We Are Worth Defending: A Case Study for ESD & Social Justice
Interview with ESD Professional Julie Harmon, Ph.D
In the Empowerment Self-Defense (ESD) community, we find ourselves surrounded by inspiring humans. Changemakers, warriors for peace, rebels, and disruptors are not the exception, but the rule. When we feel down about the violence we see in the world, we never have to look far to find a boost of optimism. ESD is the closest thing we know to bottling hope.
This month, we are pleased to bring you an interview with one such inspiring individual. Founding Board Chair for the Association of ESD Professionals, Julie Harmon is Director of IMPACT Safety at LifeCare Alliance in Columbus, Ohio. LifeCare Alliance recently hosted the first “We Are Worth Defending" ESD instructor training for black women, coordinated by program manager Venica Miller.
About the We Are Worth Defending Program
ESD is one way to address the complex relationship that black women have to self-defense.
The goal is to offer empowerment self-defense (ESD) to everyone, especially groups that are systematically targeted with violence. Black women have always been vulnerable to violence and at the same time historically have a complicated relationship with the choice and ability to protect themselves. In the face of oppression and unfair and unequal treatment by law enforcement, self-defense is a complex topic that contains much to unpack.
To unpack it, one must look at complex laws, oppressive institutions, systemic racism, family and cultural dynamics, historical trauma, and other intersections of oppression. Four out of every 10 black women have been victims of rape, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetimes. This means that more than 6 million black women are survivors. Much of this abuse has come in the form of physical and sexual abuse in both childhood and adulthood.
ESD is one way to address the complex relationship that black women have to self-defense. This methodology considers the root causes of violence, whether motivated by societal and systemic oppressions, mental illnesses including substance abuse, or other causes. Empowerment self-defense also explores the myths of aggression: perpetrator profile, societal contexts of resources, legal systems, and the criminalization of self-defense among marginalized populations.
IMPACT Safety has found low participation rates among black women in ESD classes. To change this, they have sought to understand the barriers they might face in attending classes and accessing information, as well as exploring if black women even feel self-defense is important to them. The We Are Worth Defending project aims to create an ESD course that meets the specific needs of black women and then to recruit them to train to become ESD instructors and share ESD programming in their communities.
The Association is proud to have supported this IMPACT Safety program along with ESD Global and others. By expanding access to ESD training to black women in Ohio, Julie, IMPACT Safety, and LifeCare Alliance have furthered social justice on the ground with intention and humility.
Our Interview with Director Julie Harmon, Ph.D
Empowerment is about creating choice. Choice is freedom. To be able to consciously, meaningfully, and totally experience felt choice is so important. It is a springboard for growth, change, consciousness, and being able to experience the furnace of life. ESD opens the doors for an experience that is life-changing.
The Association: Why is it so important to provide empowerment self-defense training to black women?
Julie Harmon: Women of color have, because of historic trauma and the way that self-defense gets played out in our communities, a very complicated relationship with what self-defense means. This is an opportunity to explore what's underneath that and to see how people want to move forward.
Empowerment is about creating choice. Choice is freedom. To be able to consciously, meaningfully, and totally experience felt choice is so important. It is a springboard for growth, change, consciousness, and being able to experience the furnace of life. ESD opens the doors for an experience that is life-changing.
I have three very close friends who are women of color. I’ve known them for 20 years. I know that I can never get them to take a class. I’ve listened to the reasons why. I know that self-defense is a culturally complex, deep issue. It intersects so many aspects of life.
I wanted a safer space for exploration, community, growth, and healing.
Association: Historically, how has IMPACT Safety sought to serve vulnerable populations? How have those efforts evolved over time?
JH: IMPACT Safety started almost 30 years ago in Columbus, Ohio. I know this city and have been part of the slowly evolving, or dissolving, culture of equality. I worked in non-profit mental health, social services. From our first class, back when we were Fight Back of Central Ohio, we have always served vulnerable populations. As relationships with organizations grow and change, so has the way we serve. Mostly, we collaborate within/without the structure to ensure shared vision and goals.
Thirty years ago we delivered programs, one at a time. Our relationships with our community organizations had not yet solidified; we were new and unknown and had a budget of near zero.
Association: Can you say more about the criminalization of self-defense?
JH: Self defense laws are so varied. As practitioners, it is helpful to know the laws where you practice—you are the expert—as well as resources. Know your community. As far as nuance and social awareness, there are countless discussions, activities, dialogue questions, which, when given space in a curriculum, open discussion around impact and create an opportunity to learn.
Association: What does it mean to create an ESD course for a population that carries so much historical and current trauma?
JH: At this point in time, it is as much about wanting to create a safer space within ESD. When we say, “a characteristic of ESD is that violence is viewed in context,” we want to ensure that we indeed are valuing the contexts of all.
Association: How will recruiting more women of color (and other key demographics) to be ESD instructors enhance the ESD movement, provide better-informed instruction, and otherwise support communities that are vulnerable to violence and abuse?
JH: People tend to trust those they know, or know of, or someone who is out of town and an “expert.” We have 15 local WOC on their path to ESD certification! Having ESD instructors within our social service systems, schools, youth programs, church groups, and more can only support our communities in prevention and healing.
Empowerment self defense should be a prerequisite for middle school and high school graduations. ESD principles and boundary setting skills help save lives and prevent violence. The more that message is spread, understood, and conceptualized as “skills” we can all learn, the more we will be able to change the culture.
Read more about the We Are Worth Defending training in this recent article, or check out the Impact Safety website or Facebook page to learn more about this organization!
Would you like to share about your ESD work, or do you think a certain ESD organization should be featured? Reach out at toby@esdprofessionals.org about contributing to the Association of ESD Professionals blog!