Installation view of Freedom Square: The Black Girlhood Altar at the Chicago Cultural Center
The exhibition at the Chicago Cultural Center opens with the installation “Homegoing.” The work is a suspended image depicting a screenshot from Ma’Khia Bryant’s personal TikTok. In the photo she’s laying her edges, her jet-black hair shining, her baby face clean and free of makeup. Below the printed photo is a collection of candles, stuffed animals, and a bouquet. On April 20, 2021, Ma’Khia was killed by an Ohio police officer in what was later determined a justifiable homicide. She was 16 years old.
In the gallery titled Rest and Recess: The Courtyard, the exhibition transports the viewer to the Caribbean where Black girls play together unburdened and hopeful. A tree, sculpted by Robert Narciso and made from branches from Rekia Boyd’s family home, sits in the center of the room casting a protective shadow over everything. From its branches hang yellow paper hearts scribed with the hopes and dreams of little Black girls. The sound of their joyful cacophony activates the space.
This was her FAVORITE time of year... She should be spending it with family... she should be be alive. I'm pissed she's not. I'm so so pissed. I'm hurt. on the verge of tears.
Please dont forget her face, her name, her smile, her caring soul.
She wanted to be a nurse. Wanted to help mothers and babies... And she never got to.
The world was a better place when she was in it...
COLUMBIA, S.C. — A South Carolina man was found guilty Friday of killing a Black transgender woman in the nation’s first federal trial over a hate crime based on gender identity.
After deliberating for roughly four hours, jurors convicted Daqua Lameek Ritter of a hate crime for the murder of Dime Doe in 2019. Ritter was also found guilty of using a firearm in connection with the fatal shooting and obstructing justice.
A sentencing date has not yet been scheduled. Ritter faces a maximum of life imprisonment without parole.
[...]
The four-day trial over Doe’s killing centered on the secret sexual relationship between her and Ritter, the latter of whom had grown agitated by the exposure of their affair in the small town of Allendale, according to witness testimony and text messages obtained by the FBI. Prosecutors accused Ritter of shooting Doe three times with a .22 caliber handgun to prevent further revelation of their romance.
[...]
Doe’s close friends testified that it was no secret in Allendale that she had begun her social transition as a woman shortly after graduating high school. She started dressing in skirts, getting her nails done and wearing extensions. She and her friends discussed boys they were seeing — including Ritter, whom she met during one of his many summertime visits from New York to stay with family.
But text messages obtained by the FBI suggested that Ritter sought to keep their relationship under wraps as much as possible, prosecutors said. He reminded her to delete their communications from her phone, and hundreds of texts sent in the month before her death were removed.
Shortly before Doe’s death, their exchanges grew tense. In one message from July 29, 2019, she complained that Ritter did not reciprocate her generosity. He replied that he thought they had an understanding that she didn’t need the “extra stuff.”
He also told her that Delasia Green, his main girlfriend at the time, had insulted him with a homophobic slur after learning of the affair. In a July 31 text, Doe said she felt used and Ritter should never have let Green find out about them.
[...]
Green said that when he showed up days later at her cousin’s house in Columbia, he was dirty, smelly and couldn’t stop pacing. Her cousin’s boyfriend gave Ritter a ride to the bus stop. Before he left, Green asked him if he had killed Doe.
“He dropped his head and gave me a little smirk,” Green said.
from the HRC:
Doe’s friends and family remembered her on social media as having a “bright personality” and being someone who “showed love” and who was “the best to be around.” Another friend wrote, “If I knew Friday was my last time seeing you, I would have hugged you even tighter.”
according to NYT's article, she also worked as a hairdresser. she was only 24.
Sandra Annette Bland was a 28-year-old woman from Chicago, who was taken into custody by a state trooper in Prairie View, Texas, following a minor traffic violation on July 10, 2015. Many people consider Sandra’s traffic stop to be a textbook case of rampant racial profiling.
After authorities reviewed the dashcam footage, the white state trooper who arrested Sandra was placed on administrative leave for failing to follow proper traffic stop procedures. He was subsequently indicted for perjury for making false statements about the circumstances surrounding Sandra’s arrest, and he was fired. On July 13, 2015 just three days after being arrested, Sandra Bland was found hanged in her jail cell and her death was ruled a suicide.
Most of us today have suspicions about the alleged suicide.
Cis Black woman killed because attacker thought she was trans
Earl reportedly referred to the victim as a male acting like a woman during the questioning, the affidavit said. He also shared that he and the victim engaged in their most recent conflict the day before the incident. Earl alleged that the victim pointed a firearm at him after the two exchanged words.
Obligatory image to humanize her
Her name was Michelle Dionne Peacock
Anti-trans hate crimes disproportionately effects Black women who don't fit the white euro-centric beauty standard.