WE GOT THE MESSAGE …. BLACK WOMEN’S LIVES DON’T MATTER
The abject failure of the grand jury in Kentucky to hold the police officers responsible for the murder of Breonna Taylor accountable for their actions has sent a clear message to Black communities and especially Black women across the country.
Black women’s lives don’t matter.
The officers responsible for shooting Ms. Taylor to death in her own home will face no charges. The only officer to face any charges was indicted on a charge of “wanton endangerment” –not for the death of Breonna Taylor but for firing recklessly into her neighbor’s apartment.
Black women’s lives don’t matter.
Black women experience disproportionately high rates of violence whether it be individual or institutional, physical, lethal or sexual violence. While it is true that women, in general, are less likely to be killed by police than young black males, the impunity afforded the police responsible for the killing of 48 Black women in the past 5 years is no less painful. According to the New York Times only two officers in the past five years have faced charges for the shooting of Black women, and one of those officers was acquitted.
Black women’s lives don’t matter.
Recent weeks have driven this message home through reminder after painful reminder of the jeopardy faced by women of color in America. The alleged “mass hysterectomies” of detained immigrant women without their informed consent, also known as forced sterilization, at the Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia is yet another horrific reminder of the way that systemic racism, the dehumanizing of immigrants and misogyny manifest in institutional and de facto state sponsored violence against women of color. These revelations by Dawn Wooten, a brave human rights defender, bring to memory America’s dark and frequently forgotten history of medical experimentation, forced sterilization, reproductive coercion and other reproductive injustices endured by Black, Brown and Latina women.
Black, Brown and Latina women’s bodies don’t matter.
On September 18th, after the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, former Supreme Court Justice, also known as the Notorious RBG- women are preparing for the inevitable attacks on abortion access, healthcare and women’s rights. If successful, we know restrictions on abortion access and healthcare are more likely to impact the health and well-being of women of color who remain disproportionately impacted by health disparities. Black women in particular have been subjected to a long history of reproductive control and oppression, and continue to face unacceptably high rates of maternal mortality and stress-related medical conditions. Black women are increasingly being denied access to abortion and comprehensive reproductive and gender affirming health services and remain the primary targets of child welfare policing and the foster system.[1]
Black women’s rights don’t matter.
We know that Black women experience the highest rates of stops, police violence, arrests, incarceration, and carceral control among women, and represent the fastest growing prison and jail populations in the country. Black women increasingly bear the brunt of the financial impacts of mass incarceration and experience some of the highest rates of poverty and unemployment.
As communities of color are still reeling from COVID-19, Black women are shouldering disproportionate health and economic impacts while serving as essential workers on the frontlines of the pandemic.
WE GOT THE MESSAGE — NOW IT IS OUR TURN TO BE HEARD.
Black Lives Matter, Black Women’s Lives Matter!
Miami Workers Center joins the urgent calls from across the country for increased police accountability, for accurate data on Black deaths and violence experienced by Black people at the hands of police. We don’t just want justice- we want the senseless deaths of Black people at the hands of police to stop. We demand structural reform of policing.
We stand in solidarity with Dawn Wooten and the brave immigrant women who have come forward to report inhumane and cruel human rights abuses. We demand reproductive justice.
We stand ready to defend our bodies, rights, and our democracy!
We will take time to grieve, mourn and find some healing because honestly this is overwhelming. And then WE FIGHT LIKE HELL!
SISTERS, LET’S SEND A LOUD MESSAGE THIS NOVEMBER & BEYOND: BLACK WOMEN’S LIVES MATTER!
IF YOU ARE READY TO FIGHT, JOIN US!
- RESIST: JOIN OUR WOMEN’S CIRCLE ON THE THIRD THURSDAY OF EACH MONTH TO BREATHE, REST, REFLECT, MEDITATE, RECHARGE, & HEAL
- REGISTER TO VOTE BY OCTOBER 5th!
- SIGN UP TO BE A POLL MONITOR
- VOTE LIKE YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT… IT DOES.
THEY WILL HEAR US. THEY WILL SEE US.
BLACK WOMEN’S LIVES MATTER!
Santra Denis, Interim Executive Director, Miami Workers Center
The Miami Workers Center is a strategy and action center whose purpose is to build the power and self-determination of south Florida’s most oppressed communities. We employ an intersectional approach linking gender, race, and socio-economic status understanding the contributions and needs of women, girl and femme must be the basis for a social justice agenda.
[1] https://m4bl.org/policy-platforms/end-the-war-black-women/
