Kimberlé CrenshawVarmennettu tili

Almost 5 years ago, over 25,000 protesters surged through the streets for Millions March NYC, an anti-police brutality demonstration fueled in part by grand jury decisions not to indict police officers for the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown. 2/13

What’s less known is that #SayHerName, a campaign to elevate the names of Black women, girls and femmes killed by police, also emerged from that moment. These names remain obscure--like India Beaty, Shelly Frey, Jessica Williams--even today. 3/13

So what is it about the killing of Black women that generally fails to foment outrage comparable to responses to slain men? The explanation may be that racist state violence has already been framed as a kind of male-on-male violence that only accidentally ensnares women. 4/13

It’s tempting to presume that BW become more frequent targets of violence because they're perceived by their attackers to be more masculine than white women. The stereotype that BW have less delicate constitutions than other races of women has roots in chattel slavery. 5/13

BW endured the same suite of draconian physical punishments as Black men, including floggings, brandings & mutilation. BW who worked in fields performed backbreaking physical labor, which gave rise to the perception that they were suited to serve as beasts of burden. 6/13

Those stereotypes remain operational in contemporary BW's interactions w/ police. But that POV, tho likely valid in many cases, sustains the idea that male-male conflict lies at the heart of police brutality & leaves little room for ills unique to BW's experience. 7/13

Distinct ways that Black women are disciplined have been harder to articulate, politicize and rally around. The #SandraBland encounter resonates uniquely with many BW because of a pervasive sense among us that BW talking back to white male authority is potentially lethal. 8/13

There's a sense Bland’s scenario was truly a BW’s “crime:” a combo of her race and her gender made Bland uniquely vulnerable to punishment. Encinia’s indignation was eerily familiar to many of us when video showed he opened her door & callously yanked her out. 9/13

Gendered codes of behavior expected of women interface w/ racism to frame BW as aggressive, threatening & uncooperative. Consequently, when cops are 1st responders, they often don't see women in distress, as they should have seen #TanishaAnderson when her fam called 4 help. 10/13

AAPF created a #SayHerName image that arranges the names of these unsung casualties in the form of a word search. Symbolism is simple but devastating: just as words in a word search are hard to pick out, BW get lost in the tragic roll call of lives stolen by state violence. 12/13