It’s been nearly one week since Jazmine Barnes, a 7-year-old black girl, was killed when a gunman fired into her mother’s car on December 30. As the hunt for the shooter continues, Barnes’s family and others have argued that the attack and her murder must be addressed as an act of racism.
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Barnes’s death has resonated with so many not just because of her youth, but also because of what the nature of the attack — an allegedly white man shooting through a car window at a black family — may say about the state of racism in America.
Barnes’s family has argued that the shooting was racially motivated, and local activists say that it’s possible Barnes’s death is connected to a 2017 shooting that took place just six miles away. In that incident, a black man, A’Vonta Williams, and his then-girlfriend’s grandmother, were shot after a man driving a pickup truck fired into their car. The shooter was never found and the case remains unsolved.
In regards to Barnes’s case, Merritt, the civil rights attorney, has no doubt that the family was targeted because they were black. “We want to emphasize the racial nature of the attack and that hate-crime charges are appropriate,” he told the Washington Post this week.
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As the case continues to unfold, it’s clear that Barnes’s death has sparked new conversations about
racism in America, and called attention to the specific ways it acts on black bodies — and black women and girls in particular.
Barnes’s death has attracted national attention
In recent years, a number of high-profile stories — ranging from unnecessary 911 calls on black people, to police violence, and the murders of people like Botham Jean and Nia Wilson — have brought renewed attention to the ways that racism affects black communities.
These stories, coupled with an emboldening of white supremacist groups, and an increased number of reported hate crimes, indicate that while racism and its effect on black communities is hardly new,
how it is manifesting now is concerning. This fear is at work in reactions to Barnes’s death, even as discussions about the shooting qualifying as a hate crime continue.
The outpouring of concern and outrage from activists, the general public, and figures like Bernice King, NFL wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins, Ava DuVernay, and others in reaction to Barnes’s death is the result of the intersection of multiple issues.
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More:
https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/1/5/18168865/jazmine-barnes-shooting-manhunt-texas-race
