BIPOC and LGBTQ+ focused self-defense class in September 2024

I love teaching self-defense.

For years in high school, I had faced harassment on Trimet while waiting for and riding the bus. The conversations always got personal fast and I could never figure out how to stop them: “What’s your name? Oh, that’s interesting. What does it mean? What language is it? Where are you from? No, I mean where are you really from? Do you have a boyfriend?” These questions came from older men about my name, my age, what school I went to. I could never figure out how to end these conversations or what I was doing wrong.

It was only after taking a life changing class from Nadia Telsey at the University of Oregon that I understood what was going on. I was being targeted because of my race, gender, and age by these harassers. And those same identities, which I already had a complicated relationship with, also made me less likely to tell them to stop or to cause a scene. What if I was wrong and they weren’t harassing me? What if they thought all Indian women were bitches? What if, what if, what if?

After Nadia’s class, I wanted to take these skills to communities like mine. I was trained by and taught with Chimera Self Defense in Madison WI and then with the Center for Anti-Violence Education in New York. After coming home to Oregon, I started working as a volunteer with Rose City Self Defense.

This September, Rose City Self Defense is offering a special 9 hour class for folks who identify as BIPOC and/or LGBTQ+. As always, RCSD classes are free, and will cover a range of verbal and physical safety and self-defense strategies. I’ll be assisting with this class, come join us! Email rosecityself-defense@portlandoregon.gov to join the class.