DeafHope just had our weekend DV/SV training for community members. Thanks to everyone who came and gave their time and energy for this important movement! (image: group picture of 16 training participants. in the back two people are holding dogs. in the front, there are two babies looking at each...
“Sabrina Blount is a victim of a violent crime. On April 7, 2015, two men, who she thought were her friends, drove her from Fayetteville to Raleigh against her will. They got her drunk and drugged her, then raped her. Not only that, they drove their vehicle over her body twice in a parking lot then left her there alone. Four weeks later, she is still hospitalized. She will have surgeries because almost all of her organs are involved in the damage. Her mother has lost her job and house because she has to take care of her. Sabrina has an 18 month old baby who is being taken care of by her grandmother for now. Your donations will be truly appreciated.”...
TRANSCRIPT The video opens up with black background and white text. “SEE THAT WOMAN OVER THERE.” An image of a slim white woman wearing a tank top sitting at what seems to be a bar counter appears in a circle. Her head and face isn’t visible. There is a glass with what seems to be beer on the counter. The screen becomes black again with white text “I’m going back…” A woman’s legs are shown walking towards us on concrete. The screen becomes black with white text “to court…” A woman’s legs are shown walking up concrete stairs. The screen becomes black with white text, “to see the rapist.” An image of the rapist appears. He is a white-appearing man with short dark hair and beard. The text, “to see the rapist again” is below the image. The screen becomes black with white text, “This time I’m going there for her, because she can’t…” Ruthie appears on screen. She is a white woman with short reddish/blonde hair and wears black square glasses and a black top with a zipper in front. She is signing with captions below. “When I see a woman with a black eye in public, I begin to have flashbacks of that horrifying night.” An image of a white house with cold snow and a tree in the background of the ugly white house appears in the middle of a black background. White text appears on the bottom, “I was kidnapped and trapped in his home…” An angry looking white man appears and then slaps a white woman. She looks at us covering her eye with...
TRANSCRIPT: Tara Holcomb, DeafHope’s Empowerment Director is sitting on a gray couch. Her blonde hair is down and she is wearing a black shirt. “Hi! I’m Tara, one of the EDs with DeafHope. We just released a PSA called “Derailers” and we got feedback that our use of PhotoBooth techniques to distort faces to show different characters actually derailed from the intended message of believing and supporting survivors. An important point came up about how we promoted beauty standards by using distorted faces to show wrong, bad, and derailing statements. While at the end of the video, the PhotoBooth effects were removed to show “nice” faces with proper comments. That appears to reinforce the message that people who look different and who don’t fit into society’s beauty standards are wrong and bad. We seem to be promoting that thinking. The feedback we received was valuable to DeafHope and we took the time to discuss it. We have decided to take down the current PSA and redo it without the PhotoBooth techniques. We really appreciate this opportunity to self-analyze, learn, and process it together. Thank you to everyone who shared those points with us. Going forward, if there are any issues, please know that we are open to feedback. You can contact us at deafhope@deaf-hope.org.” Black background appears with white text: deafhope@deaf-hope.org. Tara comes back on. “DeafHope has always been and will continue to work in solidary with survivors and continue to spread our message of supporting and believing survivors. We will continue to work with our communities. Sometimes the learning process can be painful but it’s an important part...
