WEBVTT

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I'd like to try something new.

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Those of you who are able,

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please stand up.

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OK, so I'm going to name some names.

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When you hear a name
that you don't recognize,

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you can't tell me anything about them,

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I'd like you to take a seat

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and stay seated.

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The last person standing,
we're going to see what they know. OK?

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(Laughter)

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All right.

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Eric Garner.

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Mike Brown.

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Tamir Rice.

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Freddie Gray.

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So those of you who are still standing,

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I'd like you to turn around
and take a look.

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I'd say half to most of the people
are still standing.

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So let's continue.

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Michelle Cusseaux.

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Tanisha Anderson.

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Aura Rosser.

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Meagan Hockaday.

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So if we look around again,

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there are about four people
still standing,

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and actually I'm not going
to put you on the spot.

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I just say that to encourage transparency,
so you can be seated.

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(Laughter)

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So those of you who recognized
the first group of names know

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that these were African-Americans
who have been killed by the police

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over the last two and a half years.

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What you may not know

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is that the other list
is also African-Americans

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who have been killed
within the last two years.

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Only one thing distinguishes
the names that you know

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from the names that you don't know:

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gender.

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So let me first let you know
that there's nothing at all distinct

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about this audience

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that explains the pattern of recognition
that we've just seen.

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I've done this exercise
dozens of times around the country.

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I've done it to women's
rights organizations.

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I've done it with civil rights groups.

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I've done it with professors.
I've done it with students.

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I've done it with psychologists.
I've done it with sociologists.

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I've done it even with
progressive members of Congress.

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And everywhere, the awareness
of the level of police violence

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that black women experience

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is exceedingly low.

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Now, it is surprising, isn't it,
that this would be the case.

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I mean, there are two issues
involved here.

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There's police violence
against African-Americans,

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and there's violence against women,

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two issues that have been
talked about a lot lately.

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But when we think about
who is implicated by these problems,

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when we think about
who is victimized by these problems,

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the names of these black women
never come to mind.

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Now, communications experts tell us

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that when facts do not fit
with the available frames,

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people have a difficult time
incorporating new facts

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into their way of thinking
about a problem.

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These women's names
have slipped through our consciousness

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because there are no frames
for us to see them,

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no frames for us to remember them,

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no frames for us to hold them.

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As a consequence,

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reporters don't lead with them,

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policymakers don't think about them,

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and politicians aren't encouraged
or demanded that they speak to them.

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Now, you might ask,

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why does a frame matter?

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I mean, after all,

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an issue that affects black people
and an issue that affects women,

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wouldn't that necessarily include
black people who are women

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and women who are black people?

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Well, the simple answer is that this is
a trickle-down approach to social justice,

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and many times it just doesn't work.

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Without frames that allow us to see

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how social problems impact
all the members of a targeted group,

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many will fall through the cracks
of our movements,

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left to suffer in virtual isolation.

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But it doesn't have to be this way.

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Many years ago, I began to use
the term "intersectionality"

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to deal with the fact
that many of our social justice problems

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like racism and sexism

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are often overlapping,

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creating multiple levels
of social injustice.

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Now, the experience
that gave rise to intersectionality

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was my chance encounter
with a woman named Emma DeGraffenreid.

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Emma DeGraffenreid
was an African-American woman,

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a working wife and a mother.

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I actually read about Emma's story
from the pages of a legal opinion

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written by a judge
who had dismissed Emma's claim

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of race and gender discrimination

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against a local car manufacturing plant.

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Emma, like so many African-American women,

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sought better employment
for her family and for others.

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She wanted to create a better life
for her children and for her family.

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But she applied for a job,

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and she was not hired,

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and she believed that she was not hired
because she was a black woman.

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Now, the judge in question
dismissed Emma's suit,

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and the argument
for dismissing the suit was

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that the employer
did hire African-Americans

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and the employer hired women.

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The real problem, though, that the judge
was not willing to acknowledge

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was what Emma was actually trying to say,

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that the African-Americans
that were hired,

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usually for industrial jobs,
maintenance jobs, were all men.

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And the women that were hired,

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usually for secretarial
or front-office work,

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were all white.

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Only if the court was able to see
how these policies came together

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would he be able to see
the double discrimination

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that Emma DeGraffenreid was facing.

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But the court refused to allow Emma
to put two causes of action together

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to tell her story

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because he believed that,
by allowing her to do that,

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she would be able
to have preferential treatment.

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She would have an advantage
by having two swings at the bat,

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when African-American men and white women
only had one swing at the bat.

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But of course, neither
African-American men or white women

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needed to combine a race
and gender discrimination claim

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to tell the story of the discrimination
they were experiencing.

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Why wasn't the real unfairness

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law's refusal to protect
African-American women

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simply because their experiences
weren't exactly the same

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as white women and African-American men?

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Rather than broadening the frame
to include African-American women,

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the court simply tossed their case
completely out of court.

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Now, as a student
of antidiscrimination law,

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as a feminist,

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as an antiracist,

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I was struck by this case.

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It felt to me like injustice squared.

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So first of all,

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black women weren't allowed
to work at the plant.

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Second of all, the court
doubled down on this exclusion

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by making it legally inconsequential.

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And to boot, there was
no name for this problem.

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And we all know that,
where there's no name for a problem,

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you can't see a problem,

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and when you can't see a problem,
you pretty much can't solve it.

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Many years later, I had come to recognize

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that the problem that Emma was facing
was a framing problem.

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The frame that the court was using

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to see gender discrimination
or to see race discrimination

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was partial, and it was distorting.

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For me, the challenge that I faced was

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trying to figure out whether
there was an alternative narrative,

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a prism that would allow us
to see Emma's dilemma,

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a prism that would allow us
to rescue her from the cracks in the law,

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that would allow judges to see her story.

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So it occurred to me,

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maybe a simple analogy to an intersection

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might allow judges
to better see Emma's dilemma.

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So if we think about this intersection,
the roads to the intersection would be

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the way that the workforce
was structured by race and by gender.

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And then the traffic in those roads
would be the hiring policies

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and the other practices
that ran through those roads.

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Now, because Emma
was both black and female,

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she was positioned precisely
where those roads overlapped,

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experiencing the simultaneous impact

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of the company's gender and race traffic.

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The law -- the law is
like that ambulance that shows up

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and is ready to treat Emma
only if it can be shown

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that she was harmed
on the race road or on the gender road

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but not where those roads intersected.

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So what do you call
being impacted by multiple forces

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and then abandoned to fend for yourself?

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Intersectionality seemed to do it for me.

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I would go on to learn
that African-American women,

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like other women of color,

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like other socially marginalized people
all over the world,

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were facing all kinds
of dilemmas and challenges

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as a consequence of intersectionality,

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intersections of race and gender,

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of heterosexism, transphobia,
xenophobia, ableism,

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all of these social dynamics come together

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and create challenges
that are sometimes quite unique.

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But in the same way

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that intersectionality

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raised our awareness to the way
that black women live their lives,

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it also exposes the tragic circumstances

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under which African-American women die.

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Police violence against black women

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is very real.

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The level of violence
that black women face

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is such that it's not surprising

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that some of them do not survive
their encounters with police.

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Black girls as young as seven,

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great grandmothers as old as 95

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have been killed by the police.

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They've been killed in their living rooms,

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in their bedrooms.

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They've been killed in their cars.

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They've been killed on the street.

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They've been killed
in front of their parents

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and they've been killed
in front of their children.

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They have been shot to death.

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They have been stomped to death.

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They have been suffocated to death.

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They have been manhandled to death.

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They have been tasered to death.

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They've been killed
when they've called for help.

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They've been killed when they were alone,

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and they've been killed
when they were with others.

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They've been killed shopping while black,

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driving while black,

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having a mental disability while black,

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having a domestic disturbance while black.

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They've even been killed
being homeless while black.

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They've been killed
talking on the cell phone,

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laughing with friends,

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sitting in a car reported as stolen

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and making a U-turn
in front of the White House

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with an infant strapped
in the backseat of the car.

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Why don't we know these stories?

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Why is it that their lost lives

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don't generate the same amount
of media attention and communal outcry

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as the lost lives
of their fallen brothers?

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It's time for a change.

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So what can we do?

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In 2014, the African-American
Policy Forum began to demand

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that we "say her name"

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at rallies, at protests,

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at conferences, at meetings,

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anywhere and everywhere

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that state violence against black bodies
is being discussed.

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But saying her name is not enough.

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We have to be willing to do more.

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We have to be willing to bear witness,

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to bear witness
to the often painful realities

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that we would just rather not confront,

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the everyday violence and humiliation
that many black women have had to face,

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black women across color,

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age, gender expression,

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sexuality and ability.

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So we have the opportunity right now --

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bearing in mind that some of the images
that I'm about to share with you

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may be triggering for some --

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to collectively bear witness
to some of this violence.

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We're going to hear the voice
of the phenomenal Abby Dobson.

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And as we sit with these women,

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some who have experienced violence
and some who have not survived them,

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we have an opportunity

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to reverse what happened
at the beginning of this talk,

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when we could not stand for these women

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because we did not know their names.

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So at the end of this clip,
there's going to be a roll call.

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Several black women's names will come up.

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I'd like those of you who are able
to join us in saying these names

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as loud as you can,

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randomly, disorderly.

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Let's create a cacophony of sound

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to represent our intention

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to hold these women up,

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to sit with them,

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to bear witness to them,

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to bring them into the light.

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(Singing) Abby Dobson: Say,

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say her name.

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Say,

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say her name.

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(Audience) Shelly!

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(Audience) Kayla!

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AD: Oh,

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say her name.

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(Audience shouting names)

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Say, say,

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say her name.

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Say her name.

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For all the names

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I'll never know,

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say her name.

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KC: Aiyanna Stanley Jones,
Janisha Fonville,

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Kathryn Johnston, Kayla Moore,

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Michelle Cusseaux, Rekia Boyd,

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Shelly Frey, Tarika, Yvette Smith.

00:17:52.384 --> 00:17:59.024
AD: Say her name.

00:18:02.544 --> 00:18:05.400
KC: So I said at the beginning,

00:18:05.424 --> 00:18:08.184
if we can't see a problem,

00:18:09.304 --> 00:18:10.824
we can't fix a problem.

00:18:12.064 --> 00:18:15.480
Together, we've come together
to bear witness

00:18:15.504 --> 00:18:17.584
to these women's lost lives.

00:18:18.664 --> 00:18:21.120
But the time now is to move

00:18:21.144 --> 00:18:23.640
from mourning and grief

00:18:23.664 --> 00:18:26.424
to action and transformation.

00:18:27.624 --> 00:18:29.864
This is something that we can do.

00:18:30.944 --> 00:18:32.344
It's up to us.

00:18:34.344 --> 00:18:36.240
Thank you for joining us.

00:18:36.264 --> 00:18:37.480
Thank you.

00:18:37.504 --> 00:18:39.824
(Applause)