Read the Room- We Can’t Continue to Erase Black Women and LGBTQ/Trans Folks From the Conversation on Police Brutality
We are only as free and safe as Black women, LGBTQ and trans folks are-so we’re all in shackles until we understand that their lives matter, too. All of us or none of us.
By Natasha Ivery
Iyanna Dior was beaten outside of a convenience store by a group of 20-30 obnoxious cishet men (to the point of fearing for her life) while they hurled homophobic slurs at her.
Dominique Rem’mie Fells’, a 36 year old trans woman’s dismembered body was found in a river in Philly and the suspect is a Black man who is nowhere to be found, but had a cutting tool and blood in his house.
Riah Milton, a Black trans woman was gunned down during a robbery in Liberty Township (Cincinnati) OH. Two of her murderers are Black men and one is a 14 year old girl.
A couple days ago, a group of Black men (some or all wearing “Black Lives Matter” t-shirts) threw a Black woman in a dumpster while laughing and recording as “she cried and laid there in defeat.” - Yannceé (@uhnopenottoday on Twitter)
Na’Kia Crawford was an 18 year old senior who just graduated high school and was supposed to be a Central State University Marauder this fall. Instead, her life was cut short when a 17 year old Black male and 2 others fatally shot and killed her in her car at a stoplight on Sunday, June 14th in Akron, OH.
Oluwatoyin Salu was just 19 when she was sexually assaulted, went missing and was found dead on June 13th after a protest in Tallahassee, FL after a Black man offered her a place to shower and sleep. Toyin tweeted about her seuxal assault at 5:30 am on June 6th and went missing shortly after. Her friends and social media knew about her being homeless after escaping an abusive family and how she was vocal and fiercely spirited on feminism and racial equality.
Tony McDade was a Black trans man who was shot and killed also in Tallahassee FL on May 27th.
Kirvan Fortuin, a 28 year old South African trans man and famous dancer/choreographer was stabbed to death in South Africa by a 14 year old girl after she allegedly called him a homophobic slur.
Breonna Taylor was a 26 year old Black woman, an EMT in the middle of a gotdamn pandemic who was shot 8 times in her own apartment by police- they killed her shortly after midnight on March 13th. Her boyfriend fired a shot that stuck and injured a police offer to protect her, but charges were dropped against him.
The saddest part besides the fact that these are all women and trans folks is that this is just this year’s laundry list, like a twisted Grammy Awards-only this time, the winners are police and racism.
In the wake of recent protests surrounding the shooting death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, national outrage and riots have sparked across the country. Enraged and tearful chants say the names or George Floyd, Eric Garner and the countless other men who have been victims of state sanctioned violence, but a common theme has been that the names of trans, LGBTQ folks and woman have been erased from the movement, an afterthought akin to a toy left on a shelf.
When Black men are killed, especially if there’s police footage, the world is turned inside out. Riots pop up like beads of sweat across the nation. Angry social media statuses, marches, protests, profile photos change, petitions swarm timelines.
When Black women are murdered, the same energy is rarely given. There’s a couple protests, some visibility graphics, but the main outrage about Black women being killed comes from Black women, not men. Where’s the same collective outrage enough to light a precinct on fire in her name?
When a trans/LGBTQ Black person is killed, the heartbreak piled on because the response is almost non existent except by the people in that respected community. Invisible; a whisper of smoke that dematerializes into the abyss of forgotten humanity.
Conceived in 2014 by the African American Policy Forum and the Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies, the #SayHerName hashtag was meant to amplify the names and narratives of Black women and girls who have also been the victims of police killings; people simply couldn’t name them the way they can name Tamir Rice, Mike Brown, or Freddie Gray.
There’s a long history of sidelining Black women’s lived experiences. It may be hard to conceptualize anti-Black violence against women because of the historical emphasis on Black men’s stories, stemming from slavery and continuing throughout history.
But this Black woman is exhausted, fed up and enraged.
James Baldwin famously uttered, “To be Black and conscious in America is to be in a constant state of rage.” Being a Black woman in America is fighting two fights constantly and getting killed within both.
The personal is incredibly political- Breonna Taylor getting shot 8 times in her sleep in the privacy of her own home should’ve been enough for folks to burn Louisville to char and ember, but it seems that for Black men and people to garner the same outrage for the executions, it has to be an excuse: a video, her name has to be all on the news, I didn’t research her, etc.
Listen to me well, because this is multifarious dialogue that needs to be had: None of us are free until all of us are free-we are only as free as Black women and LGBTQ/trans folks are. Since they are not, we’re all still shackled. If your Black Lives Matter doesn’t include Black women and LGBTQ/trans folks, it’s not intersectional and not worthy. I’m saying that with my entire chest.
To blame this lack of awareness on no video evidence is disingenuous and insulting, considering the fact that the BLM Movement exploded in the wake of two known killings that had no evidence: Trayvon Martin and Mike Brown. The bigger question is; why do you want/need to see the nefarious lynching of a Black woman on camera to validate her existence and death? Same with an LGBTQ/trans person-do you have to deadname them or sexuality shame them for them to matter?
Read the room. We keep missing the intersection of race, sexuality and gender when it comes to Black women and LGBTQ/trans folks getting slaughtered, and I’m beginning to think it’s because of deep seated internal misogynoir and willful ignorance.
Black women are victims of state violence and police brutality in very specific and gendered ways. That discussion needs to be part of each and every national conversation about the treatment of Black people at the hands of the police. LGBTQ/trans folks don’t just get shot, they get raped, set on fire, dismembered, decapitated. They die at the intersection of racism, sexism and homophobia. It’s painstaking, tiring and tone deaf-just like J. Cole’s song “Snow on Tha Bluff” was on subject matter and timing.
Black women and girls throw their livelihood on the line for Black men every single day-in motherhood, romance, politics, police brutality, etc. Let it not be lost that three Black women founded Black Lives Matter. That LGBTQ/trans folks are always front and center protesting for your right to live as we die at the hands of misogyny, miseducation and sexism/homophobia. It’s no excuse anymore not to mention us when you mention George Floyd, Amadou Diallo, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner and so many others.
For every Malcolm, there’s an Angela behind him uplifting, marching beside and for him. For every Philando Castile, there’s another Tete Gulley and Nia Wilson about to take their last baited breath at the blood soaked hands of White supremacy and toxic patriarchy whose remembrance of their contributions to the world and Black culture depend on you to say her name. We’re more than hashtags, social media graphics, Google searches and servants. Erasure is almost as heinous and breathtaking as the murder itself.
Say her name. Say our name. Hold it on your tongue. Scream it. Tweet it. Sit and exhale and cry with it. Laugh and dance with it. Uplift it. Cuss with it outloud. Travel to new places with it. Love with it.
Just never forget to say it.
