NCJ Number
143974
Date Published
1993
Length
16 pages
Annotation
The anti-rape movement in Los Angeles is examined with respect to the issue of racial and ethnic diversity, the State's involvement in establishing two new black rape crisis centers in the mid 1980s, and the consequences for race relations in the anti-rape movement in the United States.
Abstract
The anti-rape movement in Los Angeles originated from collectivist feminism and feminist social work networks. Five grassroots rape crisis organizations were started between 1973 and 1980. The bilingual, Hispanic-run East Los Angeles hotline and the multilingual Pacific-Asian hotline brought some minority women into the movement, very few black women were involved, and the predominantly black areas of the county were virtually unserved. Since 1980, when the California Office of Criminal Justice Planning began funding rape crisis services, the State has promoted a relatively conservative, social service approach to this work. However, State money during these years also furthered one of the more progressive goals of the United States anti-rape movement: to become multiracial and multicultural and to expand services to all women. The black, white, lesbian, and heterosexual women in the Southern California Rape Hotline Alliance work together despite conflicts. The events seem to confirm the predictions from the early 1970s that women of color would need to establish their own organizations to become active in feminist causes. They successfully work together in mixed coalitions when they have powerful common interests, but independent bases. 25 references