Black Bodies Do Matter

With the present news of the deaths of teenage black bodies such as Trayvhon Martin and Raneisha McBride, it is now becoming ever more clearer, the unimportance of black bodies in our society.  Today is transgender day of remembrance. A day to commerate the lives of all transgendered inividuals who have become victims of violence. Just the other day an article on a vigil being held Sunday Novemeber 17, of a trans woman, named Amari S Hill, circulated through my FaceBook newsfeed. The service was to be held in Richmond, Virginia. Hill was alleged to be walking down Richmond's South Side Alley when shot dead. The victim was only 22 at the time of her death. Danielle Davis a friend of the victim, knew that her murder was a result of her gender identity. However, the crime is not being invesigated as a hate crime. Even so, during the first few hours following the murder, they used her birth name, Rodney White, and male pronouns to identify the victim. Needless to say, the news did not warrant any public out cry or receive mass attention.

The process of erasure takes on various different forms. It's not always as simple as no attention given to a person who was once living, and then suddenly killed. It's more about the nuanced reasons that someone would want to end their life. For instance, if a young transgender woman is murdered whilst working on the streets, is the reason why she was murdered because she was transgendered, a woman, or because she was black? It is all of the above. These social structures were the forces putting her on the street, where her murder was inevitable. The patriarchy facilitates a habitat where trans women end up dying, in the midst of doing anything they can to survive. Hils' death is amongst 200 others who have died alone this year, as victims of this bigotry.