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On this week’s show we’re exploring how some women have been dehumanized to the point of indifference.
We’ll learn how one community is undoing the silence around the violence women of color face. We’ll also hear about how serial killers were able to hunt down mostly Black women for three decades in South Los Angeles. Then we’ll take you to the Yucatan where pregnant indigenous women struggle under a health care system failing to provide proper medical care.
Thanks to the Mary Wohlford Foundation for funding towards this program.
- Host: Laura Flynn and Jasmin Lopez
- Contributing Producers: Rochelle Robinson and Karen Stefan Tenorio
- Featured music:
- Blue Dot Sessions, Farsical Slow Driver, Inside the Origami Violin, Tanguedo
- Trans Alp, Gnossienne N1, Gnossienne N3
- Black Ant, Fater Lee
- Broke For Free, Night Owl
- Phour Trakk, Long Transfer
- Kai Engel, Written in Ink
More information:
- Her Resilience
- Kimberly Robertson’s obituary
- Black Coalition Fighting Back Serial Murders
- Sojourner Truth Radio
- HBO Tales of the Grim Sleeper
- LA Weekly, Grim Sleeper Returns: He’s Murdering Angelenos, As Cops Hunt His DNA
- The Grim Sleeper timeline
- Nick Broomfield
- Sociedad Mexicana Pro Derechos de la Mujer, A.C.
- Accountability in Maternal and Reproductive Health: Experiences from Civil Society from India, Mexico, and Nigeria
- Femicide in Mexico: Mapping of Silence
- Archival Footage:
Normalizing Violence Puts Black Women’s Lives at Risk
Making Contact’s fellow Rochelle Robinson brings us this story exploring how violence against women, especially women of color, is so pervasive that we’re numbed into thinking it’s nothing less than normal. While the homicide rate for Black women has decreased over the years nationwide, in 2010, the rate was twice as high for Black women than all female victims combined. In this story the first voice you’ll hear is Kimberly Smith, and then Rochelle Robinson as they talk about their own brushes with death.
How Serial Killers Stalked Black Women in South Los Angeles
In the 1980s in South Los Angeles more than a dozen black women were murdered. Many of these women’s bodies were found in parks, alleyways, and dumpsters.It’s believed somewhere between 3 and 5 different serial killers were targeting the South LA community in the 80s and 90s. One suspect, Lonnie Franklin, Jr., the so-called Grim Sleeper, is facing 10 counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. Chester Turner has already been convicted for killing 14 women. As these murders continued for three decades, Margaret Prescod and her group, The Black Coalition Fighting Back Serial Murders, were the few people to warn community members. Margaret is featured in a documentary by British filmmaker Nick Broomfield called Tales of The Grim Sleeper. Throughout those years the Black Coalition has been critical of the Los Angeles Police Department and city officials, demanding more coverage and attention for the murders. Margaret talks about what it was like trying to get the LAPD and the city to take the murders seriously. This piece was produced by Laura Flynn.
Obstetric Violence in Mexico
In Mexico an indigenous woman is three times more likely to die during childbirth or postpartum than a non indigenous woman. Both culture and government policies play a role in the violation of their rights, which often leads to death. Reporter Jasmin Lopez went to the Yucatan to find out more. This piece was produced in collaboration with reporter Karen Tenorio.
More stories like this:
Not Throw Away Women: Black and Indigenous Women Disrupt Violence ENCORE
Making Contact’s Violence Against Women of Color Live Chat
Storytelling fellow Rochelle Robinson on normalized violence against black women.
#SayHerName: Black Women, Police Violence, and Abolition
East Oakland Mural honors women effected by violence
