10/08/2021
⚠️⚠️⚠️Trigger Warning Sexual Assault/Sexual Harassment at the work-place. Don’t read if you don’t have capacity, loved one.
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I am posting this request to ask for help for survivors of work-place violence that is happening right here in our community of San Diego County. We all know that you should not be fired, retaliated against, or lose income because the person, people and/or institution who harmed you are upset that you spoke up. But that is often what happens to Black Women and Femmes.
I am using my venmo, , to collect and send funds to 3 survivors who are going through. It is not safe for them because we as a community still need to do the work to talk about r**e culture, how we perpetuate it and how abuse that happens in workplaces and spaces, especially workplaces and spaces that claim to be fighting for social justice for Black, Indigenous and Melinated women and femmes, can be the most common places where this abuse occurs.
I believe these women and femmes who are coming forward and I believe the women and femmes who are scared to come forward because I have been someone who was and is scared to come forward about abuse I experienced at work at the hand of a supervisor. When I worked in hospitality, a white assistant manager, in front of managers and my co-workers, slapped me on my butt at work. Ya’ll, they slapped my butt so hard that it hurt to sit down. After they hit my butt, they laughed nervously saying that they wanted to do it because they saw it in a video and laughed again. Everyone cleared the area and they followed them trying to make sure what they did was okay. I felt all the feels. At that moment, I did not think about my safety or if folks would help me. I thought about how much I needed my job and how it would be turned around on me to be my fault. The assistant manager must have talked to other company leaders who saw and did not think it was in their power to act, because half way through my shift they came to my station where it was just the two of us and asked me not to tell HR because they were about to be promoted and something like this would mess up their chances. 20-something-Christina told them it was cool and not to do it again. “It’s cool and don’t do it again”?! I still beat myself up and blame myself for putting myself in that position, but I know now that it was not my fault and I did not put myself in that position. Today, I know that 20-something-Christina did not have the network I have today to be able to keep myself safe and my family taken care of if I would have went off and fought to hold that assistant manager accountable.
I am sharing my story, so you know that it takes guts to say something and it takes guts to stay and neither should be a punishment for the person surviving. Venmo so that we can show up for folks like 20-something-Christina so that she don’t have to take nobody’s s**t and to show these 3 survivors, and the survivors who are watching us and scared to come out, that San Diego County has their back.
ID: Red, purple and magenta background with white letters. The words read “Community Advocates for Accountability Survivor Fund. Exposing abusive and mysognyistic behaviors at work and in our community should not cost survivors their careers, safety or income. Three survivors in San Diego have come forward and have been retaliated against. They need us to show up for them in the following ways: Give Funds - Venmo . Share this post. Connect hashtag CA4A with resources for survivors (preferably outside of law enforcement).”
