Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, Sam DuBose, Philando Castile, Alton Sterling -- I heard about them all on black social media first and loudest before their stories were pushed up high enough to be picked up by main stream media.
Black women simply were not being given the same black attention.
When Miriam Carey was killed by Washington D.C., she was all but identified as a terrorist. In cheering for the D.C. cops that saved them from this fictional would-be terrorist, Congressmen cheered her death.
Eventually, black women like myself became tired of black women victims being ignored. The #SayHerName hashtag was created to add black women back to the black female created #BlackLivesMatter movement.
Korryn Gaines' death was all but ignored at the time of her death. Most of us have heard her name. But she was not lifted up -- not like "imperfect black men" have been lifted up. A select few black online magazines and black feminists stood up for her.
To be even more specific, black social media did not support Gaines; it did not take hold of Korryn Gaines story and repeat it and repeat it until it went viral, until she was a national news story for weeks.
Black women simply were not being given the same black attention.
When Miriam Carey was killed by Washington D.C., she was all but identified as a terrorist. In cheering for the D.C. cops that saved them from this fictional would-be terrorist, Congressmen cheered her death.
Later we find out,Most black folks know little or nothing of Carey's death in a hail of gun fire because black social media did not raise her story up.
- Carey made a u-turn in the wrong place;
- some white jackass out of uniform fell across the hood of her car with what looked like a beer cooler; she was unarmed when she drove away from said jackass;
- the police shot her car with her child in the car;
- and that the car chase wasn't nearly as fast and deadly as the police made it out to be.
And because only a few news reporters have related the details of Carey's story, it hasn't gotten the full court press it should have. And because nobody was leaning on police to straighten out their story, we don't really happened at the time of he u-turn --which would include the story of why that white guy, who likely scared the hell out of Carey, fell across the hood of her car with a what looks like a beer cooler.
Eventually, black women like myself became tired of black women victims being ignored. The #SayHerName hashtag was created to add black women back to the black female created #BlackLivesMatter movement.
As far as I can tell, this add-back movement #SayHerName only really worked for Sandra Bland. Timing is everything. The discussion on how to use #SayHerName was just getting underway good when Bland died. And Sandra Bland was lifted up by black social media. White mainstream news picked up her story and all of us know her story nationwide.A lot of imperfect black male victims have been lifted up by black social media.
- Alton Sterling, for example, had rape and domestic violence charges against him.
- Stephon Clark, who reported himself as despising black women on social media, appears to have been executed for vandalizing cars -- if that part of the police's story is even true.
- Korryn Gaines, somehow, must have gone a step too far in her imperfections
Korryn Gaines' death was all but ignored at the time of her death. Most of us have heard her name. But she was not lifted up -- not like "imperfect black men" have been lifted up. A select few black online magazines and black feminists stood up for her.
To be even more specific, black social media did not support Gaines; it did not take hold of Korryn Gaines story and repeat it and repeat it until it went viral, until she was a national news story for weeks.
Background: You may remember that the developmentally disabled Korryn Gaines barricaded herself and her baby inside an apartment with a gun. I'm not defending her use of the gun or the stand off. But white people who have barricaded themselves somewhere or other with multiple guns -- most recently Y'ALL QAEDA (VANILLA ISIS) -- and they got a lot longer than 6 hours worth of negotiation before shots were fired, if any shots were fired at all.Korryn Gaines deserved a full black defense. Yet it seems to me that, other than a few black feminists and writers at places like THE ROOT, Korryn Gaines was blamed for her own death. That's probably why there weren't any sizable protests on her behalf.
But there have been local protests for the mentally ill Saheed Vassel, despite the fact that it definitely looks like he had a gun, and he was definitely outside on the street making-out-like he was threatening people.
Known to be mentally ill, DeCynthia Clements lit a car on fire while she herself was inside it. When the smoke became too overwhelming, she rolled out of the car with a knife in her hands. Police shot her to death with real bullets, knowing she wasn't close enough to be a threat after just having discussed shooting her with rubber bullets if she sprang out of the car violently.
Do you know DeCynthia Clements name? Have you heard of her before today? No? This probably means you, I, and everybody else have not been hearing about a bunch of imperfect black women dying at hands of white police
And if black women are not being lifted up on black social media for months, then we definitely don't know about some black women that have died at hands of police at all.a
This means that it is a mistake to think the battle with white police over black lives mattering too is not about black women too.
Every time you see a headline that includes "Black Men Being Killed By Police" instead of "Black People Being Killed By Police" know that half the story is being left out --unless gender is being discussed as a factor in the black man's death.
The black community has to do better by black women. Lonnie Franklin, a.k.a. The Grim Sleeper, is the rare black serial killer who killed black women over the course of more than 20 years -- while black male "friends" that knew him also knew he routinely picked up sex workers and female crack addicts for sex...women who would wind up screaming inside a trailer behind his house.
The black community has to do better by black women in order to better by the entire black race.
Black women are black too and they are suffering from racism at the same rate as black men --even if it doesn't look exactly the same. We really need to look hard at how black women die in prison. But that's another police brutality story for another day.
If black women are 1 out of every 5 victims of police (blind guess), then 1 out of 5 nationwide protests ought to be for black women too.
And if anybody is going to part their lips at me to EVEN ASK if I shouldn't be protesting on behalf of Stephon Clark, then any black woman shot by police anywhere for any reason is eligible to be lifted up.
While Gaines had a real gun, it seems unlikely that long gun was in a position to be fired. It's a long gun and she also had her child in her lap or very, very close to her. And we all sort-of knew all this when she was shot because the child was close enough to Gaines to get shot too.
Korryn Gaines was recently vindicated. Her family received 37 million dollars in damages when a six woman jury found the force the police used was not reasonable.
Do you know DeCynthia Clements name? Have you heard of her before today? No? This probably means you, I, and everybody else have not been hearing about a bunch of imperfect black women dying at hands of white police
And if black women are not being lifted up on black social media for months, then we definitely don't know about some black women that have died at hands of police at all.a
This means that it is a mistake to think the battle with white police over black lives mattering too is not about black women too.
Every time you see a headline that includes "Black Men Being Killed By Police" instead of "Black People Being Killed By Police" know that half the story is being left out --unless gender is being discussed as a factor in the black man's death.
The black community has to do better by black women. Lonnie Franklin, a.k.a. The Grim Sleeper, is the rare black serial killer who killed black women over the course of more than 20 years -- while black male "friends" that knew him also knew he routinely picked up sex workers and female crack addicts for sex...women who would wind up screaming inside a trailer behind his house.
Franklin escaped justice for decades --not just because the white police had no interest-- but because the black women of the community were not strong enough without help from the black men in the community to find him and stop him.
The black community has to do better by black women in order to better by the entire black race.
Black women are black too and they are suffering from racism at the same rate as black men --even if it doesn't look exactly the same. We really need to look hard at how black women die in prison. But that's another police brutality story for another day.
If black women are 1 out of every 5 victims of police (blind guess), then 1 out of 5 nationwide protests ought to be for black women too.
And if anybody is going to part their lips at me to EVEN ASK if I shouldn't be protesting on behalf of Stephon Clark, then any black woman shot by police anywhere for any reason is eligible to be lifted up.
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