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  • 16 hours ago
ESSENCE Entertainment Editor Yolanda Sangweni takes a moment to pay tribute to the countless Black women who have been victims of racial injustices.
Transcript
00:00We have more questions than answers when it comes to the circumstances surrounding the death of Sandra Bland, the 28-year-old woman found hanging in her jail cell.
00:14Police are calling her death a suicide, but her family, her friends, and the world is skeptical.
00:19Why would someone who had everything going for her, including a new job at her alma mater, take her own life?
00:25It's hard to accept. A day after Bland's death, 18-year-old Kindra Chapman was also found dead in similar circumstances in a jail cell in Alabama.
00:35Authorities are calling her death a suicide.
00:38Online, shaken and perhaps distraught, Black Twitter mourned yet another unjustified death with the sobering If I Die in Police Custody hashtag to shine a light on the stories of those who have died in police custody.
00:52If I die in police custody, know that they killed me. I will do everything in my power to get home to my family, so never stop questioning, tweeted Reign of April.
01:02If I die in police custody, I did not resist at any time. I followed all directions given to me and never waived my right to be silent, tweeted Keisha Muir.
01:12Along with the If I Die in Police Custody, the Say Her Name hashtag is just as urgent.
01:18This hashtag was started to remind us of the countless Black women who, along with Black men, have died at the hands of police.
01:25Say her name, Sandra Bland. Say her name, Kendra Chapman. Say her name, Tanisha Anderson. Say her name, Rekia Boyd.
01:35The list is too long. Their deaths unnecessary. I don't know about you, but I cried when I heard Sandra Bland weeping.
01:44The heartache of seeing endless injustice play out is unbearable. I have anxiety about encounters with the police.
01:53As a Black woman, a mother to Black boys and a wife, I'm tired and I'm scared. But fear won't win.
02:01This moment calls for our collective vigilance in getting justice and it calls for us to continue fighting for our right to speak truth to power as a community.
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