socialistworker | THE GRAND jury decisions not to indict Darren Wilson or Daniel
Pantaleo in the murders of Mike Brown and Eric Garner has rightly
sparked a nationwide discussion around the state of police violence
against Black and Brown men and women in the U.S., as well as the
systemic racism that runs through U.S. institutions.
A new vein to the mainstream discussion of police violence emerged
recently during a press conference with Garner's widow, which pointed
out how police brutality and mass incarceration are also issues of
reproductive justice.
In a press conference on December 3,
Esaw Garner, referring to the police officer who murdered her husband,
said, "He's still feeding his kids, when my husband is six feet under,
and I'm looking for a way to feed my kids now."
The concept of reproductive justice, as coined by the women of color-led organization SisterSong, is defined as follows:
The reproductive justice framework--the right to have children, not have children, and to parent the children we have in safe and healthy environments--is based on the human right to make personal decisions about one's life, and the obligation of government and society to ensure that the conditions are suitable for implementing one's decisions is important for women of color.
In a nation where the police, security guards or self-appointed vigilantes murder another Black man every 28 hours, Black families live in constant fear that their sons, fathers, husbands, partners and brothers will be the latest victim.
It is essential that we, as reproductive justice activists are
present to make the argument that it is not enough to have the right to
have children or terminate a pregnancy, but that true reproductive
justice means being able to parent without fear your child will be murdered for playing with a toy gun in a public park or for going to the store to buy Skittles.
