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By Christine Assefa
"In the past two years, Missouri has
been a significant site of resistance
in the resurgence of a new iteration
of the Black Liberation Struggle - the
Movement for Black Lives."
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Your
lives don’t matter. It was the implicit anthem of conservative
lawmakers in the Missouri state house throughout this year’s
legislative session, concluding last week. Through attempts to limit
Black women’s ability to decide how, if, and when to conceive; by
advancing the same dangerous policy that claimed the lives of Trayvon
and Renisha; and by attacking the vote and the voice of Black
Missourians, legislators pioneered an agenda aimed to codify a status
quo of racial hierarchy – white property and political power reining
supreme.
At the beginning of the 2016 Missouri state legislative session, Rep.
Mike Moon sponsored a bill titled the “All Lives Matter Act” in an
attempt to hijack the Ferguson Uprising’s “Black Lives Matter”
affirmation. HB 1794
aimed to change the definition of an unborn child to include life
beginning at conception, effectively eliminating abortion access
throughout the state and criminalizing the use of IUDs, in vitro
fertilization, and the morning after pill. Through this bill, Rep. Moon
was responding to the defiance of Black women who led many protests in
Ferguson, centering their bodies as a site to limit the autonomy of all
Missouri women. Moon’s thinly veiled repudiation of the reemerging
Black Liberation Struggle is just one of several bills marking a
legislative session aimed at fighting efforts to build Black political
power and self-determination.
State Sen. Kurt Schaefer worked diligently during this legislative
session to ensure that both Stand Your Ground and anti-choice
legislation pass through the Missouri legislature. Sen. Schaefer
successfully advanced an amendment that would allow a person to use
deadly force on a trespasser of personal property if they “reasonably
believe such force to be necessary to protect himself.” Nationally, the
dangers of Stand Your Ground have been revealed through the murders of
Trayvon Martin, Renisha McBride, and the criminalization of Marissa
Alexander. Stand Your Ground does not protect Black people, it protects
white property and criminalizes Black people. The movement of Stand
Your Ground legislation in Missouri is a repressive response by those
in power to marginalize Black people and undermine the growing efforts
to affirm Black lives and build Black power.
The Missouri legislature has made further efforts to repress Black
political power by taking direct aim at the right to vote. To close out
the legislative session, they passed a photo ID requirement, known as
HB 1631, and a ballot resolution, HJR 53, which will undercut the
state’s constitutional right to vote if passed by voters in November –
a necessary step for the ID provision to go into effect. Sponsored by
Rep. Alferman, the photo ID law hinders movement towards creating a
more just and fair democracy by requiring Missouri voters to have state
issued photo IDs at the polls. The law has the potential to
disenfranchise over 200,000 Missouri voters who lack the required ID –
primarily elderly voters, students, poor voters and voters of color.
Historically, voter suppression has been used as a tactic to sustain
white control over the political process – now, voter ID has
resuscitating the spirit of Jim Crow repression.
From anti-choice to anti-democratic measures, the bills advanced during
this year’s Missouri legislative cycle are reactionary repudiations of
a growing, powerful movement. In the past two years, Missouri has been
a significant site of resistance in the resurgence of a new iteration
of the Black Liberation Struggle - the Movement for Black Lives. In
Saint Louis, the impacts of the hyper-militaristic state response to
the murder of Michael Brown are still being dealt with, while community
groups such as The Ferguson Collaborative, Sistahs Talkin Back,
Coalition Against Police Crimes and Repression, DecarcerateSTL and
Organization for Black Struggle contend for real local power. In Kansas
City, the Fight for 15 thrives and groups such as OneStruggleKC are
disrupting the normalcy of white supremacy through direct action. At
Mizzou, #ConcernedStudent1950 activists spurred a national, youth-led
movement rooted in the experiences of Black students at institutions of
higher education. Missouri has propelled the Black Liberation Struggle
forward and it is urgent that we call out the racism embedded in the
state legislature’s response.
This year, the Missouri legislature aimed to reprimand the Black women
who continue to lead resistance efforts on the streets of Ferguson by
asserting what decisions we can and cannot make for own bodies. They
advanced dangerous laws that threaten our lives and our votes. They
aimed to limit funding for the entire UM system in response to students
rising up. This legislative session, they have tried to silence us,
control us, and demean us.
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BC Guest Commentator Christine Assefa is an organizer with the Organization for Black Struggle.
As a child of East African immigrants, her upbringing in a
predominantly refugee community is foundational to her efforts to
educate and empower those struggling for a more fair democracy along
with economic and reproductive justice. You can follow her on Twitter @zahfu.
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 is published every Thursday |
Executive Editor:
David A. Love, JD |
Managing Editor:
Nancy Littlefield, MBA |
Publisher:
Peter Gamble |
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