Of Hijabs and Hoodies: Solidarity Against State Violence
On November 1st, the African American Policy Forum hosted a town hall, “In Plain Sight: Engendering the Fight for Racial Justice.” The event asked students, activists, scholars and policymakers to build a common platform for social justice. The event posed a simple question — in all of the conversations being had around the events in Ferguson, where were the women and girls of color who had faced police brutality? Why didn’t we know their names? Legal scholar and activist, Kimberle Crenshaw, hoped that this question would be asked in such a way not only as to see the women in plain sight, but to build a coalition of women of color, all of whom have been, or will be, directly impacted by state repression.
My testimony, amongst others, highlighted that a patriarchal state using militarized means to enforce discriminatory and repressive policies will impact a Tamil woman living in occupied territories of Sri Lanka just as much as a woman of color living in Harlem. The state creates identity markers, whether a hijab or a hoodie, to target communities of color. When women in New York choose not to cover their head with a scarf or a sweatshirt when they’re cold, they are being asked to sacrifice identity for security.
These forms of state repression (police brutality, surveillance by 3-d drones, and civilian police monitoring the “homegrown” threat of radicalization) are then absorbed by communities of color and internalized so that men become the mediators of women’s security. Surveillance creates a desire not to be seen, or noticed by the state. Men tell Muslim women to cut their hair, sexual violence within communities is covered up for fear of raising one’s profile — the goal may be protection from the state, but the end result is to make women of color invisible, women whose suffering should be in plain sight.
Surveillance itself also breaks into the psyche – shaping the capacity for resistance. It creates lines and divisions as people try to distance themselves from Muslims, Blacks, or whichever group the state is targeting. Working against this is an important moment for solidarity across all women of color to challenge the systemic forces of state repression that shape our lived experiences, both here and around the world. A parallel conversation must be had within communities about the underlying patriarchy in our own social movements, as was discussed at the event’s featured discussion with men of color. As someone who has fought for the rights of a Tamil women on a tiny island that nobody cares very much about — being amongst the community this movement is building, is not only inspiring but lifts out of isolation the suffering of a woman far away and places it in the company of women of color everywhere fighting for social justice.
Please stay involved in this important conversation by following the #WhyWeCantWait Campaign and the African American Policy Forum’s Work. You can sign up for the mailing list here.