Pretend Moslem Rastafarian, former Black Panther and real-life felony ex-con (armed robbery) drug lord racist thug Malik Rahim (born Don Guyton) with friends.
Dear Common Ground Supporters and Allies
Submitted by kerul on Tue, 2006-05-23 20:35.
We write to express our sadness and regret for the unacceptable incidents of sexual harassment and assault that have occurred at Common Ground and apologize for the pain they have caused. Common Ground is committed to breaking the silence. So often our society tries to hide these issues and we believe that by making them visible healing can begin and change is possible.
Common Ground is a microcosm of the world we live in. We find ourselves confronting daily--in ourselves and our organization--the problems we find throughout society. Racism, sexism and classism, alcoholism, substance abuse and violence are present all around us.
We have made it clear that we will not tolerate racist, sexist or homophobic remarks or actions, violence or threats of violence. As sexual harassment and assault have come to the fore, our efforts have not always been successful and at times our process has been flawed.
We have had communication failures and an absence of clear procedures that have led to inconsistent and unsatisfactory responses and we are now taking additional steps to insure these problems and actions do not happen again within Common Ground.
We take accusations seriously; reports have been investigated, people have been asked to leave, the police have been called and an arrest has been made when the situation warranted. We are improving security and response at volunteer housing sites. Members of our 24-hour security team are being trained to deal with sexual violation reports immediately. Our Conflict Resolution Team has revised policies and procedures for investigating allegations, and for holding offenders accountable for their actions.
We have formed gender caucuses and a men's group and have established on-call, confidential advocacy for survivors. We are working to provide education to all members of Common Ground regarding sexism, sexual harassment and assault and active consent, because in the end we are all responsible.
Every resident and volunteer has the right to a safe place to live and work. We are hopeful that these steps will address these internal issues, and we ask that the volunteer community work with us to carry out our strategies. We have faith that residents, volunteers and allies will continue to hold us accountable should we fall short.
We also want to express our support to survivors who have come forward and to those who have not. We respect and honor any decisions you may make, but if you have experienced sexual harassment or abuse at Common Ground and you are willing to contact us, we would like to know. If you would like to talk or need support of any kind, we would like to help. Please contact cgcsupport@gmail.com.
Again we express our deepest apologies for these sad events, and ask for everyone's support and cooperation in building a space and society truly rooted in equality, dignity, justice and respect.
