Kaavya Asoka: In addition to your historical work, you’re the creator of a valuable resource for educators-the #FergusonSyllabus-which crowdsourced reading materials from Twitter and elsewhere to help teachers discuss Ferguson and race in their classrooms. How are black women affected by police brutality? And how are they shaping the concerns, strategies, and future of Black Lives Matter? Marcia Chatelain, professor of history at Georgetown University, creator of the #FergusonSyllabus, and author of South Side Girls: Growing Up in the Great Migration, shares her insights on the role of black women in today’s vibrant and necessary movement for racial justice. We not only miss half the facts, we fundamentally fail to grasp how the laws, policies, and the culture that underpin gender inequalities are reinforced by America’s racial divide. Say Her Name, for example, an initiative launched in May, documents and analyzes black women’s experiences of police violence and explains what we lose when we ignore them. They are not only highlighting the impact of police violence on these communities, but articulating why a movement for racial justice must necessarily be inclusive. Yet such cases have failed to mold our analysis of the broader picture of police violence nor have they drawn equal public attention or outrage.Ī growing number of Black Lives Matter activists-including the women behind the original hashtag-have been refocusing attention on how police brutality impacts black women and others on the margins of today’s national conversation about race, such as poor, elderly, gay, and trans people. They also experience police violence in distinctly gendered ways, such as sexual harassment and sexual assault. Often, women are targeted in exactly the same ways as men-shootings, police stops, racial profiling. But black women-like Rekia Boyd, Michelle Cusseaux, Tanisha Anderson, Shelly Frey, Yvette Smith, Eleanor Bumpurs, and others-have also been killed, assaulted, and victimized by the police. So far, the movement’s attention primarily to the experiences of black men has shaped our understanding of what constitutes police brutality, where it occurs, and how to address it. In recent months, the deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, and others have mobilized an unprecedented mass movement against police brutality and racism that we now know as Black Lives Matter. Marcia Chatelain and Kaavya Asoka ▪ Summer 2015Īt the Millions March in Oakland, Decem(Daniel Arauz via Flickr) They are carving out space for black women to fight for justice. ![]() The women of Black Lives Matter are not bending to the demands of respectability politics.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |