SayHerName

rdf:langString SayHerName

rdf:langString #SayHerName is a social movement that seeks to raise awareness for Black Women victims of police brutality and anti-Black violence in the United States. Black women are 17% more likely to be stopped by police and 150% more likely to be killed than their white counterparts. #SayHerName aims to highlight the gender-specific ways in which Black women are disproportionately affected by fatal acts of racial injustice. In an effort to create a large social media presence alongside existing racial justice campaigns, such as #BlackLivesMatter and #BlackGirlsMatter, the African American Policy Forum (AAPF) coined the hashtag #SayHerName in December 2014. In May 2015, the AAPF released a report entitled "Say Her Name: Resisting Police Brutality against Black Women", which outlined the goals and objectives of the #SayHerName movement. In July 2015, Sandra Bland, a woman who had been taken into police custody after a traffic violation, was found hanged three days later in her jail cell. Following Bland's death, the AAPF, in conjunction with the Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies at Columbia Law School and Soros Justice Fellow, Andrea Ritchie, issued an updated version of the original report. The updated version includes a description of the circumstances surrounding Bland's death, as well as several accounts detailing recent incidents of police-instigated violence against Black women, including Tanisha Anderson and Rekia Boyd. The report also provides an analytical framework for understanding what it says are Black women's susceptibility to police brutality and state-sanctioned violence, and offers suggestions on how to effectively mobilize various communities and empower them to advocate for racial justice. Drawing from the AAPF report, the #SayHerName movement strives to address what it believes is the marginalization of Black women within both mainstream media and the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Of the movement's many agendas, one includes commemorating the women who have lost their lives due to police brutality and anti-Black violence.