SayHerName: Building Community to Support Women of Color at OHIO
Sparked by the Division for Diversity and Inclusion's Public Forum on Breonna Taylor: Mourning, Reflecting, Moving Forward, SayHerName is an ongoing commitment to our participants. These are gatherings of those directly impacted by racism and sexism, as well as other interlinked forms of oppression, and their allies. They are created to build a community of support and to serve as a public space for expression. This program is sponsored by the Women's Center and Counseling and Psychological Services .
SayHerName, a Movement
We will begin each program with a moment of silence for the women who have been killed, and recognizing the lives lost and the legacy of women like Breonna Taylor.
SayHerName emphasizes the intersectional experiences of women of color and uplifts the names of Black women and Girls who have been killed by police. According to AAPF's website : "Launched in December 2014 by the African American Policy Forum (AAPF) and Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies (CISPS), the #SayHerNamecampaign brings awareness to the often invisible names and stories of Black women and girls who have been victimized by racist police violence, and provides support to their families." Those names include: Breonna Taylor, Shukri Said, Rekia Boyd, Mya Hall, Miriam Carey, Aiyana Stanley-Jones, Tanisha Anderson, Atatiana Jefferson, Michelle Shirley...
We encourage everyone to explore SayHerName and BlackLivesMatter.
Recommended Readings
SayHerName represents the need for social justice movements to be intersectional, to hear the voices of those often silenced. Our goal with the monthly gatherings of SayHerName: Building Community to Support Women of Color at OHIO is to honor the diversity of women's experiences and the many communities with which they identify. The following readings may help those who would like to listen and learn from others about the movement, and what can be done to ensure that it is inclusive of those who are most marginalized.
BBC (2020). Black Trans Lives Matter: 'We're tired of having to pick sides.' June 15. https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/33ab8fbd-792f-44ee-85de-5dd3894f60bf
Paz, Isabella Grullón and Maggie Astor (2020). Black Trans Women Seek More Space in the Movement They Helped Start. New York Times . June 27. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/27/us/politics/black-trans-lives-matter.html
Ritchie, Andrea (2017). Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color . Beacon Press: Massachusetts.
Watch the interview with Kimberlé Crensaw and Sheinelle Jones of TODAY (2020): Kimberlé Crenshaw shares importance of the Say Her Name movement https://www.today.com/video/kimberle-crenshaw-shares-importance-of-the-say-her-name-movement-85807685887
Allyship
We encourage allies to participate in these gatherings, and find that allies may benefit from viewing this video about allyship vs co-conspiratorship (link is to a CSPAN user clip featuring Bettina Love), which is also shown as part of the Division of Diversity and Inclusion's Allyship workshop.