Thread by @aliciatcrosby

My spirit won't rest til I speak on this #BreonnaCon situation some more.

One of the things I noticed is that in every promotional photo, #BreonnaTaylor's name is absent & her face is faded or obscured while the images & names of others are clearly seen.

That is the problem.

Even if we assume the best of intent, the organizers of this series of events prioritized branding & gloss over consideration of what it meant to literally obscure the name and face of a very real Black woman who lived and breathed and died at the hands of the police.

What does it mean when people make sure they are seen while the person being grieved is intentionally faded into the background?

What does it mean to for folks to tout that her family consented to this when we haven't afforded them real privacy to acknowledge their loss?

What does it mean when many of the organizers we see centered are not local to the space and aren't doing much front facing work to visibly pass the mic to those who've walked, prayed, & set intentions over the streets of Louisville for years?

What does it mean when promotional materials talk about "beauty, money, and justice" instead of identifying, acknowledging, building, operating in, and sharing power?

This isn't a hot take, it's a call in because I've done this work for a fraction of the time these organizers have. If I have all these questions churning in me, why didn't those who've committed to activism and organizing for much longer ask themselves these same things?

@lsarsour @TamikaDMallory @GreenTheRev -

@KajiDousa, who I respect deeply, named that you're all hard at work. These questions are genuinely sitting with me and I want to share them with you for consideration & conversation should you be open.

More thoughts.

These events highlight the gendered difference in the how the deaths of Black men & women are regarded. #SayHerName was literally created BC Black women are often in invisibilized in death & #BreonnaTaylor sits as a phantom in the background on the event's flyers

Cities burned and uprisings are (rightfully) still going in people hearing of George Floyd's death but the best we got for a woman shot in her bed and left to die is a convention & day of action that doesn't even bear her actual name???

She, we, & Louisville deserve better.

Black women deserve uprisings.

They deserve public calls to action that use their names. They deserve sustained & mounting outrage. They deserve to have demands made to shift power/systems whenever we convene in their name.

Black women deserve the same energy y'all give to men.