JANELLE MONÁE RELEASES NEW SINGLE, ‘SAY HER NAME’, TO HONOUR BLACK WOMEN AND GIRLS KILLED BY LAW ENFORCEMENT

The protest anthem aims to amplify the stories of the women who have lost their lives at the hands of police, and uplift their mothers and families.

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The protest anthem ‘Say Her Name’ is the latest single from Janelle Monáe aiming to honour black women and girls killed by law enforcement. The collaborative release was created by The African American Policy Forum (AAPF), Wondaland Records, Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw, eight-time Grammy award nominee Janelle Monáe and 15 other black female artists, with the goal of providing the AAPF and the #SayHerName Mothers Network with a platform to tell their stories. As well as this, the single and accompanying lyric video features the likes of Beyoncé, Alicia Keys, Brittany Howard, Chlöe x Halle and Tierra Whack. 

Launched in December 2014 by the AAPF and Centre for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies, the #SayHerName campaign was launched to bring awareness to the often invisible names and stories of black women and girls who have been victimised by racist police violence. Following the tragic death of Michael Brown on the 9th of August 2014, a global surge in movements against anti-black racism and police violence began. This then shed further light on the names of Eric Garner and Tamir Rice who were also murdered by law enforcement, pushing them into the forefront of public policy debates on the future of American policing.

However, 2014 also marked the unjust police killings of numerous black women, including Gabriella Nevarez, Aura Rosser and Michelle Cusseaux. Whilst the awareness of police brutality against black males was on the rise at a discriminatorily slow pace, accountability for the murders of black women was seemingly unheard of. There was an evident exclusion of these tragedies as examples of systemic police brutality, highlighting a huge failure to provide justice and accountability to female and non-binary victims. The AAPF launched #SayHerName to shed light on these circumstances and raise awareness of black women’s experiences to build a gender-inclusive approach against racist law enforcement.

Following the tragic deaths of George Flloyd and Breonna Taylor in 2020, Janelle Monáe was inspired to reignite support for the Say Her Name social movement, founded by Kimberlé Crenshaw. Following Monáe’s previous chant song ‘Hell You Talmbout’, which she performed at the 2017 Women’s March in Washington D.C, the celebrated American singer/songwriter revisited the track alongside fifteen of America’s biggest black female artists to form ‘Say Her Name’. The 17 minute track is relentlessly powerful in chanting the names of over fifty women and non-binary individuals who have been victims of police brutality. The union of so many incredible female voices on the record is overwhelming and represents the nature of the #SayHerName campaign authentically and justly.

Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw, who is globally recognised for conceptualising and coining the term ‘intersectionality’ in 1989 stated: “We are honored that Ms. Monáe and so many artists have lent their voices to reverse what we’ve called the ‘loss of the loss’. We’ve seen first hand the long term consequences of this unimaginable loss of life at the hands of police. This song comes at an especially challenging moment for the #SayHerName Mothers Network, as we gather to mourn the loss of Cassandra Johnson, who witnessed the slaying of her daughter Tanisha Anderson by the Cleveland police during a mental health call. Although her commitment to seek justice for Tanisha sustained her, her death last week makes her another casualty of the brutality that took Tanisha’s life. With this song, we honor Cassandra, Vickie McAdory, another of our sisters who was broken by the killing of India Beaty, and all of the families who have suffered the tragedy of stolen lives and the indignity and trauma that follows. This song tells them that we see them and will bear witness until justice is done”.  

So far, we have seen the movement provide an intersectional framework of education on the susceptibility of black women to police brutality and state-sanctioned violence, whilst also offering support to the mothers of victims in open ‘Mothers Weekends’. These events enable the cause to gain first-hand understanding of the needs of victims’ families, allowing the construction of supportive communities and networks for activism. 

The campaign’s latest release is an accessible method of making listeners aware of the horrific experiences suffered by the mentioned black women and girls, and it is hoped the track will spark an increase in research and addressal of the wider issue of gender-exclusionary, anti-racist activism. Whilst the Black Lives Matter movement called the need for educational reformation and a greater apprehension of racial discrimination, it is now time for broader social recognition of intersectionality - something ‘Say Her Name’ brings your attention to urgently. 

‘Say Her Name’ is available on all streaming platforms now. Proceeds from the song and video will benefit the African American Policy Forum.