How Should Hillary and Bernie Be Talking About Black Women in This Election?
Special Guest Janell Hobson Joins Agunda Okeyo for Black Women in Conversation: What About Black Women In the Presidential Debates. Last week in Brooklyn, at a Hillary Clinton Town Hall around the corner from Black Women’s Blueprint in Crown Heights, Executive Director, Farah Tanis was present. Tanis, was among the few activists and community leaders allowed backstage where she engaged the presidential candidate after listening to a one hour speech where she said nothing about violence against women and girls. Farah: Hillary I would have really liked to hear more about violence against women. We have to talk about that. Hillary: Yes we do. We have to end it. Farah: Yes in the most vulnerable communities (meaning POC + LGBTQ + immigrant + disabled, etc.) Hillary: It’s an important issue. It’s criminal not cultural. Farah: It’s both. Hillary: Yes that’s right, it is! While our democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders discusses civil rights and Hillary Clinton discusses women’s rights within the context of critical issues like a woman’s right to choose and equal pay, they both miss the mark on Black women. A formidable movement against campus sexual assault and rape in Black communities exists and it is led by Black women. Black women are also making the connections between the cyclical relationship between poverty, criminal justice and the heightened vulnerability of all women, and particularly women color to gender-violence. These are both civil rights and women’s rights issues. Issues critical to Black/African American women should rise today in the Democratic presidential debates, especially in light of the historic Congressional Caucus on Black Women and Girls launched this month and the The Black Women’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission convening from April 28 to May 1, 2016.