'We Got Witnesses': Black Women Navigating Police Violence and Legal Estrangement
Abstract: From Ida B. Wells’ systemic documentation of white mob lynchings in the late 1890s to Darnella Frazier’s 2020 recording of George Floyd’s murder, which sparked international protests against police violence, black women have occupied the role of witness for others experiencing state violence. Using in-depth interviews with black women, I examine how they mobilize and adapt witnessing techniques to protect themselves and others from becoming invisible victims of police violence. I explore witnessing as a form of day-to-day counter-surveillance resistance as black women work to reconfigure short-term and long-term power relations between themselves, their communities, and police.