Protect Black women.
Wow, it has been a rough time. Between the shooting of Jacob Blake, the release of footage of the murder of Daniel Prude, the murder of Naytasia Williams in Indianapolis (follow #JusticeForTaysia on Twitter), and the death of real-life Black superhero Chadwick Boseman, I am deeply tired. Even over the few days it took to write this, I read more reports of Black women dying from both interpersonal and state violence. Even if I have battle fatigue, I know I will replenish my cup and keep on fighting. I encourage you to take care of yourself and fight for Black women, too.
– Malana
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TAKE ACTION
Believe Black women when they say they have been harmed.
Use the term “lynching” with respect to its historical context of state-sponsored racial and sexual terror, not as a metaphor for public ridicule.
Contact your U.S. Senators to push the Emmett Till Anti-lynching Act forward.
Support organizations like Survived and Punished, Black Women’s Blueprint, and SisterSong.
GET EDUCATED
Note: Because this article discusses lynching as well as violence against Black women, please be aware that the content may be triggering, and links may contain disturbing images. Read with care.
On July 12, rapper Tory Lanez shot fellow rapper Megan Thee Stallion in the foot when she was exiting a vehicle (Billboard). Many people did not believe Megan was actually shot, leading her to post a picture of her gunshot wound on social media. Many people made jokes at Megan’s expense or even argued in favor of Tory, saying he experiences greater racial oppression and is being “lynched” in the court of public opinion. She didn’t name Lanez as her assailant until over a month later, choosing to protect him because of a fear they would both be attacked by police. With that in mind, I want to talk about a subject that gets glossed over way too frequently: lynching's effect on Black women.
Black women have always been at the forefront of fighting lynching, with women like Ida B. Wells (YouTube) and Mamie Till Mobley (Emmett Till’s mother) leading the charge (PBS). Despite the deep personal pain it caused, Till Mobley's insistence on an open casket so that “the world [could] see what they did to my baby” galvanized the Civil Rights Movement. While these women do not nearly get the praise they deserve, even less talked about are the female victims of lynching (The Conversation).
Take, for example, Laura Nelson, a Black Oklahoman gang-raped and lynched alongside her son (STMU History Media). A postcard of her hanging body was a widely distributed souvenir and served as the only surviving photo of a Black woman lynching victim. Whether in the form of lynching mementos or jokes at Megan Thee Stallion’s expense, the grotesque enjoyment people derive from Black women’s pain is nothing new. It is misogynoir, or the specific hatred of Black women where both gender and race play a critical role (Moyazb).
Even though lynching is a white supremacist act, Black women are not safe from its effects even when dealing with other Black people. The assumption that lynching only affects men has been weaponized against Black women who speak out against sexual violence. Clarence Thomas called the Anita Hill hearings a "high tech lynching (Washington Post)" R. Kelly called #MuteRKelly a lynching too (The Undefeated, RollingStone). By invoking lynching—and white women’s false claims of rape that often accompanied them—these predatory Black men distort the history of lynching to maintain patriarchal control over Black women. When less than 1 in 15 Black female victims of rape report (often citing wanting to protect Black men from police as a motivating factor in remaining silent), the misuse of the term lynching has real consequences (Ujima Community).
As Black feminist scholar Hazel Carby has stated, "The institutionalized rape of black women has never been as powerful a symbol of black oppression as the spectacle of lynching. Rape has always involved patriarchal notions of women, outwardly inviting a sexual attack” (See “Rape and the Inner Lives of Black Women”).
A sexually confident Megan Thee Stallion is viewed as being “too fast” and “too loose,” allegedly inciting the violence perpetrated against her. This dynamic persists even after death: George Floyd's name is synonymous with the Black Lives Matter protests. In contrast, sexual assault and murder victim Toyin Salau's name has been lifted up almost exclusively by other Black women. Intersectionality, a topic we discussed in a previous newsletter, is important to remember as we watch these discrepancies unfold. Learn more about it in Kimberle Crenshaw’s TED Talk.
In trying to write about the recent death of Naytasia Williams, a Black and Asian woman, rapper, and exotic dancer murdered at the end of August struggled to even find her last name. Her murder has all the hallmarks of lynching’s legacy: a hypersexualized Black woman, murdered in cold blood by a security guard, whose pain was sickly enjoyed by a group of police refused to call paramedics as she died. While we cannot bring her back, we can support her family (GoFundMe), fight against the erasure of her life and story, and fight for Black women now and always.
key takeaways
Lynching isn’t a term that specifically applies to men. Black women have been and continue to be victims of racialized violence
Misogynoir is the term to describe the unique discrimination that Black women experience.
The sexual and physical violence against Black women has largely been ignored.
Both white women and Black men have weaponized lynching against Black women survivors.
RELATED ISSUES
8/19/2020 | End the "angry Black woman" trope.
7/31/2020 | Keep fighting for Breonna Taylor.
7/17/2020 | Analyze representation in media.
7/16/2020 | Respect AAVE.
7/15/2020 | End racial bias in school discipline.
7/14/2020 | Embrace your race privilege.
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