As with much of her education work, Kaba told individual women’s stories Thursday night to build an argument about how the state criminalizes women (especially poor, black, and/or transgender women) for retaliating against domestic and sexual violence. It all began, she said, with the case of Celia, a woman enslaved in Missouri in the 1850s. Celia’s story “grounds the work that I do,” she said.
Love, an African-American transgender woman, spent nearly four years in pretrial detention on attempted-murder charges after she ran over a member of a group of male attackers with her car. Cosby spent 20 years in prison for a conviction of first-degree murder after being in a violently abusive relationship with a man who ultimately killed his mother. (Cosby’s involvement in the murder and her alleged criminal intent were disputed.)
Love shared similar gratitude for the outpouring of letters and support she received while in jail.
Most importantly, Kaba advocated continued analysis of emerging problems and emerging solutions, lest activist energies get co-opted into proposals that continue to marginalize, exclude, and criminalize people.
