By Ja’Loni OwensSpecial to the Chronicle
There is a collective, misogynoirist effort to turn the murder of 19-year-old Chicago teen Kenneka Jenkins into an example. Her murder is seen by agents of patriarchy as an opportunity to, instead of addressing misogynoir and rape culture, further perpetuate those violent ideologies and manipulate a vulnerable, mourning population of womyn into believing that we are deserving of the violence we are on the receiving end of because we were not “smart enough” to prepare for it.
Reports emerged on Monday, Sept. 11 regarding a black female found dead inside a walk-in freezer at a Rosemont hotel in Chicago, less than a day after she’d been reported missing from a party she attended with a few close friends.
It took less than a day after the initial story broke for black womyn to be stripped of our right to mourn and instead told that it is our responsibility to ensure our own safe navigation through a nation built on top of the graves of womyn who came before us. That we should know better than to allow ourselves to feel as comfortable in a public space as our white counterparts and even our black male counterparts.
Instead of confronting the issue of rape culture as a community, the murder of our sister has been used as an opportunity to scold black womyn for having difficulty safely navigating through a society that is defined by the historical amount of danger it presents for us.
Within sub-discourses about Jenkins’ death I’ve seen folx cite the infamous saying, “Lord, protect me from my friends; I can take care of my enemies,” as well as say, “Jenkins is the reason you don’t hang with envious friends when you’re the most beautiful in the group” and “I always thought my mom hated on my friends for no reason, but now I see your parents can really see your fake friends before you do.”
This sub-discourse came out of confirmation from Jenkins’ mother that her daughter’s friends reported leaving Kenneka in a hallway so that she could retrieve her car keys and phone from a room and never saw her again.Is it undeniably clear that Jenkins’ friend failed her that night? Absolutely. That point has been made abundantly clear and is confirmable. With that, however, another point must be made clear: Jenkins did not deserve to be murdered.
Jenkins’ friend was negligent and had she not been, perhaps I would not be writing this article, but Jenkins did not deserve to be murdered. Both parts of my statement hold true, however only one has been seen everywhere.
Jenkins’ murder is not an opportunity to breed internalized misogyny and condition womyn to suspect that all of the womyn around you are snakes and plotting your downfall. It should rather be used as a segue into a conversation about male violence and the refusal of our society to hold agents of patriarchy accountable for gendered violence.
Girls with a poor-quality friend group do not deserve to be assaulted and murdered. Girls who do not carry pepper spray or a knife with them whenever they leave their homes do not deserve to be assaulted and murdered. Girls who drink a little too much at parties do not deserve to be assaulted and murdered. Girls who are perceived to be the prettiest of their friend group do not deserve to be assaulted and murdered. Girls do not deserve to be assaulted and murdered. Period.
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