Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of color is book written by Andrea Ritchie. The book speaks against police violence against black women and women of color and has 352 pages. It was published by Beacon Press with an ISBN-10 number being 0807088986 and ISBN-13 number being 978-0807088982. Andrea, the author, is a black lesbian immigrant whose major works of publication and research, litigation and advocacy is focused on how black women and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people of color have been policed for the past 20 years and the implications of this policing. She is a police misconduct attorney and organizer and has published several other books that include Queer (In)Justice: The Criminalization of LGBT People in the United States (Beacon, 2011) and Say Her Name: Resisting Police Brutality Against Black Women (AAPF, 2015. She currently works at the Barnard Center for Research on Women as a researcher on race, gender, sexuality and Criminalization.
The book, Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of color is an enlightening account that describes how black women, indigenous women and other women of color are constantly affected by police brutality as well as racial profiling. From time immemorial, the media has focused on black men such as Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Philando Castile and Freddie Gray being on the receiving end of police brutality and profiling without looking on the troubles women face almost on a daily basis from the same police force. Invisible No More places emphasis on accounts of women such as Sandra Bland, Dajerria Becton, Mya Hall, and Reykia Boyd. It seeks to expound on experiences of women such as these ones and put them into broader contexts, placing women of color at the center of conversations around twin epidemics of police violence and mass incarceration. Moreover, it also documents the growth and evolution of a movement of justice for women of color targeted by police that has been gaining traction over the last 2 decades mostly in the shadows of mainstream campaigns for accountability from the police service and justice for racial abuse. This groundbreaking work introduces a new perspective on how mainstream media, policy makers, academics and the general public should look at police violence. Furthermore, it calls for a radical shift of our visions of safety and how we aim to achieve it.
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The book consists of 10 chapters from chapter 1 to chapter 10. Chapter 1 essentially brings out the historical record of violence that has been perpetrated against women of color without exception of indigenous women as well as the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community. It does so by mentioning and expounding on a number of narratives that are pertinent to this violence. In addition, it explains how colonization led to the demise of the indigenous identity and humanity. Chapter 2-9 all highlight various exchanges that involve the police and the women of color. The chapters all have a conclusion in which some sort of individual and collective resistance to gender policing is highlighted and which takes numerous different forms at the local as well as national level. Throughout the chapters, Ritchie questions the role of police especially in contributing to the violence not only against black women but also women of color. She also ponders on how to develop strategies and structures beyond police framework that will ensure genuine safety for women of color especially those in hostile terrain. She goes on to suggest that centering these strategies on black women and women of color will shift the demands, analysis and approaches.
In chapter 1, Ritchie portrays sexual violence as a primary weapon for abuse and introduces the concept of “the myth of absence” as a collective reductionist method. Under this myth, she establishes that it normalizes the invisibility of women in general on the pretext of colonial establishment. Colonial masters who enslaved many used mother hood as a tool for punishment under the harshness of slavery. During this period, there was no law and therefore black women were considered property. Eventually, this led to their detachment from their gendered status. This severance from womanhood took away with it the perception of feminism on these black women as well. Ritchie exclaims that this system of constructed categorizations of Black women’s behavior and possibilities for existence persist to this day and in fact, is what informs police perceptions of what conduct is appropriate and permissible toward women.
Chapter 2-9 talk about the law enforcement patterns that have constantly been applied to women of color. Ersula Ore, an Arizona State University lecturer, summarizes the roots of the enforcement patterns by implying that the patterns of police injustice towards black women has been due to a lack of respect for them. The chapters go ahead and lay bare how police, with impunity, reduce gender for cis, queer and trans women to a sociopolitical site for abuse and violation of human rights as they consider bodies of girls and women of color as intimidating and threats to public as well as private places. The gendered mortification of and expendability of black women and the clear reduction of the value of motherhood and life of women of color are just but only two identifiable threads in the fabric sexual violence engraved in the police system.
Chapter 3 and 4 serves as a confirmation to brutality instigated by the police towards women of color. Furthermore, it shows how this extends to those who are minors and women of color. In chapter 3 for instance, Ritchie agrees with and builds upon the works of Monique W. Morris and Bell Hooks. They all concur that schools are sites that tend to have profound regulation and punishment and employ zero-tolerance policies towards girls of color who disrupt the peace or engage themselves in disorderly conduct for the sake of demanding to be treated with dignity. Morris introduces the concept of age compression in which women of color who are minors are treated as adults. This concept is also used as a weapon by schools and law enforcement that are used against girls of color. Chapter 4 highlights cases in which women of color who have a disability or mental health disorder. In almost all incidents in which these women have interacted with police, they end up either dead or get injured. In both instances, there is a failure to respond appropriately to the situation due to stereotypic view of the victims at those particular instances.
Finally, Chapter 10 is culmination of all the resistance subsections in the prior chapters. This chapter essentially seeks to show how community activists and organizers together with the surviving victims and families of victims are demanding and getting justice from the violations by tearing the veil of secrecy and silence. The book draws its strengths from the inclusion of Ritchie’s personal experience and investment as well as her purposeful build of the works of Angela Davis, Danielle McGuire, Beth Richie, Monique Morris and Bell Hooks. By incorporating and considering the works of other female scholars and activists, this book makes a strong case to return the missing female narrative to the discourse of gender relations in the US.
ADDENDUM
How can police discrimination against black women and women of color be rooted out?
How can victims seek justice against the police brutality especially if they are scared?
What should be done to start a conversation and to implement the solutions that will ensure safety of women of color?
How can the women of color with disability be protected from harm that is a result of police brutality?
How can be the “myth of absence” be eradicated from the mindsets of police officers?
How can law enforcement patterns be tailored to prevent the abuse toward women of color?
How can awareness be raised to highlight this police brutality towards women of color?
How can schools be changed to ensure that they are not contributors of this oppression?
What should be done to ensure that the dignity of girls of color especially those in schools are protected?
Why is age compression among women of color so prevalent? What should be done to ensure that it is toned down going forward?
Reference
Ritchie, A. J. (2017). Invisible no more: Police violence against Black women and women of color. Beacon press.
