00:00:12
I'd like to try something new.
00:00:15
Those of you who are able,
00:00:16
please stand up.
00:00:20
OK, so I'm going to name some names.
00:00:24
When you hear a name
that you don't recognize,
00:00:26
you can't tell me anything about them,
00:00:28
I'd like you to take a seat
00:00:30
and stay seated.
00:00:32
The last person standing,
we're going to see what they know. OK?
00:00:35
(Laughter)
00:00:37
All right.
00:00:39
Eric Garner.
00:00:42
Mike Brown.
00:00:47
Tamir Rice.
00:00:51
Freddie Gray.
00:00:56
So those of you who are still standing,
00:00:58
I'd like you to turn around
and take a look.
00:01:00
I'd say half to most of the people
are still standing.
00:01:04
So let's continue.
00:01:07
Michelle Cusseaux.
00:01:15
Tanisha Anderson.
00:01:22
Aura Rosser.
00:01:27
Meagan Hockaday.
00:01:30
So if we look around again,
00:01:32
there are about four people
still standing,
00:01:35
and actually I'm not going
to put you on the spot.
00:01:38
I just say that to encourage transparency,
so you can be seated.
00:01:41
(Laughter)
00:01:44
So those of you who recognized
the first group of names know
00:01:47
that these were African-Americans
who have been killed by the police
00:01:51
over the last two and a half years.
00:01:55
What you may not know
00:01:56
is that the other list
is also African-Americans
00:02:01
who have been killed
within the last two years.
00:02:07
Only one thing distinguishes
the names that you know
00:02:11
from the names that you don't know:
00:02:14
gender.
00:02:16
So let me first let you know
that there's nothing at all distinct
00:02:22
about this audience
00:02:24
that explains the pattern of recognition
that we've just seen.
00:02:28
I've done this exercise
dozens of times around the country.
00:02:32
I've done it to women's
rights organizations.
00:02:35
I've done it with civil rights groups.
00:02:37
I've done it with professors.
I've done it with students.
00:02:40
I've done it with psychologists.
I've done it with sociologists.
00:02:44
I've done it even with
progressive members of Congress.
00:02:48
And everywhere, the awareness
of the level of police violence
00:02:52
that black women experience
00:02:54
is exceedingly low.
00:02:57
Now, it is surprising, isn't it,
that this would be the case.
00:03:01
I mean, there are two issues
involved here.
00:03:03
There's police violence
against African-Americans,
00:03:06
and there's violence against women,
00:03:08
two issues that have been
talked about a lot lately.
00:03:12
But when we think about
who is implicated by these problems,
00:03:18
when we think about
who is victimized by these problems,
00:03:21
the names of these black women
never come to mind.
00:03:25
Now, communications experts tell us
00:03:28
that when facts do not fit
with the available frames,
00:03:32
people have a difficult time
incorporating new facts
00:03:36
into their way of thinking
about a problem.
00:03:41
These women's names
have slipped through our consciousness
00:03:44
because there are no frames
for us to see them,
00:03:47
no frames for us to remember them,
00:03:50
no frames for us to hold them.
00:03:53
As a consequence,
00:03:55
reporters don't lead with them,
00:03:58
policymakers don't think about them,
00:04:01
and politicians aren't encouraged
or demanded that they speak to them.
00:04:07
Now, you might ask,
00:04:09
why does a frame matter?
00:04:11
I mean, after all,
00:04:12
an issue that affects black people
and an issue that affects women,
00:04:18
wouldn't that necessarily include
black people who are women
00:04:22
and women who are black people?
00:04:25
Well, the simple answer is that this is
a trickle-down approach to social justice,
00:04:30
and many times it just doesn't work.
00:04:34
Without frames that allow us to see
00:04:36
how social problems impact
all the members of a targeted group,
00:04:41
many will fall through the cracks
of our movements,
00:04:44
left to suffer in virtual isolation.
00:04:49
But it doesn't have to be this way.
00:04:54
Many years ago, I began to use
the term "intersectionality"
00:04:59
to deal with the fact
that many of our social justice problems
00:05:03
like racism and sexism
00:05:05
are often overlapping,
00:05:08
creating multiple levels
of social injustice.
00:05:13
Now, the experience
that gave rise to intersectionality
00:05:18
was my chance encounter
with a woman named Emma DeGraffenreid.
00:05:24
Emma DeGraffenreid
was an African-American woman,
00:05:28
a working wife and a mother.
00:05:30
I actually read about Emma's story
from the pages of a legal opinion
00:05:36
written by a judge
who had dismissed Emma's claim
00:05:40
of race and gender discrimination
00:05:42
against a local car manufacturing plant.
00:05:47
Emma, like so many African-American women,
00:05:51
sought better employment
for her family and for others.
00:05:55
She wanted to create a better life
for her children and for her family.
00:05:59
But she applied for a job,
00:06:01
and she was not hired,
00:06:03
and she believed that she was not hired
because she was a black woman.
00:06:07
Now, the judge in question
dismissed Emma's suit,
00:06:12
and the argument
for dismissing the suit was
00:06:15
that the employer
did hire African-Americans
00:06:19
and the employer hired women.
00:06:23
The real problem, though, that the judge
was not willing to acknowledge
00:06:27
was what Emma was actually trying to say,
00:06:30
that the African-Americans
that were hired,
00:06:33
usually for industrial jobs,
maintenance jobs, were all men.
00:06:39
And the women that were hired,
00:06:41
usually for secretarial
or front-office work,
00:06:44
were all white.
00:06:46
Only if the court was able to see
how these policies came together
00:06:51
would he be able to see
the double discrimination
00:06:55
that Emma DeGraffenreid was facing.
00:06:58
But the court refused to allow Emma
to put two causes of action together
00:07:04
to tell her story
00:07:05
because he believed that,
by allowing her to do that,
00:07:09
she would be able
to have preferential treatment.
00:07:13
She would have an advantage
by having two swings at the bat,
00:07:19
when African-American men and white women
only had one swing at the bat.
00:07:24
But of course, neither
African-American men or white women
00:07:29
needed to combine a race
and gender discrimination claim
00:07:34
to tell the story of the discrimination
they were experiencing.
00:07:39
Why wasn't the real unfairness
00:07:42
law's refusal to protect
African-American women
00:07:46
simply because their experiences
weren't exactly the same
00:07:50
as white women and African-American men?
00:07:55
Rather than broadening the frame
to include African-American women,
00:08:00
the court simply tossed their case
completely out of court.
00:08:06
Now, as a student
of antidiscrimination law,
00:08:10
as a feminist,
00:08:11
as an antiracist,
00:08:13
I was struck by this case.
00:08:17
It felt to me like injustice squared.
00:08:21
So first of all,
00:08:24
black women weren't allowed
to work at the plant.
00:08:27
Second of all, the court
doubled down on this exclusion
00:08:31
by making it legally inconsequential.
00:08:35
And to boot, there was
no name for this problem.
00:08:39
And we all know that,
where there's no name for a problem,
00:08:43
you can't see a problem,
00:08:44
and when you can't see a problem,
you pretty much can't solve it.
00:08:50
Many years later, I had come to recognize
00:08:52
that the problem that Emma was facing
was a framing problem.
00:08:59
The frame that the court was using
00:09:01
to see gender discrimination
or to see race discrimination
00:09:06
was partial, and it was distorting.
00:09:10
For me, the challenge that I faced was
00:09:12
trying to figure out whether
there was an alternative narrative,
00:09:17
a prism that would allow us
to see Emma's dilemma,
00:09:22
a prism that would allow us
to rescue her from the cracks in the law,
00:09:28
that would allow judges to see her story.
00:09:33
So it occurred to me,
00:09:34
maybe a simple analogy to an intersection
00:09:39
might allow judges
to better see Emma's dilemma.
00:09:44
So if we think about this intersection,
the roads to the intersection would be
00:09:49
the way that the workforce
was structured by race and by gender.
00:09:56
And then the traffic in those roads
would be the hiring policies
00:10:00
and the other practices
that ran through those roads.
00:10:05
Now, because Emma
was both black and female,
00:10:10
she was positioned precisely
where those roads overlapped,
00:10:15
experiencing the simultaneous impact
00:10:20
of the company's gender and race traffic.
00:10:25
The law -- the law is
like that ambulance that shows up
00:10:31
and is ready to treat Emma
only if it can be shown
00:10:34
that she was harmed
on the race road or on the gender road
00:10:39
but not where those roads intersected.
00:10:43
So what do you call
being impacted by multiple forces
00:10:49
and then abandoned to fend for yourself?
00:10:53
Intersectionality seemed to do it for me.
00:10:58
I would go on to learn
that African-American women,
00:11:02
like other women of color,
00:11:04
like other socially marginalized people
all over the world,
00:11:08
were facing all kinds
of dilemmas and challenges
00:11:12
as a consequence of intersectionality,
00:11:15
intersections of race and gender,
00:11:19
of heterosexism, transphobia,
xenophobia, ableism,
00:11:24
all of these social dynamics come together
00:11:29
and create challenges
that are sometimes quite unique.
00:11:35
But in the same way
00:11:36
that intersectionality
00:11:39
raised our awareness to the way
that black women live their lives,
00:11:45
it also exposes the tragic circumstances
00:11:49
under which African-American women die.
00:11:54
Police violence against black women
00:11:58
is very real.
00:12:00
The level of violence
that black women face
00:12:02
is such that it's not surprising
00:12:05
that some of them do not survive
their encounters with police.
00:12:11
Black girls as young as seven,
00:12:14
great grandmothers as old as 95
00:12:19
have been killed by the police.
00:12:21
They've been killed in their living rooms,
00:12:24
in their bedrooms.
00:12:26
They've been killed in their cars.
00:12:29
They've been killed on the street.
00:12:31
They've been killed
in front of their parents
00:12:34
and they've been killed
in front of their children.
00:12:38
They have been shot to death.
00:12:41
They have been stomped to death.
00:12:43
They have been suffocated to death.
00:12:46
They have been manhandled to death.
00:12:49
They have been tasered to death.
00:12:53
They've been killed
when they've called for help.
00:12:57
They've been killed when they were alone,
00:13:00
and they've been killed
when they were with others.
00:13:04
They've been killed shopping while black,
00:13:08
driving while black,
00:13:11
having a mental disability while black,
00:13:15
having a domestic disturbance while black.
00:13:19
They've even been killed
being homeless while black.
00:13:24
They've been killed
talking on the cell phone,
00:13:26
laughing with friends,
00:13:29
sitting in a car reported as stolen
00:13:32
and making a U-turn
in front of the White House
00:13:35
with an infant strapped
in the backseat of the car.
00:13:40
Why don't we know these stories?
00:13:44
Why is it that their lost lives
00:13:48
don't generate the same amount
of media attention and communal outcry
00:13:53
as the lost lives
of their fallen brothers?
00:13:57
It's time for a change.
00:14:03
So what can we do?
00:14:06
In 2014, the African-American
Policy Forum began to demand
00:14:12
that we "say her name"
00:14:16
at rallies, at protests,
00:14:19
at conferences, at meetings,
00:14:22
anywhere and everywhere
00:14:25
that state violence against black bodies
is being discussed.
00:14:30
But saying her name is not enough.
00:14:33
We have to be willing to do more.
00:14:36
We have to be willing to bear witness,
00:14:39
to bear witness
to the often painful realities
00:14:42
that we would just rather not confront,
00:14:45
the everyday violence and humiliation
that many black women have had to face,
00:14:52
black women across color,
00:14:54
age, gender expression,
00:14:57
sexuality and ability.
00:15:01
So we have the opportunity right now --
00:15:05
bearing in mind that some of the images
that I'm about to share with you
00:15:09
may be triggering for some --
00:15:12
to collectively bear witness
to some of this violence.
00:15:18
We're going to hear the voice
of the phenomenal Abby Dobson.
00:15:23
And as we sit with these women,
00:15:26
some who have experienced violence
and some who have not survived them,
00:15:33
we have an opportunity
00:15:34
to reverse what happened
at the beginning of this talk,
00:15:38
when we could not stand for these women
00:15:41
because we did not know their names.
00:15:45
So at the end of this clip,
there's going to be a roll call.
00:15:50
Several black women's names will come up.
00:15:54
I'd like those of you who are able
to join us in saying these names
00:15:59
as loud as you can,
00:16:02
randomly, disorderly.
00:16:04
Let's create a cacophony of sound
00:16:08
to represent our intention
00:16:11
to hold these women up,
00:16:14
to sit with them,
00:16:15
to bear witness to them,
00:16:18
to bring them into the light.
00:16:28
(Singing) Abby Dobson: Say,
00:16:35
say her name.
00:16:42
Say,
00:16:50
say her name.
00:16:54
(Audience) Shelly!
00:16:56
(Audience) Kayla!
00:16:57
AD: Oh,
00:17:05
say her name.
00:17:11
(Audience shouting names)
00:17:14
Say, say,
00:17:21
say her name.
00:17:29
Say her name.
00:17:34
For all the names
00:17:37
I'll never know,
00:17:44
say her name.
00:17:47
KC: Aiyanna Stanley Jones,
Janisha Fonville,
00:17:50
Kathryn Johnston, Kayla Moore,
00:17:52
Michelle Cusseaux, Rekia Boyd,
00:17:55
Shelly Frey, Tarika, Yvette Smith.
00:18:00
AD: Say her name.
00:18:11
KC: So I said at the beginning,
00:18:13
if we can't see a problem,
00:18:17
we can't fix a problem.
00:18:20
Together, we've come together
to bear witness
00:18:24
to these women's lost lives.
00:18:27
But the time now is to move
00:18:29
from mourning and grief
00:18:32
to action and transformation.
00:18:36
This is something that we can do.
00:18:39
It's up to us.
00:18:42
Thank you for joining us.
00:18:44
Thank you.
00:18:46
(Applause)
