SEPT 12, 2020
Tonight at 6pm, Building Bridges Across the River (the DC nonprofit behind THEARC and the 11th Street Bridge Park) is celebrating its 15 year anniversary of THEARC with a virtual fundraiser, AfterDark@THEARC. I am sharing my experience as their former Director of Marketing & Community Engagement.

In 2018, I filed a complaint with the DC Office of Human Rights against Building Bridges Across the River, the founding nonprofit behind the Town Hall Education Arts and Recreation Campus (THEARC), a Ward 8 nonprofit. My complaint outlined three years of sexual harassment, racial and sexual discrimination, a hostile work environment, and retaliation. I wasn't the only Black woman who made complaints to THEARC's leadership about such treatment. Several female colleagues did the same (during and after their employment). I also wasn't the only woman who filed a complaint with the DC Office of Human Rights.

You may be asking yourself, how could this have happened to Nikki? How did Nikki allow this to happen to her?

You know, I asked myself those very questions, primarily when I was crying in my car on my way into the office to face another day of "Lord knows what." I've experienced many things; I never thought I would have to worry about my safety at work.

I always thought I was a "strong black woman," and I wouldn't stand for that kind of treatment, and honestly, for a long time, I did speak up. I did make people aware, I asked for help (many times), but it fell on deaf ears. Correction: my words fell on ears that intentionally didn't want to hear or do anything to disrupt the status quo. Men in THEARC's leadership told me to my face that they knew it was "bad" but that they needed to fundraise, so removing my harassers (plural) at that time was not convenient. My life, my safety, my sanity, and my dignity was not worth a dollar.

There were times that I was so close to sharing my experiences (and those around me) on Congress Heights on the Rise, but I stopped myself. I was embarrassed, and I was ashamed. It's been over two years, yet tears are rolling down my face as I write this. I don't know if that will ever stop. I don't know if I will ever stop being hypervigilant about the people in my space.

Like many women out there, I've been the victim of sexual assault (I was raped in college). I was also molested as a child by a family member. There is something particularly soul-crushing when you realize you're being victimized again as an adult. And that it was happening at a nonprofit, a Ward 8 nonprofit tasked with supporting Ward 8 residents (like me) was a pretty big and sad pill to swallow.

And I was conflicted. Yes, this organization was causing me (and others) a lot of emotional pain while diminishing our voice. I had been threatened with physical assault by a colleague, yet I always tried to stick it out, even protect BBAR from themselves. Why? THEARC provided (and still does) much-needed services to the east of the river community. How could I "hurt" THEARC when our nonprofit partners on the campus helped my friends and neighbors with programs and resources? That was the conflict. That was the Catch-22 of going public -- and they knew it. The very thing that made me so good at my job as the Director of Marketing and Community Engagement was also making it impossible to get my job to stop hurting me.

But ultimately, that decision was made for me, after another season of taking THEARC's leadership to task for not being genuinely inclusive of Ward 7 and 8 residents (I was the only senior member of staff who lived east of the river), the end finally came. On January 3, 2018 (my 41st birthday) I went into the office (expecting a birthday party) to find out I was being terminated and two other colleagues who had made complaints in the past. I can't say it was a total shock; the person who informed me of my termination (the now president) was the same person who warned me years before that BBAR would try and do just that because I kept speaking up about what was going on. Even after I left the harassment didn't stop, my first time returning to THEARC after being separated my car was vandalized.

What I didn't know (or know for sure) until after I filed my case with the DC Office of Human Rights was that the decision to terminate my employment came TWO DAYS AFTER I made a racial discrimination complaint against a group of affluent socialites who donate to THEARC. It also came ONE MONTH AFTER I made a #MeToo social media post that I was the victim of sexual harassment at work.

There is a lot more to this story (which I may tell at another time ), but today, I finally feel free to say what happened to me. It took almost three years, but the DC Office of Human Rights found probable cause that I was retaliated against because I disclosed racial discrimination and sexual harassment at Building Bridges Across the River. What happened to me was real, and I don't have to feel embarrassed or ashamed anymore.

I, Nikki Peele, matter.

The REAL REASON I stopped working at THEARC