The Afiya Center is the only Reproductive Justice (RJ) organization in North Texas founded and directed by Black women. The Afiya Center is very unique in that we are one of the very few non- profit reproductive justice organizations in North Texas founded and directed by women of color.
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We seek to create an atmosphere where women’s experiences are the center of our thinking; addressing the unique needs of women, increasing awareness and advocacy around policies that impact women’s lives. By approaching HIV/AIDS prevention from a reproductive justice framework, The Afiya Center effectively and realistically strives to decrease new infections among women of color. The Afiya Center has been successful in aligning the organization with national women led organizations that focus on creating positive change in women’s lives especially women of color. In the early inception, the organization swiftly identified the intersectionality that exists between reproductive justice, high incidence and the prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS among women of color. The Afiya Center creates projects that improve the health outcomes of women living with HIV/AIDS, decrease new infections and promotes entrepreneur enterprise. It is the believed by empowering these women and equipping them with tools to generate wealth, they no longer allow their status to define them, rather they will define their status.
Mission: The Afiya Center is an advocacy organization dedicated to transforming the lives of Black Women and girls through Reproductive Justice.
Operating as usual
Trump has officially been impeached, again. The US House of Representatives voted to impeach President Trump on one article of impeachment on Wednesday, charging the outgoing president with inciting the January 6th attack on the US Capitol building. Donald Trump is the only president to ever be impeached twice, a historic precedent.
📷via: The Lincoln Project
#coup #capitolbuilding #whitesupremacy #trump #impeachment #impeachtrump
Cori Bush put this so succinctly:
"We have a mandate to legislate in defense of Black lives."
To hear these words booed by elected officials, after the attempted coup at the Capitol last week, tells us everything we need to know.
#coribush #coup #capitolbuilding #whitesupremacy #whitesupremacists #trump #democrat #republican
Amid calls for Trump to resign, the House expects to begin considering a second impeachment the president after he was formally accused of inciting insurrection ahead of last week’s storming of the Capitol. The House has requested Vice President Pence invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office.
https://www.reuters.com/live-events/the-fate-of-trumps-presidency-id2950114
“In our attempt to understand the structure of rape, it would be a grievous mistake to limit our analysis to individual cases or even to conduct our analysis only in terms of male psychology.
The only logical strategies for elimination of rape that would follow from this type of analysis would be a reliance on repression to punish and deter rapists. But as the use of the repressive paraphernalia of the state has generally demonstrated, further crimes are seldom deterred by punishment meted out to those who have been caught committing them. Thus for each punished rapist, how many more would be lurking in our neighbourhoods, indeed, in our workplaces and even in our homes?”
The struggle to protect Black girls and women remains. Unfortunately, Black women remain vulnerable to sexual violence due to the systematic oppression black women experience based upon their race and gender. These institutionalized practices and policies prevent equitable enforcement.
#Herstory #BlackWomen #AngelaDavis #AngelaYDavis #BlackPanther #Communist #Abortion #ReproductiveRights #ReproRights #ReproductiveJustice #RJ
"Rachel Hardeman has dedicated her career to fighting racism and the harm it has inflicted on the health of Black Americans. As a reproductive health equity researcher, she has been especially disturbed by the disproportionately high mortality rates for Black babies.
In an effort to find some of the reasons behind the high death rates, Hardeman, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, and three other researchers combed through the records of 1.8 million Florida hospital births between 1992 and 2015 looking for clues.
They found a tantalizing statistic. Although Black newborns are three times as likely to die as White newborns, when Black babies are delivered by Black doctors, their mortality rate is cut in half.
"Strikingly, these effects appear to manifest more strongly in more complicated cases," the researchers wrote, "and when hospitals deliver more Black newborns." They found no similar relationship between White doctors and White births. Nor did they find a difference in maternal death rates when the doctor's race was the same as the patient's.
“It is the first empirical evidence to describe the impact of the physician’s race on an outcome such as infant mortality,” Hardeman says.
With 5.7 deaths per 1,000 live births, the United States has a high infant mortality rate, and Black babies are in the gravest danger, with an infant mortality rate in 2018 of 10.8 deaths per 1,000 live births, compared to a rate of 4.6 White babies per 1,000 live births.
Infant mortality is defined as death during the first year of life, and 66 percent of those deaths, for all races, occur in the neonatal period in the first 28 days of life, with 14 percent within the first hour and another 26 percent within one to 23 hours.
When Black doctors delivered Black babies, their mortality rate was more than halved from 430 per 100,000 live births to 173 per 100,000, Hardeman says."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/black-baby-death-rate-cut-by-black-doctors/2021/01/08/e9f0f850-238a-11eb-952e-0c475972cfc0_story.html
Citing systemic racism, they say more work needs to be done to understand the tantalizing statistics in their paper.
Poor women, and specifically women of color, continue to fall prey to the surgical violence of sterilization abuse. Innumerable women unwittingly injured their bodies with the Dalkon shield and other potentially fatal methods of birth control, while physically and mentally disabled women are presumptuously defined as nonsexual and therefore as requiring no special attention with respect to their birth control needs. Reproductive rights, however, entail more than access to abortions and safe birth control methods.
Educator and activist Angela Davis became known for her involvement in a politically charged murder case in the early 1970s. Influenced by her segregated upbringing in Birmingham, Alabama, Davis joined the Black Panthers and an all-black branch of the Communist Party as a young woman.
She became a professor at UCLA, but fell out of favor with the administration due to her ties. Davis was charged with aiding the botched escape attempt of imprisoned black radical George Jackson, and served roughly 18 months in jail before her acquittal in 1972.
#Herstory #BlackWomen #AngelaDavis #AngelaYDavis #BlackPanther #Communist #Abortion #ReproductiveRights #ReproRights
Carol Anderson is an American academic. She is the Charles Howard Candler professor of African American Studies at Emory University. Her research focuses on public policy with regards to race, justice, and equality.
In an op-ed for The Washington Post in 2014, Anderson argued that the unrest following the 2014 Ferguson shooting was a manifestation of "white rage", or white backlash against African American advancement. The column was one of the most-read articles of the year, receiving thousands of comments, and Anderson was offered a book contract. The resulting book, White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide, expanded on the history of anti-black racism and retaliation in the United States.
#Herstory #BlackWomen #WhiteRage #CarolAnderson
Join the Street Team to discuss the topic White Privilege and the war on Black America. Our special guest will be Marsha Jones, Cerita Burrell, and the TAC Street Team in candid conversation about current events.
Join our Facebook Live at 6p CT to discuss White Privilege: The War On Black America.
"The carnage Black folk would have been subjected to had they done anything remotely close to what transpired this week at the capitol is unimaginable. The words etched in the Declaration of Independence “We hold these truths self-evident; that all men are created equal” couldn’t be further from the truth.
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When the smoke clears, when the glass is all swept up, we will see that those who objected to collective progress are ultimately a bunch of closed-minded people driven by the ugliness this country was founded on."
To expand on this point, Loretta Ross said that programs to slow population growth are unnecessary because, with the right programs and policies (girls education, female employment opportunities, adequate healthcare, and an end to the structural adjustment policies of the World Bank and IMF that have often been so damaging to countries’ self-sufficiency and sustainable development) in place, lower fertility and slower population growth would result naturally.
We understand that when people have the resources to truly chart their own path toward family planning, they make better decisions. The Afiya Center affirms our right to choose how our families look and when we begin them.
Loretta J. Ross is an African American academic, feminist, and activist who advocates for reproductive justice, especially among women of color. As an activist, Ross has written on reproductive justice activism and the history of African American women.
#Herstory #Blackfeminism #BlackWomen #LorettaRoss
See Y'all Soon!
"When the smoke clears, when the glass is all swept up, we will see that those who objected to collective progress are ultimately a bunch of closed-minded people driven by the ugliness this country was founded on."
Join The Street Team today, January 8th @6p via Facebook Live to discuss the topic, "White Privilege: The War On Black America."
White Privilege: The War On Black America
Well, look what we have here…
Even on the heels of Georgia’s historic moment, white privilege, systemic racism, and white debauchery continues to rear its ugly head. The chain of events that unfolded on the steps of Capitol Hill is a constant reminder that this country operates by two different sets of standards.
When protesters took to the streets last summer in the wake of the murders of George Floyd and Breanna Taylor, they were met with rubber bullets, hoses, pepper spray, and live rounds. Peaceful, seated protestors were hosed and threatened by police in helicopters.
The carnage Black folk would have been subjected to had they done anything remotely close to what transpired this week at the capitol is unimaginable. The words etched in the Declaration of Independence “We hold these truths self-evident; that all men are created equal” couldn’t be further from the truth.
When the smoke clears, when the glass is all swept up, we will see that those who objected to collective progress are ultimately a bunch of closed-minded people driven by the ugliness this country was founded on.
Join The Street Team on January 8th @6p via Facebook Live to discuss the topic, "White Privilege: The War On Black America."
The People's Lawsuit Campaign
The hard work, resilience, and determination of Black women remains undefeated.
2020 saw Black women organize and mobilize communities to demand justice and accountability following acts of police violence, declare Black lives matter, and vote in record numbers.
We're so proud that The Afiya Center, an advocacy organization dedicated to transforming the lives of Black Women and Girls through Reproductive Justice, is a plaintiff in our lawsuit. Their practical support fund, Support Your Sistah, assists abortion clients with transportation, drop in childcare and occasionally financial assistance to help cover procedure cost.
Thank you for continuing your amazing work throughout a tumultuous year. We look forward to what 2021 has in store for The Afiya Center as an organization and as one of our amazing plaintiffs.
From experts to everyday citizens, democracy works best when our lawmakers can hear the perspectives of folks from every walk of life. Without virtual testimony, our processes for passing laws are less safe, less accessible, and less informed by the experiences of real Texans, especially during this pandemic.
Find your state legislators at the link below and urge them to make virtual testimony available at #TXLege
https://wrm.capitol.texas.gov/home
White Privilege: The War On Black America
Well, look what we have here…
Even on the heels of Georgia’s historic moment, white privilege, systemic racism, and white debauchery continues to rear its ugly head. The chain of events that unfolded on the steps of Capitol Hill is a constant reminder that this country operates by two different sets of standards.
When protesters took to the streets last summer in the wake of the murders of George Floyd and Breanna Taylor, they were met with rubber bullets, hoses, pepper spray, and live rounds. Peaceful, seated protestors were hosed and threatened by police in helicopters.
The carnage Black folk would have been subjected to had they done anything remotely close to what transpired this week at the capitol is unimaginable. The words etched in the Declaration of Independence “We hold these truths self-evident; that all men are created equal” couldn’t be further from the truth.
When the smoke clears, when the glass is all swept up, we will see that those who objected to collective progress are ultimately a bunch of closed-minded people driven by the ugliness this country was founded on.
Join The Street Team on January 8th @6p via Facebook Live to discuss the topic, "White Privilege: The War On Black America."
Happy Birthday, Zora!
Zora Neale Hurston was an American author, anthropologist, and filmmaker. She portrayed racial struggles in the early-1900s American South and published research on hoodoo. The most popular of her four novels is Their Eyes Were Watching God, published in 1937. She also wrote more than 50 short stories, plays, and essays.
#Herstory #BlackWomen #Zora #Hoodoo #ZoraNealeHurston
When we protested last summer we were met with rubber bullets, hoses, pepper spray, and live rounds. Pregnant folks got shot in their bellies for even being near a protest. Peaceful, seated protestors were hosed or threatened by police in helicopters. We have no idea the sheer carnage we'd have been met with if we had attempted anything on this scale.
This is what systemic racism and entitlement lead to. America in its present incarnation, with its present leadership, teeters toward an arrogance, isolationism and self-importance that are the portals of moral decline and political self-destruction. When faced with an opportunity to respond to an active coup, the police decided that they'd prefer not to harm their friends, peers, colleagues. Harming peaceful protestors is one thing, but that would be beyond the pale. Even in the defense of the democracy they claim to hold so dear.
When the smoke clears, when the glass is all swept up, we will see that those who objected to collective progress were ultimately a bunch of very small people driven by the ugliness this country was founded on. And still, WE MOVE.
Don't call these protests, this is an attempted coup.
#Congresslockdown #congressriots #uscongressriots #usriots
Black folks are very active politically- even when we don’t participate in ways legitimized by the dominant culture.
The South has always had something to say, period.
We are here because we are tired, or frightened, or angry- but more importantly we are here because we still have hope. We really can make this place beautiful. As organizers our job is to facilitate worldbuilding, to engage our folks' radical imaginations in the service of creating a new world where we can live with dignity. We don’t do this as a lark, there is truly no other responsibility more urgent. The future is still a Black Owned Thing✊🏿✊🏾✊🏽
Senator Elect Reverend Raphael Warnock made history due to the tireless work of Black women on the ground in Georgia. Stacey Abrams is receiving much deserved praise, but every election there are Black women making waves. Working in a long line of Black women who saw how powerful their vote was - Black women who were willing to die for their right to access the vote.
We do our movements a disservice when we pretend that this kind of change is due to the work of any one person. If this moment is anything it is proof that community organizers get things done!
In this historic moment, we get to dream about what a very different world this can be- what will the Coronavirus fight look like with folks dedicated to caring for their constituents? What kind of change can we push for that will shift the quality of life in our communities?
Now that we see what it looks like to win, what will you fight for?
Congratulations Georgia!
#Warnock #Ossoff #Georgia #BlackWomen #CommunityOrganizing #Organizers #Senate #SenateRunoff #StaceyAbrams
“Work or starve” isn’t freedom.
Capitalism is anchored in the private accumulation of wealth and the pursuit of income through the market. The economic inequalities that result from these “private” activities are intrinsic to capitalism and create inequalities in what the philosopher Philippe van Parijs calls “real freedom.”
Whatever else we might mean by freedom, it must include the ability to say “no.” A wealthy person can freely decide not to work for wages; a poor person without an independent means of livelihood cannot so easily.
But the value of freedom goes deeper than this. It is also the ability to act positively on one’s life plans — to choose not just an answer, but the question itself. The children of wealthy parents can take unpaid internships to advance their careers; the children of poor parents cannot.
The issue of healthcare expansion will never be handled effectively inside a hyper-capitalist system because the lack of adequate healthcare keeps an underinsured class dependant on for-profit healthcare systems that benefit the wealthy while leaving us unhealthy. These systems can't address addiction properly because then there'd have to be a wholesale understanding of the ways poverty and disinvestment drive addiction rates.
Capitalism deprives many people of real freedom in this sense. Poverty in the midst of plenty exists because of a direct equation between material resources and the resources needed for self-determination.
When the political conditions are right, the antidemocratic and freedom-impeding features of capitalism can be palliated, but they cannot be eliminated. Taming capitalism in this way has been the central objective of the policies advocated by socialists within capitalist economies the world over.
But if freedom and democracy are to be fully realized, capitalism must not merely be tamed. It must be overcome. A better world is possible.
#Capitalism
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The Afiya Center (TAC) understands that the reproductive justice framework is a platform to create advocacy that is informed, self-actualized, and protects women’s reproductive health, rights, and justice. TAC also recognizes that adequately advocating for Black women’s comprehensive health includes ensuring access to all reproductive healthcare, including abortion care. Texas has become a high-profile battleground for reproductive rights, from Wendy Davis' filibuster to the recent Supreme Court victory striking down a state law that would have devastated women's health care access. In the midst of these public struggles, rarely do we hear the voices and demands of those often most impacted by anti-choice legislation: Texas Black women.
The Afiya Center (TAC) was created in response to that disparity. As the only reproductive justice organization in North Texas founded and directed by Black women, TAC aims to transform the relationship Black women and girls have with their sexual and reproductive health by addressing the roots of reproductive oppression.
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