, the greatest freedom fighter there ever was. Ever since I first learned about who she was probably in the first to second grade, her story has always lived larger than life in my mind and in my spirit, the idea that at the height of enslavement in this country, she ran towards freedom saving her own life. But then she went back time and time again to help others run towards freedom, saving their lives as well. I could talk about Harriet Tubman in this moment of celebration, but I don't wanna do that. In her honor instead, I would much rather tell you about an organization called Girltrek, G-I-R-L-T-R-E-K. Girltrek is the largest national public health nonprofit and movement for black women and girls and they recently embarked on a journey. In honor of Harriet Tubman, Girltrek followed in her footsteps literally. The entire national team started off from the Eastern Shore of Maryland where Harriet Tubman first made her escape and they walked the path that she took to freedom. 10 women took the 100 mile trek along the underground railroad on foot. Now why in the world would they do that? Well, because there's a health crisis in America and black women and girls are among the hardest hit. One could argue, I would argue, that this is a direct reflection of racism and discrimination in this country. Every day, 137 black women die from heart disease. This is more than gun violence, HIV, AIDS, and smoking combined. And the effects of chronic stress are wearing on black women mentally, physically, and spiritually. Black women die younger and at higher rates than any other group of women in this country. 82% of black women are currently overweight, 53% are morbidly obese, and 95% of black girls ages six to 11 will be overweight or obese by 2034 unless their diet and levels of activity change. The reality is black women and girls are living under trying circumstances. Many of us live in communities that are under extreme stress, whether it be from crime, lack of a living wage, blight or gentrification, and the current political climate only makes it worse. So for Girl Trek, a public health organization, they believe that now more than ever is an important time to reestablish walking as a healing tradition. Think about that. They've named walking as a healing tradition. When we think about Mama Harriet walking to freedom, walking as a healing tradition and now in response to our health crisis, walking as a healing tradition. According to Girl Trek's founder, Vanessa Garrison, she says, quote, we believe that as women, we are going to have to liberate one ourselves and then come back and be examples and liberate our families. And one of the things that we say is that if Harriet Tubman could walk herself to freedom, we can certainly walk ourselves to better health. How amazing is that? Everyday women who are fighting for the survival of other everyday women, these are women who deserve to be celebrated. Nevertheless, she persisted. In my work as a professor and as a researcher and producer, I focus almost exclusively on black people, our history, on our culture, on our identities, on our lived experiences, and I pay special attention to the lived experiences of black women and girls. As many of you already know or should know, and as many others of you might imagine, the history of black women and girls in this country, in this world for that matter, is a history riddled with struggles, hardships, and trauma. But it is also a history glittered with resistance, triumph and survival, less we forget. When Commissioner Jacobs asked us to close our eyes and imagine a leader, I just imagined a brassy, sassy little black girl with beads on the end of her braids and her hands on her head. That's a leader, bossy, right? I also wanna remind you that the women who deserve to be celebrated may not have always been prim and proper and they certainly did not follow the rules. If they had followed the rules, many of us would not be here. While you all joined me in celebrating Harriet Tubman, remember that she not only broke the rules, but she broke the law. At the time and in that context, she would have been deemed a criminal. We on this side of history know however that what she did took courage and we honor her for that. I say that and I wanna remind us of that because they're everyday women right now who are fighting against discrimination, but we don't honor them. Women who are freedom fighters. Yet because there are rules and laws, we hesitate to publicly celebrate them like Patrice Cullors, Opal Tometi, and Alicia Garza, the three women who started the Black Lives Matter movement. Women like Charlotte native, Brie Newsom, who climbed the flagpole in front of South Carolina Capitol Building and removed a Confederate flag and at the risk of raising eyebrows at the event sponsored by the city of Durham, I wanna call the name of my student, Takia Thompson, the young woman who climbed on top of the Confederate statue and assisted it in being toppled over. My saying their names, Patrice Cullors, Opal Tometi, Alicia Garza, Brie Newsom, and Takia Thompson may make you uncomfortable and that's fine, but change doesn't happen in a comfortable place. I say their names in the context of a celebration of women who fight against discrimination and we have a word for that, we call them feminists. Don't be afraid to call yourself one. Women who ultimately fight so that we can all, so that we can all live freer lives, women who deserve to be celebrated. May we be mindful of the ways that we discriminate even when it comes to determining who is worthy of honor and recognition. Nevertheless, she persisted. Though I've been doing this work for almost 20 years now, I've been a Black woman twice as long as that. And so there's not really much separation between the work that I do and the woman that I am. When it comes time to celebrate a month and in this case, women's history month, it's important to me that women feel celebrated, everyday women feel celebrated. And while I support our celebrations of particular months, I know that if we really wanna affect change, our celebrations must extend beyond the span of a month. I celebrate Black women and girls every single day. What do you do? It's interesting that as I look at the audience, I see an audience that is predominantly women. That could be a good thing. But that's also a challenge because this is a women's history month celebration, right? We're in a minute and we should think about that, right? What does it mean to celebrate women's history month? Or better yet, why are we celebrating women's history month? I speak a lot around the country. My prime times are February and March, Black history month and women's history month. I'm not mad, my paycheck, my bank account is happy. But at the same time, it makes me a little uncomfortable. I push back against it because I wonder what we're doing for the rest of the year, right? Why are we having this celebration? Are we having it because we truly value women? Are we having it because it's March? Those are two different things, right? What you value, you do. Because before you can celebrate women, you must first value women. And if you value women, the women around you will know it and they will feel it. They should be able to recognize it, not just in words, but in action, not in what you say, but in what you do. What you value, you do. Thank you. Well done, very good. That was excellent. So we heard from three very intelligent, very educated, very successful women. And we are very excited. They gave us so much wonderful, valuable information that we are going to use for our, the next part of our forum, which is the Q and A. The opportunity that you have to share, to speak, to say your thoughts, to share with all of us. Your stories, your questions, anything. So first, I'd like to say that we are going to use that microphone right here for the questions. When you have a question, just stand up and just get closer to the microphone. And I think somebody's going to turn it on if I'm not mistaken. If not, I will do that, right? Now, I'd like to start this Q and A session by asking you to say just one word that is in your mind right now that you heard from our three panel. It's just one. Okay. Any? Which one? Okay, very good. Excellent. Distillians. Persistence, we heard that very, very, very good. Tenacity. Leaders. What else? Value. What else? Okay, we also heard abuse, right? Discrimination, freedom, celebration. We heard that minority women are victims of everything, domestic violence, they get paid less. So many abuses. What else? One more. One more word. Okay, very good. Thank you very much for that contribution. Now, like I said, this is your opportunity to ask questions and who wants to start? Raise your hand or just stand up and come to the mic. In that case, I am going to ask one question for our panelists. What can we do to change sexual abuse and discrimination in women and girls? And that when I mean we, all of us, everyday people in our homes, our workplace, our places of business everywhere. What can we do to change sexual abuse and discrimination in women and girls? When did you want to start? I think, well, I'm gonna actually let Dana, I feel like Dana is really the expert here with us in her role as the state director of the North Carolina. I'm forgetting the coalition against domestic violence. So I think I would first defer to Dana really speak on this. Yeah, I'm glad to. For the past 30 years, intimate partner violence, domestic violence has been around and there's been a lot of interventions that people have done, a lot of great interventions or some prevention models that people have employed to. Yet the homicide rates pretty much the same. Intimate partner violence is still around. And we're at a point in the movement where we're looking at what do we do now? Do we continue to do the same thing? I don't think that would be really wise. And it just goes back to kind of what I was saying when I was talking and that is really challenge institutions that don't help women. Institutions that are displaying some way of keeping people who are down, down even further. I think the way that any person can do that is when they're talking to their friends or family just to educate them, make them understand that connection. I truly don't believe that intimate partner violence will really ever go away or sexual assault or violence will ever go away. We can have all the programs in the world all the money in the world thrown at it. But I think until our institutions take very seriously that we're keeping people down who needs to be raised up and think about how we want to raise that up and that it's not gonna stop until then. I think if I can answer, it's interesting because Tarana Burke who's the founder of Me Too Movement is one of my dearest friends. And I remember when the movement became public and she had a lot of anxiety because if you remember it was Alyssa Milano and other Hollywood women who were using the hashtag on Twitter. And at the moment, no one was connecting the movement to her work. And so in her anxiety, we were talking about it and we're like, why would that be? Well, her work started focusing on the sexual violence, sexual abuse against black women and girls. And she started this in Selma, Alabama, right? Small space. And so she's been doing work around it for years but in terms of the glitz and the glam it seemed like there were certain stories that we were interested in hearing and others that we were not. I say that primarily to speak to us because you asked what we can do. I think particularly for women, it's important that we stop normalizing sexual abuse, right? And I'm speaking very specifically to my sisters, to women in my community because I too am a survivor. I was molested by a family member when I was younger. And even still now, I think there are ways that because of my family's discomfort with the fact of what happened, it's my responsibility to make everybody comfortable as opposed to just kick him out, right? I think about the ways in which when public figures, I'm thinking about Bill Cosby. I'm thinking about us still stepping in the name of love for R. Kelly. I'm thinking about men who we know, we know that they are sexual abusers but because of their positions perhaps, because of our discomfort we aren't as willing to push back, to name them, right? To push authorities to hold them accountable. I hear so many stories wrapped up within people's need to testimonies about family members not believing them or family members silencing them. Just all the ways in which victims are re-victimized oftentimes by the people that we love. And so for me, I speak to mothers. I speak to other women who might be in the lives of other women and girls. Like I feel like one of the most valuable things we can do is to support each other. And I would rather error on the side of believing a woman's story than not, right? And so I think our thinking around it, if we can, as women particularly, it's not normal. It's not okay. We can't rationalize it. We can't make excuses for it. Boys won't be boys, right? And so I think that, you know, that's one step. Not that it's gonna, like you say, I don't think it's going anywhere. I think, unfortunately, it's a reality. But I think we can change how we think about it. I just want to follow up what both Dana and Yaba said is, because I come from a government perspective. And I think there are things that we can do. And I know that there are things that we are trying to do right now because what we also understand is that it's violence is a cycle. And it's perpetuated through families and through behavior. And so the question is, how do we break that cycle of violence? And some of the things that we are doing in Durham is that we're understanding that this is trauma. And trauma is continued. You know, the child who has experienced the trauma becomes an adult. And then that becomes a learned behavior that is then passed on. And so we are learning to understand about ASIS, Adverse Childhood Experiences, about trauma-informed care. And we are starting to incorporate this into everything that we do when mothers come in now in our health department for prenatal screenings, when they go over for their pediatric visits at the Duke Clinic and start to get their well-child visits to start understanding and perceiving if there is a situation with a woman where they have been exposed to trauma, they've been a victim, that we need to intervene then so that we try to stop that cycle and support that woman and support that family and support that child because what we know about trauma-informed care and about ASIS is resilience. And resilience is very powerful. And it's something that can be nurtured and supported. So resiliency, the other thing that we're doing is we have a grant right now in Durham to intervene in situations of domestic violence. And we're teaching our first responders to understand the signs of domestic violence, of human trafficking, our law enforcement, a lot of times, people need to understand what the signs are so that we can again intervene and help and support women. And through this program right now, we are for women and children who are victims of intimate partner violence, I should be saying, of getting them into care, mental health services, whatever support and services that we can, again, to try to help them heal and also to prevent the impact so that we can try to break the cycle of abuse. So I just wanted to share that. It's some of the things that we can do and that we are doing. Excellent, thank you very much. When a woman is a victim of sexual abuse and she's scared, she has been intimidated by that perpetrator and she might feel like she talks to anybody, she may lose her job, or she's just afraid to talk about it. Where and how can she find the strength to talk to someone about it and don't just keep quiet? Yeah, I defer to Dana on that because I think she's really, this is her area of expertise. Thank you. I would say, I think so many people want to fix things when they realize there's a problem. And one thing that we want to make sure that we do when we work with women who are being abused is to understand that they're in a position at that point in their lives where there's a loss of power and loss of control. And the last thing that we want to do is feel like we know what is best for that person and take over and say you should do this or you should do that. I think one of the best things that we can do is just let, if you know a friend or someone, a family member who is having suspected abuse is to let them know resources in the area. And again, on the internet and there's a service agency in every county, most every county in North Carolina. And let them know that that's where they should come. They need to decide when it's time for them to go. So there's lots of reasons. I think one of the first things that I hear from people when we have this discussion is why do women stay? And a lot of times it's either because of the children because the woman cannot financially be on her own. It could be that she still loves her partner. It may be that she feels like she might shame her family if she leaves. So there's lots of things to consider and you can't just think that, just leave and here's where you gotta leave and call them. You just need to give the names of the resources, be a good support ear for that person and then let them make decisions for themselves. Excellent. Okay, thank you very much, Dana, appreciate that. Okay, let's hear from, can you please say your name and your question? My name is Jerry Odom. And so naturally being a woman, a mother, a nurturer, a person who has a servant's heart for the community, Dr. Bley, and other panelists as well. You said that what you do and who you are are one and the same. How do you continue to do the work without compromising you? It's interesting, I always tell people that I recognize that I'm in a unique position so I can't always advise folks to do things in other areas like I do consulting work for corporations where women who work there talk about like how they have to wear their hair or how they have to dress or feel like they have to speak in a particular way. I work in the academy so I can go to campus in Jane, you know what I mean? We don't have those kind of rules in that space so I recognize that I have a privilege if it is such a thing in that space to not have to do that. But I tell people all the time like I might be Dr. Bley but I've been Yaba longer and like I gotta look at Yaba in the morning and go to sleep with Yaba at night and so like who I am is very important, it's just always been important to me. So this question of how do I do the work and not compromise, it's not an option to compromise myself because I also think of myself, I don't wanna say, I don't use the language of role model but I think I'm a mirror, right? To other people that I want people to relate to me just as a human being a regular average woman that you see yourself in me somehow and so if I swear at all, if you see me one way in one position and one way in another position that's not a good mirror or a good reflection for you so I definitely think about how people will see me but yeah, I don't even know that it's something that I think about, it's just not an option to not be who I am because I think ultimately that brings some value to the work that I do. I think. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for participating, all right? Thank you for your participation. Okay, we have a second, please say your name. Yes, my name is Raquel Rosario. I do not have a question. I have a statement that I would like to read. Discrimination, it is the unjust or, I'm sorry, the unjust prejudicial treatment of different categories of people, things, especially on the grounds of race, age or sex. Resilience is the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties. I have no doubt that there is no woman in here that is not resilient. I am urging our leaders to make priority of the need to be committed to transformative justice for all by reviewing cultures and systems within our local governments that fail the very same people you are in office to serve. Anyone that is aware of any form of discriminatory or toxic behavior and yet fails to take the necessary steps to correct this, then you too are part of the problem. Do not make demands of your people and your community without first assuring your effectiveness and accountability. I challenge our leaders to be different. I challenge you to be human and undo at the core of our government the insensitivities that bring about discrimination. And to all the women in this event today, I challenge you to not discriminate against yourselves, amongst other women. I challenge you to be colorblind. And I wanted to say that when more than one person, meaning two, are in agreement than anything and everything is possible. That's going well. Thank you. Thank you very much for that participation. Go ahead. My name is Keisha Warnett. My question is for Dr. Blay. As we are persisting for what we believe in, what advice can you give black women who are faced with the stereotype of the angry black woman as a way to dismiss her concerns? What's wrong with being angry? And I just pushed back one, because I hear when we talk about stereotypes, I guess I want us to be at a point where we don't care. Because you have something to be angry about. Right. You know? It's okay. Great, thank you very much. Go ahead. I'm Gloria De Los Santos. I am a part of the Black Women's Roundtable and a few other organizations across the land, you might as well say. So I have, this is a question that I proposed at the Black Women's Roundtable national meeting. I want to know what's your description of power and empowerment. Because you guys have so many things up there. But when you talk to a woman that is out there on the front line and you see so many behind her, how can you keep that empowerment up there? And how can you give her the power to continue to lead and take those issues to where they need to go? So it's a question for all three. Your turn. Yeah. Oh, that's an excellent question. I'm sitting here thinking of the answer. Well, I think, you know, when we think about power, power is about letting people have a voice. I mean, everybody, you know, it has power within them. So, I mean, I've just listened to the woman who came up, Rosario, was that? I mean, that was just amazing what she said to all of us. So, you know, I think we giving people a voice, letting people participate, giving people a chance to be who they are and act on what they wanna do on their actions. And we as a community have to, it's a joint responsibility. It takes all of us to make that happen. So we have to be the kind of community that enables that. And I mean, it starts with, again, I have a government mindset, but, you know, for us, I know for me, one of our passions is our things like, you know, early childhood education. We have to, you know, we have to make sure that there's equitable opportunities in this community because right now they're not. So we have to create a community where everybody has the opportunity to experience the power that they have. And we have a lot of work to do to make that happen. Thank you. Thank you very much. When you said that, did you also have an answer for her? Something short, but go ahead. No, no, I was just saying, like when you said that, I just think it's an excellent question. You know, I think it's something that, there are many words that we take for granted and I think power is probably one of them, right? So we do need to be thinking constructively about what that means, particularly when we're fighting about it and against it. So like as you were speaking, I think there are different types of power, but I would challenge us to rethink how power has played out over history, may have given us a skewed sense of what power is, because there's power within and then there's power over. And I think sometimes when people seek power, we're seeking power over people and that's not healthy, right? That's not ideal. I think if I think of power within, it might be the ability to be, as an individual, self-actualizing so that if I'm empowered, I do what I wanna do. I'm able to say what I wanna say, feel how I feel without fear, right? Of any kind of repercussions, but then there's institutional power, right? And so if we wanna push back against the idea of having power over people, maybe it's just the power to affect change. I'm not sure, but just to say it's a good question and it's one worth thinking about. Thank you. Okay. Yeah, just something. Anything you wanna say, something? Just something real short that I wanted to say is, I've talked about earlier how intimate partner violence has everything to do with power and control and when we think of power, I think Dr. Blay was saying it correctly that you think about what we understand as power, but we as women don't have to have the power that we see in the corporate world, for example, or we see in politics. We have our own power inside. I think that's some of what you were saying. And so when I think about my own power, it's just knowing when to step up, but also knowing when to step back. Being humble about any gifts that I may bring and most of all, serving people. The older I get, the more I realize that the most joy, the most powerful I feel is when I'm serving people in whatever way. It can be bringing someone a glass of tea or it can be something a little bit more related to my work, so that's how I look at it. Thank you. Thank you very much. Go ahead with your question and thank you for waiting. So hi, actually, Wendy Jacobs, you had just mentioned that you have a government mindset, so this is perfect that kind of segues into my question here and excuse the redundancy, because you did touch up on my question a little bit, but when we have these types of talks, we often quickly point out types of discrimination that are blatantly wrong, such as sexual abuse, assault, workplace harassment, and rightfully so as they are very serious problems many of us have experienced. But what about the systematic forms, many of which often lead to these issues, such as the high cost of affordable childcare as you touched on, difficult access to affordable and reliable birth control, no federal paid leave family program, and even having a taxation on necessary hygiene items. What can we do to address these issues and to spin it another way, how do we present these issues as a direct impact on women and raise awareness to address them in government? I think you're absolutely right. I've made one comment about how almost everything that at least that Durham County government does is almost, if you really think about it, to address the results of all the inequities against women and families. So when I think about our public health services, programs, social services, our criminal justice programs, our educational programs, so I think it needs to show up in our priorities where we're allocating funding and how we're spending our money. And so just to give you an example, we, I mentioned early child, high quality early childhood education, it's expensive. We just did a big study last year called the State of the Young Child Report for Durham County and also a pre-K task force report. And what we've learned is, first of all, how important prenatal to age three is the most important time. 80% of brain development takes place in those three years. So, thinking about where we can really change the trajectory of people's lives and make sure they can feel powerful and have the power that's in them and be who they can be, it's so important that healthy pregnancy, access to healthy food to eat, a safe home, a good job, these are all the most basic things. So, yes, this is everything that we have to be working on. And so we've calculated that for every single child to have access to high quality early child education Durham, just for the four year olds, it's cost $15 million. And so we're working on it. And so we, this is what we're gonna be working on and we're gonna figure out how to make it happen because we realize that this is gonna affect our public schools because when kids start kindergarten during public schools, only 38% of our five year olds are ready to learn. And then we wonder why our schools, our teachers are having problems. So I could talk about this a long time but I absolutely agree with you and that's why we have to look at where we can have the most impact, where we're spending our money and the choices that we're making. I think your question is also asking great questions, right? That your point is to make us and challenges us to think critically about discrimination, right? Because it's not just the things that we can point and say, or you're discriminating, we're being punished for being women so that if you get pregnant, right? And you take leave to have a baby, you're not getting paid for that, right? So maybe we need reparations and reparations would mean how you balance that out. You get paid, right? And that's something, and even though it doesn't seem fair whatever that means, right? That that's what it would mean to, because literally, like as you said, we're being punished for being women, like our bodies doing things that women's bodies do and somehow we're being punished for that. But I think it challenges us to think critically about what discrimination really is. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Do we have more questions? Okay, perfect, do you have a question too? Perfect, because we have time, just enough time for the four of you. Yeah, we do. And then we are gonna go into reception back. Please go ahead, say your name and ask your question. Hello, my name is Kajette Xavier Jackson and I just wanted to know what inspired all three of you for what you're working right here now? What inspired you to work here? What inspired you to get where you are currently right now? I can say probably the moment that I knew that I wanted to get into work around women's health was just in the 80s when Greta Van Cestron who was a news reporter, who she reported on a lot of crime, but crime stories, but it seemed like every night when I was watching her there was always some woman found in a ditch, dead, no one really cared. And I thought, why is this happening so much? And more and more found that most of the people who were found dead in a ditch were abused somehow by someone who supposedly loved them. So that was the turning point for me, knowing that I wanted to somehow impact that. So that's a great question. Thank you so much. So for me, I think I've just always really enjoyed, I've always wanted to just help people and serve my community. And I think I've just always enjoyed, we talked about public service and just helping people. It's just something I've always loved. So when I was here, I came here as a student many years ago and started getting involved in the community and volunteering fell in love with Durham. And I just loved Durham. And so for me, I got very involved. I was a teacher and then I was a mom and stayed home for a long time taking care of my kids and got very involved in their schools, volunteering in my neighborhood and just really became ran for office just as an evolution of being involved in the community and wanting to serve the community and because I loved Durham so much and just wanna make our community a better place for everybody. So that's how it happened for me. Thank you. And for me, I'm still being inspired to do new things. But, and I do a lot of things. But one thing that I thought of when you asked the question is I grew up dark skin in New Orleans. And if you know anything about the history of New Orleans, there's a big history of colorism within the African-American community. So what that means is ultimately most of the people in power, most of the people who are revered, most of the people who are seen as valuable were black or light skin, right? So I grew up dark skin in that space and I knew I was dark skin very early on. But I had an aunt, Auntie Janet, who was light skin and every time she would see me, she would run over to me and make a big fuss, she would grab my face and be like, oh my God, you're so gorgeous. Look at your skin. What do you use on your skin? Tell me your secrets. And I would giggle and like, she just made me feel so beautiful. Like she would tell me I was beautiful and I believed it. And I mean, every single time she saw me, she would do this. And I wonder who I would be if I didn't have her. So I knew that I wanted to be that for other little girls and that really sparked my interest in learning about beauty and being an advocate. I call myself an image activist, meaning that I fight against the ways that images of black women are projected that leave many of us out. So that if you grow up dark skin and you don't see yourself in a magazine, you might grow up thinking that you're not beautiful. So wanting to fight against that. And I think that really started with my own experiences having an auntie Janet. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you dancers. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, let me say that we have three minutes left. So we want to hear from you. So if you could please be brief. Go ahead. Hi, my name is Ashley Kennedy. I'm actually the president for MacDougall Terrace. And I actually sit on the mayor's council for women. My biggest question today is I live in MacDougall Terrace and it faces a lot of these issues that you guys are talking about. My biggest question is what can you do to help me or what can you guys do to come out to a community of people who speak to people who have, there's no hope. What can we do? Like they don't know and we can't get anybody from the county, pretty much the city or anybody that comes to a community that faces discrimination. Women, I watch women get beat almost every day out there in MacDougall. I see it happening to our kids. Our kids are just running around the community because they can't find their parents. What can we do as a group to change these issues in one of the biggest public housing communities in Durham, North Carolina? So I would just respond Ashley that I, I mean, first of all, if you want to invite me to come to meet with you or anybody else, I would be honored and privileged to do that. So that for me would be the first step is just to hear what your concerns are and what other women's and family's concerns are. That would be the first step for me. That would be great. Thank you, Jim. And I would be glad to, I would be glad to as well. You mentioned things about abuse and just to help people understand that cycle sounds like societal types of things might be more in Wendy's will house, but around abuse I'm more than happy. Me as well, if you cook. Yeah. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Thank you very much. Can we hear from you please? Your name and your question. Hi, my name is Megan Stanley and my question is as women and women of color, can you speak to your experiences navigating predominantly white and male spaces and how do you ensure that your voices still kept heard and valued? Thank you. I think again, coming back to this theme of nevertheless she persisted, I think oftentimes being in certain spaces and coming back to the question that was asked before, like this angry black woman motif that follows us oftentimes, you gotta throw that away and just be angry. So for me and I've navigated predominantly white spaces as a student, as a professor, it's challenging. You feel like you're fighting every single day and you remind yourself every single day that you're gonna win. Like it can be daunting, but you gotta do it in a certain way. I also think that you also have to be, and I tell my students this, you have to be badass. You have to come correct. Like you can't give anybody the option to then pinpoint all these other things as to why they're not going to listen to you. So if we put our credentials side by side, if we put our experiences side by side, I'm going toe to toe with you. So now what you gotta say, right? So you gotta make sure that you're sharp, you're on point and that your voice can be heard based upon its merits. Other than that, you can call people out on their stuff. And I'd agree with that. I worked in corporate America with a lot of white men who were very assertive. Because they were estibi. And I pretty much learned to do the same myself. So you gotta, I guess as the saying goes, lean in, have a voice. But again, don't get caught in that patriarchal society. That's just what you see. And it's an illusion, I think in so many ways. Sometimes you gotta play the game. But if you're in a place, a safe space, just be yourself and honor yourself and the gifts that you bring. And believe that you earned the right to be there, not that you are somebody's gift or an affirmative action case or whatever. I hear students talk about that all the time. I don't wanna be seen as, get in the door. And when you get there, do your work. That's it. Any other comments? Okay, thank you. Thank you very much. I know that was a good question. Come in, please. Let's have your name and your question. Hi, my name is Normia Vasquez-Scales. Just in, I know for the sake of time, I said I had so much to say and there's so much that resonated with all of you all. Particularly, all of you all, but particularly you, Dr. Blay. I'm a podcaster, I'm a homeschooler. My son escorted you all up on stage. I have, I do a great deal of persisting. This was a very tumultuous quarter. Just to be brief. Where do I begin? I'm a career woman. Just trying to paint a picture here. Am I bragging? A career woman, I wear many hats. I'm a podcaster, author. However, I've undergone a crisis. I've been out unexpectedly beyond my control as many of us do happen. We are a single parent household. My son and I, by default. So I guess the question, I have more comments than I do questions, but the question that I would have to ask is, what mediums, what resources are there? I'll be perhaps on a government level, what have you for many of us mothers that are single mothers by default. I'm hosting a podcast, an episode. Actually, it's funny because I heard that about incarceration here. Hyperincarceration, I think that was a phrase. I'm speaking of mass incarceration as a gentleman that I'll be hosting, not coincidentally coinciding with this very event here. And he's speaking on absentee fathers by virtue of mass incarceration. Okay, so for those in my case, not by virtue, particularly myself, but perhaps for some of you and droves of other women out there that may be victims of this by default. How do you create an equilibrium for the sake of sanity, for the sake of balancing things out? Because my episode, my podcast, is about finding an equilibrium and balance to alleviate and soften the blows for women by default that have to bear these burdens. I would just say that one of the problems we have in Durham is that people don't know about a lot of the resources that we have in this community. We actually are an incredibly resource rich community, but one of our biggest problems is that people don't know about a lot of the resources right here. So I would just say without knowing exactly what you're looking for, what you need that. And again, I'm happy to give you my card, but we have so many amazing nonprofits and government services and sitting in county government programs in so many different departments that really can help you and your son and just that can help people. But one of our problems is we don't do a good job of letting people know and connecting people to the resources we have. And just speaking from an IPV standpoint, if that is an issue that a woman or a man has, there's so many resources out there too, regarding housing, regarding food and transportation, that certainly I can give you my information as well if you wanna talk more about that. Yeah. And I don't wanna do it in terms of putting the onus on you, but as you were speaking, I was speaking on my own experiences as a single mother and thank goodness for my community. I think we have to do unfortunately or fortunately more work in terms of creating and building community in terms of folks who can support us so that it's very difficult to do it on your own. But I think, you know, if folks in your city are saying they're resources, you definitely have to find the ways to figure out what they are and how you can access them. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay, we don't have more questions. So this concludes the Q&A session. I'd like to maybe ask you that we are gonna have go into the final part of our forum, which is the reception. But before we adjourn, I'd like to ask you to say a good run of applause to our panelists. They've been great. Thank you very much. We're very proud of you. Very helpful, all the information that you gave us. And I also would like to ask you to give a run of applause to yourself for coming, for all the people who asked the question. And now, thank you very much for coming to the 16th Annual Women's Forum. And I would like to invite you to come again to next year to the 17th edition of our forum. It has been a pleasure to be with all of you this afternoon. Thank you again for coming. So please come into the reception area. Okay, I've been instructed that we are going to let the panelists leave at this time, right? Yes, okay, the volunteers please come and escort the panelists. Thank you very much. So yeah, they will leave first because they would like now go to their booth and they are going to be at their booth waiting for all of you. And you are welcome to come and say hello, talk to them, ask any question that you haven't asked and stay with them as long as you want to and do the networking opportunity with all of us and that we have the food. Thank you and I'll see you next year. Thank you.