Don’t bite the hand that protests for you

ARIANNA COGHILL

Contributing Columnist

On March 18, yet another Black man’s life was taken at the hands of police.

Stephon Clark, a 22-year-old father, was shot eight times, primarily in the back. Seven of those shots, according to medical examiner Dr. Bennet Omalu, had “fatal capacity.” According to Omalu, Clark “bled massively” from his wounds, had suffered from a collapsed lung, broken arm and shattered vertebrae. And yet again the lifeless body was found without a weapon and only an iPhone.

It’s a story we’ve unfortunately heard countless times before. An unarmed Black person is shot fatally by police and reduced from a human to a hashtag in mere minutes. Clark’s name was added to that ever growing list quickly after his death. Protests through the streets of Sacramento, California were held with people chanting “say his name” at the top of their lungs.

Then, Twitter user @Eatmorefruitz brought Stephon Clark’s tweets to attention. Clark’s account (@zoewoodz) exhibited a long trend of bashing and dehumanizing Black women.

“I don’t want nothin’ black but a Xbox,” Clark tweeted. “Dark bitch- es bring dark days.”

This was only one of the multiple tweets that stated such sentiments.

Clark’s wife, an Asian woman, also has a history of both using the n-word and bashing Black women on her Twitter account, @_baelena.

This raised the question of whether or not Clark should be placed at the forefront of the Black Lives Matter movement. Should the focus shift to other demographics, particularly Black women, who are often sidelined in this movement? Talk of Black women removing themselves from the movement altogether arose shortly after the tweets surfaced. Why rally for men who don’t have the decency to re-