WEBVTT 00:00:01.026 --> 00:00:03.346 I'd like to try something new. 00:00:03.346 --> 00:00:04.966 Those of you who are able, 00:00:04.966 --> 00:00:06.595 please stand up. 00:00:08.735 --> 00:00:12.251 Okay, so I'm going to name some names. 00:00:12.251 --> 00:00:14.655 When you hear a name that you don't recognize, 00:00:14.655 --> 00:00:16.444 you can't tell me anything about them, 00:00:16.444 --> 00:00:18.208 I'd like you to take a seat, 00:00:18.208 --> 00:00:20.496 and stay seated. 00:00:20.496 --> 00:00:24.665 The last person standing, we're going to see what they know. 00:00:24.665 --> 00:00:25.520 Okay? NOTE Paragraph 00:00:25.520 --> 00:00:26.524 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:00:26.524 --> 00:00:27.353 All right. 00:00:27.353 --> 00:00:30.750 Eric Garner. 00:00:30.750 --> 00:00:34.742 Mike Brown. 00:00:34.742 --> 00:00:36.876 Tamir Rice. 00:00:39.948 --> 00:00:41.618 Freddie Gray. 00:00:44.445 --> 00:00:46.255 So those of you who are still standing, 00:00:46.255 --> 00:00:48.033 I'd like you to turn around and take a look. 00:00:48.033 --> 00:00:53.193 I'd say half to most of the people are still standing. 00:00:53.193 --> 00:00:55.005 So let's continue. 00:00:55.949 --> 00:00:58.115 Michelle Cusseaux. 00:01:03.979 --> 00:01:06.510 Tanisha Anderson. 00:01:10.639 --> 00:01:12.123 Ara Russer. 00:01:15.802 --> 00:01:18.171 Meagan Hockaday. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:19.195 --> 00:01:23.498 So if we look around again, there are about four people still standing, 00:01:23.498 --> 00:01:26.572 and actually I'm not going to put you on the spot. 00:01:26.572 --> 00:01:29.073 I just say that to encourage transparency, 00:01:29.073 --> 00:01:30.601 so you can be seated. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:30.601 --> 00:01:32.609 (Laughter) NOTE Paragraph 00:01:32.609 --> 00:01:35.917 So those of you who recognized the first group of names know 00:01:35.917 --> 00:01:40.351 that these were African-Americans who have been killed by the police 00:01:40.351 --> 00:01:42.916 over the last two and a half years. 00:01:42.916 --> 00:01:47.751 What you may not know is that the other list is also 00:01:47.751 --> 00:01:56.414 African-Americans who have been killed within the last two years. 00:01:56.414 --> 00:01:59.934 Only one thing distinguishes the names that you know 00:01:59.934 --> 00:02:02.615 from the names that you don't know: 00:02:02.615 --> 00:02:04.523 gender. NOTE Paragraph 00:02:04.523 --> 00:02:10.737 So let me first let you know that there's nothing at all distinct 00:02:10.737 --> 00:02:12.546 about this audience 00:02:12.546 --> 00:02:16.166 that explains the patterns of recognition that we've just seen. 00:02:16.166 --> 00:02:20.885 I've done this exercise dozens of times around the country. 00:02:20.885 --> 00:02:23.513 I've done it to women's rights organizations. 00:02:23.513 --> 00:02:25.519 I've done it with civil rights groups. 00:02:25.519 --> 00:02:28.726 I've done it with professors. I've done it with students. 00:02:28.726 --> 00:02:32.764 I've done it with psychologists. I've done it with sociologists. 00:02:32.764 --> 00:02:36.456 I've done it even with progressive members of Congress. 00:02:36.456 --> 00:02:40.827 And everywhere, the awareness of the level of police violence 00:02:40.827 --> 00:02:42.653 that black women experience 00:02:42.653 --> 00:02:45.826 is exceedingly low. 00:02:45.826 --> 00:02:49.478 Now, it is surprising, isn't it, that this would be the case. 00:02:49.478 --> 00:02:51.386 I mean, there are two issues involved here. 00:02:51.386 --> 00:02:54.393 There's police violence against African-Americans, 00:02:54.393 --> 00:02:56.563 and there's violence against women, 00:02:56.563 --> 00:03:00.308 two issues that have been talked about a lot lately. 00:03:00.308 --> 00:03:06.482 But when we think about who is implicated by these problems, 00:03:06.482 --> 00:03:09.474 when we think about who is victimized by these problems, 00:03:09.474 --> 00:03:13.844 the names of these black women never come to mind. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:13.844 --> 00:03:16.557 Now, communications experts tell us 00:03:16.557 --> 00:03:20.899 that when facts do not fit with the available frames, 00:03:20.899 --> 00:03:24.847 people have a difficult time incorporating new facts 00:03:24.847 --> 00:03:29.153 into their way of thinking about a problem. 00:03:29.153 --> 00:03:32.639 These women's names have slipped through our consciousness 00:03:32.639 --> 00:03:35.631 because there are no frames for us to see them, 00:03:35.631 --> 00:03:38.278 no frames for us to remember them, 00:03:38.278 --> 00:03:41.680 no frames for us to hold them. 00:03:41.680 --> 00:03:43.654 As a consequence, 00:03:43.654 --> 00:03:46.400 reporters don't lead with them, 00:03:46.400 --> 00:03:49.409 policymakers don't think about them, 00:03:49.409 --> 00:03:56.117 and politicians aren't encouraged or demanded that they speak to them. NOTE Paragraph 00:03:56.117 --> 00:03:59.537 Now you might ask, 00:03:59.537 --> 00:04:00.183 why does a frame matter? 00:04:00.183 --> 00:04:01.169 I mean, after all, 00:04:01.169 --> 00:04:06.706 an issue that affects black people and an issue that affects women, 00:04:06.706 --> 00:04:10.832 wouldn't that necessarily include black people who are women 00:04:10.832 --> 00:04:13.645 and women who are black people? 00:04:13.645 --> 00:04:18.198 Well, the simple answer is that this is a trickle-down approach 00:04:18.198 --> 00:04:20.468 to social justice, and many times 00:04:20.468 --> 00:04:22.540 it just doesn't work. 00:04:22.540 --> 00:04:26.650 Without frames that allow us to see how social problems impact 00:04:26.650 --> 00:04:29.742 all the members of a targeted group, 00:04:29.742 --> 00:04:32.817 many will fall through the cracks of our movements, 00:04:32.817 --> 00:04:37.700 meant to suffer in virtual isolation. 00:04:37.700 --> 00:04:42.386 But it doesn't have to be this way. NOTE Paragraph 00:04:42.386 --> 00:04:47.158 Many years ago, I began to use the term "intersectionality" 00:04:47.158 --> 00:04:51.496 to deal with the fact that many of our social justice problems 00:04:51.496 --> 00:04:53.683 like racism and sexism 00:04:53.683 --> 00:04:56.375 are often overlapping, 00:04:56.375 --> 00:05:01.410 creating multiple levels of social injustice. 00:05:01.410 --> 00:05:04.617 Now, the experience that gave rise 00:05:04.617 --> 00:05:08.122 to intersectionality was my chance encounter 00:05:08.122 --> 00:05:12.034 with a woman named Emma Degraffenreed. 00:05:12.034 --> 00:05:16.257 Emma Degraffenreed was an African-American woman, 00:05:16.257 --> 00:05:19.020 a working wife, and a mother. 00:05:19.020 --> 00:05:21.240 I actually read about Emma's story 00:05:21.240 --> 00:05:24.200 from the pages of a legal opinion 00:05:24.200 --> 00:05:28.607 written by a judge who had dismissed Emma's claim 00:05:28.607 --> 00:05:30.722 of race and gender discrimination 00:05:30.722 --> 00:05:35.723 against a local car manufacturing plant. 00:05:35.723 --> 00:05:39.261 Emma, like so many African-American women, 00:05:39.261 --> 00:05:43.144 sought better employment for her family and for others. 00:05:43.144 --> 00:05:47.600 She wanted to create a better life for her children and for her family. 00:05:47.600 --> 00:05:49.716 But she applied for a job, 00:05:49.716 --> 00:05:51.445 and she was not hired, 00:05:51.445 --> 00:05:55.920 and she believed that she was not hired because she was a black woman. 00:05:55.920 --> 00:06:00.588 Now, the judge in question dismissed Emma's suit, 00:06:00.588 --> 00:06:03.251 and the argument for dismissing the suit was 00:06:03.251 --> 00:06:07.574 that the employer did hire African-Americans 00:06:07.574 --> 00:06:10.897 and the employer hired women. 00:06:10.897 --> 00:06:15.698 The real problem, though, that the judge was not willing to acknowledge 00:06:15.698 --> 00:06:18.724 was what Emma was actually trying to say, 00:06:18.724 --> 00:06:21.782 that the African-Americans that were hired, 00:06:21.782 --> 00:06:27.471 usually for industrial jobs, maintenance jobs, were all men, 00:06:27.471 --> 00:06:32.799 and the women that were hired, usually for secretarial or front office work, 00:06:32.799 --> 00:06:34.903 were all white. 00:06:34.903 --> 00:06:39.492 Only if the court was able to see how these policies came together 00:06:39.492 --> 00:06:43.273 would he be able to see the double discrimination 00:06:43.273 --> 00:06:47.170 that Emma Degraffenreed was facing. 00:06:47.170 --> 00:06:49.734 But the court refused to allow Emma 00:06:49.734 --> 00:06:52.635 to put two causes of action together 00:06:52.635 --> 00:06:54.013 to tell her story 00:06:54.013 --> 00:06:58.022 because he believed that, by allowing her to do that, 00:06:58.022 --> 00:07:02.164 she would be able to have preferential treatment. 00:07:02.164 --> 00:07:07.035 She would have an advantage by having two swings at the bat, 00:07:07.035 --> 00:07:12.704 when African-American men and white women only had one swing at the bat. 00:07:12.704 --> 00:07:17.673 But of course, neither African-American men or white women 00:07:17.673 --> 00:07:22.209 needed to combine a race and gender discrimination claim 00:07:22.209 --> 00:07:27.601 to tell the story of the discrimination they were experiencing. 00:07:27.601 --> 00:07:30.693 Why wasn't the real unfairness 00:07:30.693 --> 00:07:34.869 laws refusal to protect African-American women 00:07:34.869 --> 00:07:38.799 simply because their experiences weren't exactly the same 00:07:38.799 --> 00:07:43.538 as white women and African-American men? 00:07:43.538 --> 00:07:48.962 Rather than broadening the frame to include African-American women, 00:07:48.962 --> 00:07:53.551 the court simply tossed their case completely out of court. NOTE Paragraph 00:07:54.213 --> 00:07:58.251 Now, as a student of anti-discrimination law, 00:07:58.251 --> 00:07:59.799 as a feminist, 00:07:59.799 --> 00:08:02.016 as an anti-racist, 00:08:02.016 --> 00:08:05.433 I was struck by this case. 00:08:05.433 --> 00:08:10.007 It felt to me like injustice squared. 00:08:10.007 --> 00:08:11.899 So first of all, 00:08:11.899 --> 00:08:15.762 black women weren't allowed to work at the plant. 00:08:15.762 --> 00:08:19.749 Second of all, the court doubled down on this exclusion 00:08:19.749 --> 00:08:23.680 by making it legally inconsequential. 00:08:23.680 --> 00:08:27.692 And to boot, there was no name for this problem. 00:08:27.692 --> 00:08:31.311 And we all know that, where there's no name for a problem, 00:08:31.311 --> 00:08:34.224 you can't see a problem, and when you can't see a problem, 00:08:34.224 --> 00:08:38.198 you pretty much can't solve it. 00:08:38.198 --> 00:08:44.384 Many years later, I had come to recognize that the problem that Emma was facing 00:08:44.384 --> 00:08:47.407 was a framing problem. 00:08:47.407 --> 00:08:51.861 The frame that the court was using to see gender discrimination 00:08:51.861 --> 00:08:55.381 or to see race discrimination was partial 00:08:55.381 --> 00:08:58.176 and it was distorting. 00:08:58.176 --> 00:09:01.070 For me, the challenge that I faced was 00:09:01.070 --> 00:09:05.878 trying to figure out whether there was an alternative narrative, 00:09:05.878 --> 00:09:10.574 a prism that would allow us to see Emma's dilemma, 00:09:10.574 --> 00:09:16.493 a prism that would allow us to rescue her from the cracks in the law, 00:09:16.493 --> 00:09:21.198 that would allow judges to see her story. NOTE Paragraph 00:09:21.198 --> 00:09:28.102 So it occurred to me, maybe a simple analogy to an intersection 00:09:28.102 --> 00:09:33.530 might allow judges to better see Emma's dilemma. 00:09:33.530 --> 00:09:39.137 So if we think about this intersection, the roads to the intersection would be 00:09:39.137 --> 00:09:44.758 the way that the work force was structured by race and by gender, 00:09:44.758 --> 00:09:49.494 and then the traffic in those roads would be the hiring policies 00:09:49.494 --> 00:09:53.604 and the other practices that ran through those roads. 00:09:53.604 --> 00:09:58.605 Now, because Emma was both black and female, 00:09:58.605 --> 00:10:04.096 she was positioned precisely where those roads overlapped, 00:10:04.096 --> 00:10:08.041 experiencing the simultaneous impact 00:10:08.041 --> 00:10:12.152 of the company's gender and race traffic. 00:10:13.766 --> 00:10:18.367 The law, the law is like that ambulance that shows up 00:10:18.367 --> 00:10:22.774 and is ready to treat Emma only if it can be shown 00:10:22.774 --> 00:10:27.377 that she was harmed on the race road or the gender road 00:10:27.377 --> 00:10:32.163 but not where those roads intersected. 00:10:32.163 --> 00:10:37.458 So what do you call being impacted by multiple forces 00:10:37.458 --> 00:10:41.946 and then abandoned to fend for yourself? 00:10:41.946 --> 00:10:46.040 Intersectionality seemed to do it for me. 00:10:46.040 --> 00:10:50.939 I would go on to learn that African-American women, 00:10:50.939 --> 00:10:53.144 like other women of color, 00:10:53.144 --> 00:10:57.053 like other socially marginalized people all over the world, 00:10:57.053 --> 00:11:00.888 were facing all kinds of dilemmas and challenges 00:11:00.888 --> 00:11:04.186 as a consequence of intersectionality, 00:11:04.186 --> 00:11:07.728 intersections of race and gender, 00:11:07.728 --> 00:11:11.952 of heterosexism, transphobia, xenophobia, ablism, 00:11:11.952 --> 00:11:17.545 all of these social dynamics come together 00:11:17.545 --> 00:11:19.731 and create challenges 00:11:19.731 --> 00:11:23.233 that are sometimes quite unique. 00:11:23.233 --> 00:11:25.864 But in the same way 00:11:25.864 --> 00:11:27.494 that intersectionality 00:11:27.494 --> 00:11:33.576 raised our awareness to the way that black women live their lives, 00:11:33.576 --> 00:11:38.131 it also exposes the tragic circumstances 00:11:38.131 --> 00:11:42.511 under which African-American women die. 00:11:42.511 --> 00:11:46.566 Police violence against black women 00:11:46.566 --> 00:11:48.391 is very real. 00:11:48.391 --> 00:11:51.991 The level of violence that black women face 00:11:51.991 --> 00:11:53.817 is such that it's not surprising 00:11:53.817 --> 00:11:59.339 that some of them do not survive their encounters with police. 00:11:59.339 --> 00:12:03.074 Black girls as young as seven, 00:12:03.074 --> 00:12:07.760 great grandmothers as old as 95, 00:12:07.760 --> 00:12:10.292 have been killed by the police. 00:12:10.292 --> 00:12:13.006 They've been killed in their living rooms, 00:12:13.006 --> 00:12:14.918 in their bedrooms. 00:12:14.918 --> 00:12:17.831 They've been killed in their cars. 00:12:17.831 --> 00:12:20.067 They've been killed on the street. 00:12:20.067 --> 00:12:22.766 They've been killed in front of their parents 00:12:22.766 --> 00:12:26.383 and they've been killed in front of their children. 00:12:26.383 --> 00:12:28.756 They have been shot to death. 00:12:28.756 --> 00:12:32.176 They have bene stomped to death. 00:12:32.176 --> 00:12:34.853 They have been suffocated to death. 00:12:34.853 --> 00:12:37.833 They have been manhandled to death. 00:12:37.833 --> 00:12:40.960 They have been tasered to death. 00:12:40.960 --> 00:12:45.791 They've been killed when they've called for help. 00:12:45.791 --> 00:12:49.178 They've been killed when they were alone, 00:12:49.178 --> 00:12:53.058 and they've been killed when they were with others. 00:12:53.058 --> 00:12:56.741 They've been killed shopping while black, 00:12:56.741 --> 00:12:59.388 driving while black, 00:12:59.388 --> 00:13:03.631 having a mental disability while black, 00:13:03.631 --> 00:13:07.561 having a domestic disturbance while black. 00:13:07.561 --> 00:13:12.298 They've even been killed being homeless while black. 00:13:12.298 --> 00:13:15.289 They've been killed talking on the cell phone, 00:13:15.289 --> 00:13:17.427 laughing with friends, 00:13:17.427 --> 00:13:20.501 sitting in a car reported as stolen, 00:13:20.501 --> 00:13:24.091 and making a u-turn in front of a White House 00:13:24.091 --> 00:13:28.180 with an infant strapped in the back seat of the car. 00:13:28.180 --> 00:13:32.060 Why don't we know these stories? 00:13:32.060 --> 00:13:36.615 Why is it that their lost lives 00:13:36.615 --> 00:13:41.318 don't generate the same amount of media attention and communal outcry 00:13:41.318 --> 00:13:46.185 as the lost lives of their fallen brothers? 00:13:46.185 --> 00:13:49.408 It's time for a change. 00:13:49.408 --> 00:13:54.866 So what can we do? NOTE Paragraph 00:13:54.866 --> 00:13:59.817 In 2014, the African-American Policy Forum began to demand 00:13:59.817 --> 00:14:04.616 that we "say her name" 00:14:04.616 --> 00:14:08.136 at rallies, at protests, 00:14:08.136 --> 00:14:11.014 at conferences, at meetings, 00:14:11.014 --> 00:14:13.496 anywhere and everywhere 00:14:13.496 --> 00:14:16.850 that state violence against black bodies is being discussed. 00:14:16.850 --> 00:14:21.832 But saying her name is not enough. 00:14:21.832 --> 00:14:24.069 We have to be willing to do more. 00:14:24.069 --> 00:14:27.488 We have to be willing to bear witness, 00:14:27.488 --> 00:14:30.908 to bear witness to the often painful realities 00:14:30.908 --> 00:14:33.918 that we would just rather not confront, 00:14:33.918 --> 00:14:37.157 the everyday violence and humiliation 00:14:37.157 --> 00:14:40.233 that many black women have had to face, 00:14:40.233 --> 00:14:42.632 black women across color, 00:14:42.632 --> 00:14:45.525 age, gender expression, 00:14:45.525 --> 00:14:49.111 sexuality, and ability. 00:14:49.111 --> 00:14:51.357 So we have the opportunity right now, 00:14:51.357 --> 00:14:57.540 bearing in mind that some of the images that I'm about to share with you 00:14:57.540 --> 00:15:00.252 may be triggering for some, 00:15:00.252 --> 00:15:02.275 to collectively bear witness 00:15:02.275 --> 00:15:06.382 to some of this violence. 00:15:06.382 --> 00:15:08.375 We're going to hear the voice 00:15:08.375 --> 00:15:11.384 of the phenomenal Abby Dobson, 00:15:11.384 --> 00:15:14.968 and as we sit with these women, 00:15:14.968 --> 00:15:21.282 some who have experienced violence and some who have not survived them, 00:15:21.282 --> 00:15:26.725 we have an opportunity to reverse what happened at the beginning of this talk, 00:15:26.725 --> 00:15:29.590 when we could not stand for these women 00:15:29.590 --> 00:15:33.893 because we did not know their names. 00:15:33.893 --> 00:15:38.858 So at the end of this clip, there's going to be a roll call. 00:15:38.858 --> 00:15:42.838 Several black women's names will come up. 00:15:42.838 --> 00:15:47.899 I'd like those of you who are able to join us in saying these names 00:15:47.899 --> 00:15:50.315 as loud as you can, 00:15:50.315 --> 00:15:53.440 randomly, disorderly. 00:15:53.440 --> 00:15:56.712 Let's create a cacophony of sound 00:15:56.712 --> 00:16:03.470 to represent our intention 00:16:03.470 --> 00:16:04.473 to hold these women up, 00:16:04.473 --> 00:16:05.673 to sit with them, 00:16:05.673 --> 00:16:06.808 to bear witness to them, 00:16:06.808 --> 00:16:09.750 to bring them into the light. NOTE Paragraph 00:16:16.659 --> 00:16:29.613 Abby Dobson: Say, say her name. NOTE Paragraph 00:16:30.885 --> 00:16:37.046 Say NOTE Paragraph 00:16:38.394 --> 00:16:44.037 Say her name NOTE Paragraph 00:16:46.057 --> 00:16:53.916 Oh NOTE Paragraph 00:16:53.916 --> 00:17:02.943 Say her name NOTE Paragraph 00:17:02.943 --> 00:17:10.540 Say, say NOTE Paragraph 00:17:10.540 --> 00:17:17.593 Say her name NOTE Paragraph 00:17:17.593 --> 00:17:23.334 Say her name NOTE Paragraph 00:17:23.334 --> 00:17:34.086 All the names I'll never know 00:17:34.086 --> 00:17:46.860 Say her name NOTE Paragraph 00:17:49.246 --> 00:17:56.709 Say her name NOTE Paragraph 00:17:59.325 --> 00:18:02.156 Kimberlé Crenshaw: So I said at the beginning, 00:18:02.156 --> 00:18:05.672 if we can't see a problem, 00:18:05.672 --> 00:18:08.598 we can't fix a problem. 00:18:08.598 --> 00:18:12.545 Together, we've come together to bear witness 00:18:12.545 --> 00:18:15.160 to these women's lost lives, 00:18:15.160 --> 00:18:17.822 but the time now is to move 00:18:17.822 --> 00:18:20.045 from mourning and grief 00:18:20.045 --> 00:18:24.089 to action and transformation. 00:18:24.089 --> 00:18:27.696 This is something that we can do. 00:18:27.696 --> 00:18:29.891 It's up to us. NOTE Paragraph 00:18:29.891 --> 00:18:32.705 Thank you for joining us. NOTE Paragraph 00:18:32.705 --> 00:18:36.312 (Applause)