The Racial Violence Hub

Unit 5: Gendering Anti-Black Violence

Featured Photo from The Takeaway on WNYC on Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Women of Color, photo by Gregory Bull

How is the escalating violence direct at women a racial violence, that is, violence directed at women because they are Black? What analytics are available to us from Black women’s resistance?

View the following cases on RDIC:

Image from Rhoda Radar, click to visit the Sandra Bland case

“Spurred by the efforts of Kimberlé Crenshaw and Andrea J. Ritchie, the #SayHerName movement was born to shed light on “Black women’s experiences of police violence in an effort to support a gender-inclusive approach to racial justice that center all Black lives equally.” The #SayHerName movement is a response to the Black Lives Matter movement and the mainstream media’s tendency to sideline the experiences of Black women in the context of police brutality and anti-Black violence. An intersectional approach to police brutality and killings, as well as anti-Black racial terror, renders visible the experiences of Black women and girls, trans, genderqueer, non-binary, and queer people.” From RaceandDeathsinCustody

Understanding this contemporary era of anti-Black racial terror and subjugation requires excavating the gender-specific and gendered dynamics of anti-Black racial violence and necessitates a more inclusive conceptualization of the Black violable subject. A herstorical approach to Black violability does not preclude studying and acknowledging the particular historical and lived experiences of Black men and boys with anti-Black racial violence in United States. Rather it offers an expansive lens that renders visible Black women and girls and trans*, genderqueer, gender nonconforming, and queer people as victims and survivors of anti-Black racial terror.

Readings:

For additional reading, please see: