Say her name

Family,

It’s been one long year since Breonna Taylor was murdered by the Louisville Metro Police Department, and our hearts feel like they are breaking all over again.

America has failed Black women disproportionately. Our experiences with the police and other violent state actors receive far less attention in the media and from traditional advocacy organizations, and we need to ask ourselves why.

Longstanding narratives, tropes, and myths about Black women and girls determine everything from the quality of our education to how justice is administered on our behalf in the courts. Sometimes our life chances are predicated on myths about our womanhood, and those same myths lead to disproportionate rates of sexual violence, state terror, maternal and fetal mortality, chronic health disparities, and shorter life expectancies.

Breonna’s murder and the subsequent failure of the courts to hold her killers accountable illustrates a major threat to Black women’s lives and the communities that rely on us. Everyone from philanthropists to corporate leaders are murmuring about intersectionality, yet Black women are no more safe, supported, or protected.

This Black Feminisms Month, grounded in the teachings of Black feminist leaders, M4BL remains committed to exposing and abolishing the harmful—and often unseen—systems that compound to hurt Black women. We are organizing for a new vision of society where Black women are loved, supported, and protected.

Take the pledge with us: protect Black women.

As we sit with all this heartbreak and hope, we want to take a moment to remind you who Breonna Taylor was.

On the year anniversary of her daughter’s death, Tamika reflected: “There’s been no justice…I still don’t have any comfort. And it’s definitely not easier. It’s a year for everybody else, but every day is still March the 13th to me.”

We’re writing to you today because we want to build the world Breonna deserved. A world that celebrates her heart and ambition, a world where she is a nurse with a house and a family, a world where she is alive and free.

We don’t yet live in that world, but we are building it every day, step by step, brick by brick.

“She had a whole plan on becoming a nurse and buying a house and then starting a family. Breonna had her head on straight, and she was a very decent person.”

-Tamika Palmer, Breonna’s Mother

Will you commit to staying with us as we keep building and dreaming our vision for Black lives? Take the pledge: protect Black women.

Join us as we build a world deserving of Breonna and all Black women.

#SayHerName #BreonnaTaylor #ProtectBlackWomen

In love and power,

The Movement for Black Lives Family

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