In my time with IAMSAC, Stevante Clark almost exclusively referred to women as bitches, Jewish bitches, African bitches, refused to acknowledge the experiences of Black trans women, frequently threatened to cuss me out in public to “embarrass” me, lectured me daily about how worthless I am without him, tried to make a move on me multiple times, threatened to pay someone to “take care of me,” threw things at me, withheld keys from me, blocked doorways, and tried to push me out of a moving vehicle and leave me on the side of the road.
My first question to myself was why I stayed. I think it’s because I wanted to help. I wanted to see him change. I wanted to sacrifice my safety for something and someone I believed in.
His pain needs to be seen, but two wrongs don’t make a right. I am no one’s punching bag. Abuse is NEVER okay.
Stevante once told me that working as high up as I was with IAMSAC comes with a price. But nothing worth doing comes at the expense of women. Racial and gender struggles are deeply intertwined, and we have to hold each other accountable even when it feels messy and complicated.
The most important work is done when we think no one’s watching. When we don’t speak out against behavior like this, we are teaching that it’s acceptable. Enabling someone is not loving them, and we are ALL responsible for the leadership we choose to follow.
I know he recently stepped down from the foundation but he still has his “events” llc so I don’t know if that’s important to mention or not. It’s a good start that he’s not in charge of the foundation but he can’t just escape responsibility by changing businesses.
Took me a long time to decide to share this, but I watched this happen live at the NAN march and found a clip, the screenshots are between me and Stevante, and I wrote out everything else I have to say. I’m thinking it will be better to share anonymously but let me know if that’s an issue.
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