The #SayHerName movement is a social movement that aims to bring the gender-specific ways police brutality and anti-black violence affects black women, both cisgender and transgender, to the forefront of the discussion about police brutality. Its main goal is to raise awareness about the disproportionate number of black women and girls who are killed by police officers. The movement notices women, like Natasha McKenna, Sandra Bland, Mya Hall, Meagan Hockaday, and Alexia Christian, who would otherwise go unnamed and unnoticed by everyone. Many people are bringing this movement to mainstream attention, but the most notable would be Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw. Professor Crenshaw coined the term intersectionality, and is now spearheading #SayHerName alongside the organization she founded, the African American Policy Forum. One of the first major breakthroughs #SayHerName had that garnered national attention followed the death of Sandra Bland. Sandra Bland was pulled over for failing to signal while changing lanes, she was then pinned to the ground by a police officer, and her head was slammed into the pavement repeatedly. Multiple officers surrounded her and they arrested her and charged her with assault on a public servant. Three days later, she was found dead in her cell (Khaleeli, 2016). The story given was that she had hung herself, despite the fact that that would be impossible in her circumstances.
The work of the movement strives to address the way black women and black transgender women are treated by police in the same capacity we address police brutality against black men, and hopefully end it. The movement has virtually no room for improvement because it already collaborates with a much larger and similar organization, yet isn’t swallowed by it. The movement works with the Black Lives Matter movement, but effectively stands on its own. It has its own voice and lives its own life. It stands in solidarity with the message, ideals, and end goals of Black Lives Matter, but acknowledges that women are not being recognized. The intersectionality aspect of this movement lies in the way it addresses the increased brutality against transgender women, its recognition that mental illness plays a role in the increased likelihood of being killed by law enforcement, and its recognition that class also affects likelihood of police brutality, being killed by police or law enforcement, or facing sexual abuse from police.
This work is incredibly important in achieving racial equality, ending stigma around mental illness, as well as stopping police brutality against all genders. It also starts a discussion that can be uncomfortable sometimes but that needs to be had. Sometimes, when the topic of racism is brought up, white people feel as though they are being attacked or being blamed. Audre Lorde noted this in “The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism”. She observed how white women felt as though the guilt and blame was being placed directly on them when the topic of race and racial inequality was brought up (Lorde, 1981). While white guilt is uncomfortable and can make the discussion hard, having to live while being affected by racism and its byproducts is harder. #SayHerName helps us have the discussion in a way that eases the feelings of guilt a white person may have. It doesn’t place guilt on anyone but the people who are perpetuating racism, classism, and transphobia.
In her book Conquest, specifically the chapter, “Sexual Violence as a Tool of Genocide”, Andrea Smith discusses how rape and sexual violence has been a way that men have exerted power and intimidation over women for centuries and how men use it to keep women in a constant state of fear (Smith, 7). Police use this tactic on women, specifically black and black transgender women and girls to keep them oppressed and scared of them. One police officer in Oklahoma City preyed on black women in poor neighborhoods, hoping that their record of sex work or drug charges would undermine their credibility when it came to any claims they made of his sexual abuse (McLaughlin & Sidner, 2016). His abuse ranged from groping to raping the women. The victims were all black women, ranging in age from a 17 year old girl to a 57 year old grandmother (McLaughlin & Sidner, 2016). He used his status as a police officer as a way to intimidate and coerce the women and girls. This is not a one time occurrence – police officers and law enforcement have a lengthy history of sexual abuse against black women and girls as well as black transgender women and girls. Police officers do this to intimidate and keep them in a constant state of fear and to continue the cycle of oppression.
Acknowledging that class has a large part to do with the excess of policing of minorities is an important part of realizing that race is an undeniable aspect of police brutality. Racial segregation in neighborhoods exists because of racist practices like redlining and blockbusting which is meant to keep white neighborhoods white, and minority neighborhoods minority neighborhoods. Blockbusting makes minority neighborhoods poorer, forcing minorities to struggle economically (Lopez & Pedro, 372). Police then excessively patrol poorer neighborhoods, which are not coincidentally minority neighborhoods. Police will harass and arrest minorities for anything they can, despite the fact that they would not do these things to white people in white neighborhoods.
The “perpetrator” having mental illness has long been an excuse for the police to claim fear for his or her life and to get away with violence or even killing a person. Police often times do not know how to handle people with mental illness due to the widespread stigma behind mental illness and the belief that mental illnesses and disorders and the people who have them are scary and should be feared. The people who have these illnesses and disorders are calling the police or have the police called for them because they need help or assistance and are instead brutalized or sometimes killed. Black women and black transgender women with mental illnesses are at an even higher risk for this fate, and this is another aspect of the intersectionality that #SayHerName embraces and speaks loudly about.
For my art piece, I decided to make a poster one could bring to a protest. I chose to do this instead of a painting or a poem, because a monumental way that the movement is getting the word out is through protests and rallies. A poster that you could bring to a protest really exemplifies the heart of the movement. It says “#SayHerName” and has a symbol of the Black Lives Matter Movement, the black fist on the poster, to show the connection to the movement. Inside the hashtag and each letter of the words is a name of a black woman or black transgender woman who was killed by a police officer. The letters are outlined in pink and blue, because pink, blue, and white are the colors of the transgender pride flag. I decided to include the names, because making sure that names are at the forefront of your mind is one of the movement’s main goals.