SSN Commentary

Tracking Anniversaries of Black Deaths Isn’t Memorializing Victims – It’s Objectifying Them

Policy field

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SUNY College at Geneseo

Originally published as "Tracking Anniversaries of Black Deaths Isn’t Memorializing Victims – It’s Objectifying Them," The Conversation, August 5, 2021.

National Good Samaritan Day fell on March 13 and commemorates those who have helped a person in need. This year, March 13 also marked one year since Louisville police officers killed Breonna Taylor during a botched raid on her apartment.

And in 2020 former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd on Memorial Day, when we honor Americans who died while serving in the U.S. military.