Was the Commodification of Breonna Taylor Worth It?

Through her death, she became an icon. I wrestle with its impact.

A sign memorialising Breonna Taylor is photographed in front of closed streets in downtown Louisville, Kentucky on September 23, 2020. Photo: Jeff Dean/AFP/Getty Images

Her likeness was everywhere, immortalized. A cyan dream on the September cover of Vanity Fair. Angelic, floating midair toward the skyline on 26 billionaire-branded billboards. A mural painted on two basketball courts in a park in Annapolis, Maryland, so substantial it…