Say Her Name: Nia Wilson
by Amanda Gorman
Rest in power, queen. You were brutally taken from this earth all too soon, but now you rap among angels.
One of the most heartbreaking aspects of this tragedy is that #niawilson only has about 14k posts on Instagram. Apparently Oakland police are still reviewing if her murder was racially motivated, but people of color—especially women of color—know the truth.
1. John Lee Cowell prayed on two young black sisters, which means it probably wasn’t just race motivated, but gender motivated as well—a case of misogynoir which churns under the violence perpetrated against WOC.
2. Secondly, the relatively low social media and news coverage of her murder highlights why young WOC are particularly vulnerable to hate crimes in the first place. People, collective silence is as vicious as the violence. Complicity after the crime is as bad as the crime.
Let’s fight hate crimes with love acts.
If you’re looking for ways to support Nia’s family:
1️⃣donate to her family’s GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/justice-for-nia-wilson .
2️⃣Spread the word on her death and fundraiser page.
3️⃣Publicly condemn and comment any news institution which fails to report on the murder, along with the socially or self-proclaimed ‘feminist’ celebrities or ‘feminists’ which haven’t spoken up after the attack.
These are just some suggestions. The point? We all can do something. It doesn’t change what happens, but it changes how we move forward.
Learn more about the murder of Nia Wilson from Essence, ThinkProgress.
Nia Wilson was a rapper, so her sister out here blasted some of her music #sayhername pic.twitter.com/MpUSIHlIqX
— Lucas Guilkey (@lucasguilkey) July 24, 2018
Amanda Gorman is the first ever youth poet laureate and founder 1pen1page. She attends Harvard and aims to be the president of the United States. You can follow her on Instagram.