mangoestho:

Today marks the 5th anniversary of Aiyanna Stanley-Jones’ murder. So I always have a hard time with her death and her face. I share bits and pieces of my work with Black girls and obviously, I’m a Black girl myself and every year, it shakes me a little bit to know that we’re still picking and choosing who we fight for in our resistance movements and often, Black girls get left out of the fight for justice. Aiyanna is a more public and well known example of the attack on Black people through white supremacist police violence. And with the recent news that the officer who murdered her wouldn’t be tried in court, we are still reminded that the lives of Black people are disposable. What stings the most, to me as not only someone who works with Black girls, but as a Black woman, is the media black out around Black women and girls lives being taken by police violence the political inertia and apathy around our murders in comparison to our cis-male counterparts. I hope that in remembering Aiyanna, we seriously start to look at the ways in which we’ve been failing certain members of our communities with the ways in which we show up and fight for justice on their behalf. 💔