Thread by @conor64

A lesson on Black women who are killed by police is another noteworthy wrinkle in the BLM at School curriculum in Evanston, IL theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/… (1/x)

This will be of interest both to folks invested in understanding the ongoing problem of police killings as well as folks reflecting on the different obligations (or so I argue) of activists and educators. (2/x)

The lesson is framed by the question, “Why is it important to recognize that Black women and girls matter?” Malcolm X is quoted: "The most neglected person in America is the black woman." (3/x)

In a video, legal theorist Kimberlé Crenshaw says, “Police violence against Black women is very real. Why is it that their lost lives don’t generate the same amount of media attention and communal outcry as the lost lives of their fallen brothers?” (4/x)

Kids are taught about the #SayHerName campaign via this slide (5/x)

Cases in which cops kill Black women are indeed worthy of study. But the lesson's logic gives the further impression that Black women, w/ their intersecting oppressions, are the group most likely to be killed by police. (6/x)

That is not true. According to a 2019 paper published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the lifetime risk of death by police is highest for Black males: 96 in 100,000 are killed by police. For Black women, the risk is 2.4 to 5.4 per 100,000.(7/x)

Surely that's part of why "their lost lives don’t generate the same amount of media attention." Such deaths are many times less common.(8/x)

Now, it is noteworthy that the lifetime risk for black women is higher than the risk for Latina and white women (2 per 100,000).

It is also noteworthy that it is much lower than the rate for white men. (9/x)

White men are at least seven times more likely to be killed by police over the course of their lifetime (39 per 100,000) than black women. Counter-narrative, the intersecting identity of "woman" is correlated with far *fewer* instances of being killed by police.(10/x)

That doesn't mean we shouldn't pay attention to (e.g.) Breonna Taylor's death. We should. But focusing on black women is in tension with the logic that BLM typically cites to explain why it focuses on Black men (11/x)

And if no one is ever taught the actual figures, young people will come away with a hugely inaccurate understanding of police killings, a policy matter we need to get right. (12/x)

The BLM movement is within its rights to focus exclusively on Black people killed by police, even if I, personally, think we'd all be better off if they said (e.g.) Daniel Shaver's name too. (13/x)

Speeches by Black Lives Matter activists about e.g. Breonna Taylor need not include a disclaimer that white men are far more likely to be killed by police than are Black women. If #SayHerName is a focus that's their prerogative. (14/x)

But the public-school system should tell the whole truth to those in its care, even if it undermines a narrative that activists champion. The obligation of teachers is to complicate the narrative of activists when the facts warrant. (15/x)

If you've gotten this far without reading the whole piece, please do! theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…