Remedies
Ending Racial Assault and Battery
Assault is defined as intent to cause harm whereas battery is the actual carrying out of the harmful act. Almost every African Americans in this nation, irrespective of the person’s financial status or station in life, can point to instances when he or she was the subject of a racial assault and battery. White people who embrace equity can play a pivotal role in ending racial assaults. But first, White people must acknowledge the existence of white privilege and recognize that it is nothing more than a right one White person grants another, specifically, the right of access and the right to commit racial assault and battery without fear of confrontation from White witnesses. The following are steps Whites can take to help end racial assaults:
Call it out when you see it. Challenging racial assaults at the onset can prevent an attacker from accomplishing the harmful act (battery).- Persist in defending and combating the racial assault until the attacker backs off.
- Help spur the creation of new structures and services to aid victims of racial assault (free legal services to aid with personal civil lawsuits, mediation services, vehicles that provide public airing of egregious stories, etc. ).
- Impress upon media, through its advertisers, the importance of devoting coverage to instances of racial assault involving Black people.
- Grasp that the effects of racial assault are as life-altering and longstanding as sexual assault and other types of physical abuse.
- Role play with family and friends on how to intervene in order to stop a racial assault.
- Enlist others to help combat the assault because there is strength and protection in numbers.
