Courageous TR UTHS COURAGEOUS BEGINS: Beloved, can you believe it? It’s a brand new year already! We endured 2020, began recovery in 2021… what is possible in 2022?! We’ll talk about some incredible possibilities in this article as we step away from the storytelling aspect to set expectations for what you will experience with us this year. If you’ve been keeping up with us for 2021, firstly we thank you. Secondly, we want to further clarify what we were doing to provide a foundational understanding of our work - changing the narrative for Black women dealing with domestic violence (DV). To even understand what the Black woman deals with during DV - and that it’s different from what other women deal with - you have to understand the things we’re actually dealing with and what they look like. Why do women, any women, stay in abuse? How about because many times these women DON’T KNOW THEY’RE BEING VICTIMIZED BECAUSE THE BEHAVIOR FEELS NORMAL TO THEM. After my 2-part interview featured in early 2021 and the May 2021 article introducing our organization, we set out to help our readers understand the lesserknown types of DV, and even shared some of the tactics more often utilized in these types through storytelling. What does that mean? We took the information from our own situation and other Black women we’ve talked to, as well as trusted sources’ information and definitions and personified that into a named character to help you understand the real-life feel of these types of abuse. In June 2021, we talked about emotional abuse and the common tactic of gaslighting1 . In July, we talked about digital stalking. In August, we talked about revenge porn and physical stalking. In September, we talked about sexual coercion and sexual abuse. In October (DV Awareness Month or DVAM) we took 15
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