Black Women Won’t Stop Seeking Justice for Breonna Taylor
We’re not done yet. Let’s regroup.
Black women are still reeling after a Kentucky grand jury refused to do right by Breonna Taylor. We are experiencing the full stages of grief and anger, accented by our innate ability of knowingness. No police officers were charged with her killing, and we are left to grapple with the idea that once again, no one cares to protect us or even to require ownership of their clear wrongdoing.
When Louisville Metro Police arrived at the 26-year-old first responder’s home on March 13 with a no-knock warrant, the initial public response was muted. Erasure from safety narratives — who should have it and who shouldn’t — is something Black women know well. Now it seems society is doubling down on that sentiment.
“I am mainly just grappling with what it means for us as Black women, as Black people; we are living in a racist dictatorship in which the police forces and criminal justice operate in alliance with a White nationalist leader,” says Kali Gross, the Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of History at Rutgers University who also teaches African American Studies at Emory University.
Wednesday’s decision confirmed a pervasive feeling of society’s neglect for our need for safety and protection. Many Black women know what it…
