Excerpt from Jasmine Sandifer's letter to Deaf Community Services (DCS) Board:

"Looking back, I continue to ask one question: what is a person to do when the very people that are supposed to be helping BIPOC clients are the same ones mistreating them? Not only were clients mistreated, but staff as well.  What would you do as an advocate when staff said, “I cannot wait for that girl to go back to the hood” regarding a Black client? What would you do if a person was calling your Black client the “N” word and nothing was done about it? What would you do when a director, who is white, said, “you can take the Black girl out of the ghetto but you can not take the ghetto out of the Black girl”? What would you do if your own boss informed you that you were “owned” by the executive director.  Both of them are white! 

I am one of the many staff and community members who felt oppressed under Executive Director Patricia Sieglen-Perry."

[full letter is available at bit.ly/Letter2DCS_DoBetter]

Jasmine is one of the two Black deaf employees who got terminated by DCS recently. They had three! This was only one of the many instances where the BIPOC deaf folks feel racism toward against them, do not feel safe to speak up, nor the equity they deserved in this space.

The current DCS board is mostly white. The current Executive Director Patricia Sieglen-Perry is a hearing white woman, who has been involved with DCS for 40+ years that she becomes a gatekeeper to changes, blocking any effort to create diversity & addressing systemic racism.

PLEASE HELP THE BIPOC COMMUNITY BY SUPPORTING THEIR LIST OF COMMUNITY DEMANDS & PETITION TO DCS & ITS BOARD TO ADDRESS SYSTEMIC RACISM THAT EXISTS FOR YEARS WITHIN THE ORGANIZATION. THE BIPOC DEAF COMMUNITY NEEDS MORE EQUITY & A SAFE SPACE FOR THEM HERE IN SAN DIEGO.

Community Demands to Deaf Community Services & its board:

. Executive Director Patricia Sieglen-Perry to resign, as well as HR Manager Lauren Gordon for creating a toxic and hostile working environment for BIPOC employees

. The next Executive Director (ED) must be a BIPOC Deaf person to ensure equity

. Establish a committee of BIPOC deaf members from the SD Deaf community to select an interim ED and to conduct the search, screening and interview for the next official ED

. Part of the process of interview for the next ED shall be in the form of townhall/community forum for Deaf community members to participate and build trust

. Reinstate jobs for Jasmine Sandifer and Razi G Speights-Hall and raise pay due to the trauma that DCS caused them

. Update bylaws to include term limits for the board as well as Executive Director position and create a more robust process with public transparency of how the board is elected to diversify the board

. Allocate funding to create programs that cater specifically to BIPOC community, including fund to compensate BIPOC interpreters at community events

. Update employee’s handbook with policy about anti-bias

. Require HR, staff, and board members to go through anti-bias training at least twice a year

. Create a safe space and tools for staff and clients to report incidents of bias and racism

. Procedural changes to require input from BIPOC community members for all decisions affecting the BIPOC community

. All updates and changes to bylaws, employee’s handbook and policy, as demanded above, must be made publicly for transparency

#DoBetterDCS #EndSystemicRacism #Equity4DeafBIPOC