The ‘Say Their Names’ Cemetery
Why we must do more than just Say Their Names
The crowd chanted: Say His Name … George Floyd.
The post shared read: Rest in Power … Breonna Taylor.
The hashtag went viral: #irunwithmaud to bring attention to the murder of Ahmaud Arbery.
His life mattered! Her life mattered! Their lives Mattered! Our Lives Matter!
Is talking enough? Is protesting enough? Are the hashtags enough? Is Saying Their Names Enough? We yell Black Lives Matter! You see the signs posted around town. We add the hashtag. When yet another black or brown life is prematurely taken, their name and photograph go viral. We “Say Their Names”! We fight and plead for justice to be served. We Protest and walk in unity.
Why you might ask… what do we want?
We want arrests, timely arrests. We want convictions, proper convictions. We want justice to be served. We want to be treated like human beings. We want to be valued and seen as equal. We want respect. We want to not be seen as a threat! We want our people to stop being killed. So, we take to the street. We protest. We tweet, hashtag, and share Their Names because we want change! We take action because we don’t want our loved ones to end up as the next hashtag.
We don’t want anyone else to end up as the next hashtag, yet I woke up on August 24, 2020, to the news about two more unjustified shootings.
Jacob Blake
Jacob Blake, an unarmed black man, was shot seven times in his back in Kenosha, Wisconsin. I clutched my chest as I watched the heartbreaking video of him walking away and being shot at point-blank range seven times. I heard the voices yell “don’t you do it” over and over and saw a distraught young woman jump up and down. Here is the disturbing video retrieved from YouTube:
I then learned that another black man, Trayford Pellerin, was killed in Lafayette, Louisiana on Friday night after being shot eleven times. Their lives mattered! We should Say Their Names! Yes, we want them to rest in power. These two shootings reminded me of my recent visit to the Say Their Name Cemetery. Do we know all of their names? Do we know all of their stories? Do their Stories also matter?
In Minneapolis, The Say Their Name Cemetery, created by Anna Barber and Connor Wright, two University of Pennsylvania graduates, was erected a few blocks away from where George Floyd was murdered. Here is a video of me and my son visiting the cemetery:
When visiting the cemetery my heart ached. I was overwhelmed by the amount of headstones present. I was even more overwhelmed knowing that there were others not represented in this visual depiction. I did not know all of the names. Should I know their names? Should I know their stories?
A sign front and center said:
“How Many Have There Been? How Many More Must There Be?”
This cemetery touched my soul. When I visited this cemetery, my hope was to have a change where no more names were required to be added. My hope was for there to not be any further senseless killings. So, who were all of these people? Who was Shantel Davis? Who was Philando Castile? Who was Tamir Rice? Who was Stephon Clark? We know their names, but do we know their stories?
The memorial made me think of Malcolm Gladwell’s internationally bestselling book Talking to Strangers. In the book, Gladwell, in a powerful way opens and closes his book by vividly examining the encounter with Sandra Bland and Brian Encinia that resulted from what should have been a routine traffic stop. The world got to witness this encounter via the 2015 dash camera footage. We saw the Encinia yell at Bland and escalate the situation after pulling her over for a failure to signal when changing lanes. We witnessed him yell at her to get out of her car and threaten to “light her up” with his taser. Here is the video, retrieved from YouTube:
If you don’t know how this story ended, Bland was found dead in her jail cell three days later, ruled to be a suicide. There are many questions and a lot up for debate. Why was she in jail for a failure to signal routine traffic stop? Why did she have materials in her cell that would allow her to hang herself? How did this traffic stop turn into tragedy?
That story rocked me and it made me think… Do we know their names? Do we know who they were? Do we know their stories? Do we even know how, when, where, and why they died? Yes, some of their stories turn into documentaries, but not all of them. Sandra Bland’s documentary was released in 2018, but what if we didn’t wait for a documentary. What if we intentionally dug deeper into their stories!
Also, as much as I don’t want to speak the names of the killers, I know that we must do so. This is not to glorify them, but to bring attention and national connection to their actions. We want to associate their name with those actions. I want them and the world to get the message loud and clear that it is not ok and there are consequences. I want the world to know if the officer was charged and if not, why not? If not, what are they doing today? We have to also make their names known so they can’t just move to another state and start a fresh new life on yet another police force. Knowing the officer’s names must become a movement. Say Their Names, Know their Stories, and Send the message that we WILL not remain quiet as the killers comfortably start new chapters in life.
We have to be BOLD and Loud!
We have to ensure that those who lost their lives Rest in Power! We have to make a change!
What must be done? There needs to be police reform and training on implicit and explicit biases. The world needs to know that minorities are not bad people and learn how to not apply excessive force in response to a fear falsely embedded. Police forces should consider residential requirements for police officers, where they serve and police areas that they live. That would give them an ability to empathize and better understand the area that they serve. Further, people’s hearts and minds must change. Racism is hate, evil, and fear and only love can conquer these three. Until these changes take place, the killings will continue. The time to make a change is NOW!
