Current:Home > InvestHow Black women coined the ‘say her name’ rallying cry before Biden’s State of the Union address -Edge Finance Strategies
How Black women coined the ‘say her name’ rallying cry before Biden’s State of the Union address
View
Date:2025-04-15 21:47:37
Marjorie Taylor Greene wore a T-shirt to Thursday night’s State of the Union address that carried a seemingly simple message: Say Her Name.
The hard-line Republican congresswoman from Georgia, who was decked out in a red MAGA hat and other regalia, borrowed the phrase from Black racial justice activists who have been calling attention to the extrajudicial deaths of Black women at the hands of police and vigilantes.
However, Greene used the rallying cry to successfully goad President Joe Biden into saying the name Laken Riley, a nursing student from Georgia whose death is now at the center of U.S. immigration debate. An immigrant from Venezuela, who entered the U.S. illegally, has been arrested in Riley’s case and charged with murder.
Riley’s name is a rallying cry for Republicans criticizing the president’s handling of the record surge of immigrants entering the country through the U.S-Mexico border.
The origins of the ‘Say Her Name’ rallying cry date back well before Greene donned the T-shirt.
Who first coined the phrase ‘Say Her Name’ in protest?
The phrase was popularized by civil rights activist, law professor and executive director of the African American Policy Institute Kimberlé Crenshaw in 2015, following the death of Sandra Bland. Bland, a 28-year-old Black woman, was found dead in a Texas jail cell a few days after she was arrested during a traffic stop. Her family questioned the circumstances of her death and the validity of the traffic stop and the following year settled a wrongful death lawsuit with the police department.
Black women are statistically more likely than other women to witness and experience police violence, including death, which is also linked to heightened psychological stress and several related negative health outcomes.
“Everywhere, we see the appropriation of progressive and inclusionary concepts in an effort to devalue, distort and suppress the movements they have been created to advance,” Crenshaw said in a statement to The Associated Press. “When most people only hear about these ideas from those that seek to repurpose and debase them, then our ability to speak truth to power is further restricted.”
Greene’s appropriation of the phrase “undermines civil rights movements and pushes our democracy closer to the edge,” Crenshaw wrote in her statement. “The misuse of these concepts by others who seek to silence us must be resisted if we are to remain steadfast in our advocacy for a fully inclusive and shared future.”
Tamika Mallory, a racial justice advocate and author, said Laken Riley deserves justice, but in this case she doesn’t think that conservatives are being genuine when they use #SayHerName. “If they were, they wouldn’t be using language that they claim not to favor,” she said. “They demonize our language, they demonize our organizing style, but they co-opt the language whenever they feel it is a political tool.”
Who are the other Black women included in ‘Say Her Name’?
Crenshaw and others began using the phrase to draw attention to cases in which Black women are subject to police brutality. In 2020, the hashtag #SayHerName helped put more public scrutiny on the shooting death of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman in Louisville, KY who was shot and killed in her home during a botched police raid.
The campaign was founded to break the silence around Black women, girls, and femmes whose lives have been taken by police, Crenshaw said.
“The list of women killed in fatal encounters with law enforcement and whose families continue to demand justice is long. Tanisha Anderson, Michelle Shirley, Sandra Bland, Miriam Carey, Michelle Cusseaux, Shelly Frey, Breonna Taylor, Korryn Gaines, Kayla Moore, Atatiana Jefferson, and India Kager are just some of the many names we uplift — women whose stories have too often otherwise gone untold. We must call out and resist this attempt to commandeer this campaign to serve an extremist right-wing agenda.”
____
Graham Lee Brewer is an Oklahoma City-based member of AP’s Race and Ethnicity team.
veryGood! (25)
Related
- Federal hiring is about to get the Trump treatment
- Maui wildfire report details how communities can reduce the risk of similar disasters
- Neighbor charged with murder of couple who went missing from California nudist resort
- Civil rights activist Sybil Morial, wife of New Orleans’ first Black mayor, dead at 91
- Former longtime South Carolina congressman John Spratt dies at 82
- World pumps out 57 million tons of plastic pollution yearly and most comes in Global South
- Supreme Court won’t allow Oklahoma to reclaim federal money in dispute over abortion referrals
- Neighbor charged with murder of couple who went missing from California nudist resort
- Hackers hit Rhode Island benefits system in major cyberattack. Personal data could be released soon
- Glow Into Fall With a $54.98 Deal on a $120 Peter Thomas Roth Pumpkin Exfoliant for Bright, Smooth Skin
Ranking
- Trump wants to turn the clock on daylight saving time
- Hunter Biden’s tax trial carries less political weight but heavy emotional toll for the president
- Nevada grandmother faces fines for giving rides to Burning Man attendees
- Many think pink Himalayan salt is the 'healthiest' salt. Are the benefits real?
- Behind on your annual reading goal? Books under 200 pages to read before 2024 ends
- New Titanic expedition images show major decay. But see the team's 'exciting' discovery.
- Kim Kardashian Reveals Son Saint Signed “Extensive Contract Before Starting His YouTube Channel
- Police in Hawaii release man who killed neighbor who fatally shot 3 people at gathering
Recommendation
'Vanderpump Rules' star DJ James Kennedy arrested on domestic violence charges
Atlanta mayor proposes $60M to house the homeless
Why Passengers Set to Embark on 3-Year Cruise Haven't Set Sail for 3 Months
Israelis protest as Netanyahu pushes back over Gaza hostage deal pressure | The Excerpt
Bodycam footage shows high
Books similar to 'Harry Potter': Magical stories for both kids and adults
New Northwestern AD Jackson aims to help school navigate evolving landscape, heal wounds
Former Venezuelan political prisoner arrested in Miami after a fatal hit-and-run crash, police say