{Sonya Massey}
Sonya Massey, an unarmed thirty-six year old Black woman, was killed in her home by a deputy on July 6, 2024. After she called 911 for help about an intruder in her home, deputies arrived, and one of them, Sean Grayson, shot three bullets at her, hitting her in the head. She died later that day at St. Johns hospital in Springfield, Illinois. A few of her final words to the deputy echoed throughout the minds of Black America: " I rebuke you in the name of Jesus". The shooting of Sonya continues to show many of us in the Black community that police were never and have never been made to protect us, especially Black women. Black women continue to be the most disrespected and unprotected people in America.
The idea that Black men are the only group in the Black community that face acts of white supremacist violence by police is rooted in misogynoir and patriarchy. Misogynoir, the intersection of racial and gender oppression against Black women, has allowed for the plights, deaths, and cries of Black women to be erased from the Black male psyche. In Brittney Cooper's book, Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower, she wrote, "Black men grow up believing and moving through the world politically as though they have it the toughest, as though their pain matters most, as though Black women cannot possibly be feeling anything similar to the dehumanization and disrespect they have felt". Even though Black women make up thirteen percent of the women population in the United States, they make up twenty percent of women killed by police. As victims of gun violence by police, Black women are also victims of sexual violence by them, as well. In Oklahoma, officer Daniel Holtzclaw forced a fifty-seven year old grandmother to perform oral sex on him. An investigation discovered that Holtzclaw sexually assaulted twelve other Black women over the span of twelve years. In Chicago, officer Earnest Marsalis kidnapped and raped a nineteen year old Black woman during an arrest. He was accused of violent behavior in more than twenty cases. Black women have never been excluded from the effects and pain of police violence in America.
Say Her Name, a movement created in 2014 by the African American Policy Forum and Kimberlé Crenshaw, an American civil rights activist and their co-founder, sought to highlight Black women who were brutalized, targeted, and killed by police and anti-Black violence. In 2014, three cases of Black men who were shot by police went national: Eric Garner, Michael Brown, and Tamir Rice. However, in the same year, three Black woman shot by police never made as much attention: Tanisha Anderson, Pearlie Golden, and Michelle Cusseaux.
On November 13, 2014, Tanisha Anderson was attacked by a police officer during her mental health crisis. The officer slammed her against the concrete sidewalk, placed his knee on her back, and handcuffed her as she lay face down on the pavement. The medical examiner ruled her death as a homicide. Pearlie Golden was murdered by police officer, Stephen Stem, on May 7, 2014. As the ninety-three year old Pearlie was waving a gun around, Stem fired five rounds at her; two hit her. On August 13, 2014, Michelle Cusseaux was shot by police while they were attempting to take her to a mental health facility. Officer Percy Dupra saw her holding a hammer and shot her in the heart. None of these officers were held accountable for these women's deaths.
In 2019, the same year of the murder of Stephon Clark by police, Pamela Turner and Atatiana Jefferson were also murdered by police. In May 2019, Pamela Turner was shot and killed by officer Juan Delacruz while she was having a mental health crisis. Atatiana Jefferson was shot and killed through her window in the presence of her nephew during a police wellness check by officer Aaron Dean on October 12, 2019.
In this patriarchal world, Black lives matter equates to only Black men matter. If your idea of Black liberation does not fight against misogynoir and patriarchy, liberation will not come. "When anti-racism does not incorporate opposition to patriarchy, race and gender politics often end up being antagonistic to each other, and both interests lose", Kimberlé Crenshaw said. The exclusion of Black women will not win the fight against white supremacy and anti-Blackness. It is either all Black lives matter, including Black women, or none of us do.
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