“After the police killings of Eric Garner and Michael Brown in 2014, thousands gathered to protest anti-Black police brutality that December. We joined the march under a banner with the names of Black women killed by police. While Garner’s and Brown’s deaths justifiably sparked a wave of nationwide protest over lethal police killings, the public silence around Black women demonstrated that the killings of Michelle Cusseaux had yet to be memorialized in widespread activation and denunciation. So, we began chanting “Say! Her! Name!” and the #SayHerName campaign was born to cut through this disturbing reality and resist the invisibility of Black women, girls, and femmes by telling their stories of police violence.
The following year, the #SayHerName Mothers Network — a community of mothers and family members of Black women, girls and femmes killed by police violence—was created and brought together to attend the first ever #SayHerName vigil in Union Square. The Mothers Network emerged from the campaign as a recognition of the isolation and “loss of the loss” experienced by the family members. There was an urgent need to redefine a communal care ethic to support family members in the aftermath of police violence, as well as public failure to acknowledge the police killings of their daughters and siblings.
Over the course of ten years, this campaign has grown to provide an analytical framework to understand the ways in which Black women, girls, and femmes lives are not only taken by state-sanctioned violence, but then further erased by public silence.”
For three days I’ve been battling this illness alone. A severe case of the flu has exhausted me; my weak body can’t take it anymore. The cough won’t subside, and my fever worsens day by day. I haven’t slept a wink, not only because of the illness, but also because my bed is completely soaked with rainwater. I sleep on the cold floor, wet, shivering, and in pain.
I can’t eat anymore. Every bite hurts; my throat is inflamed, and my stomach is empty. I went looking for medicine, something to ease this pain, but it was too expensive, so I returned empty-handed, suffering in silence.
ALT
