Shatema Threadcraft Examines Response to Black Femicide in 'Labors of Resurrection'

In her powerful new book, The Labors of Resurrection: Black Women, Necromancy, and Morrisonian Democracy, Associate Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies at Vanderbilt University Shatema Threadcraft sheds light on the serious topic of Black femicide and writes about the Black feminists who are organizing to stop the murders of Black women. In addition, her book emphasizes the importance of ensuring that the deaths of Black women are recorded in a humane and respectful way, rather than being sensationalized or glorified, as often portrayed on true crime media. Regarding the public’s reaction to the murders of Black women, Threadcraft explains why there is often less compassion for their deaths as compared to those of Black men. “One, because they occur in private… Two… I think Black women, too, are much more likely to be killed by an intimate partner and that complicates our ability to have sympathy for what’s going on because we think, ‘well, that’s a relationship…’ versus a very easy understanding of a conflict over state violence, and then… there’s a long history of political organizing around spectacular death, and so… the ability to physically see it is connected to the ability to, sort of, conceptually see it and understand it…”

Returning back to the topic of true crime, Threadcraft examines how this type of media brings attention to Black femicide in a negative light. While many people find true crime interesting, she noted that it tends to humanize the serial killer, while the victims, most often women, are seen as just bodies. “…they are there in the narrative because of the violence and it is the violence that makes them relevant, and when they are on the ground and murdered they are literally objects and he is the subject… The femicide activists and the people who are doing it the right way, I think, are the people who are trying to highlight and elevate the lives of the women who died. Anytime someone tells you the name of a murderer, you should repeat loudly the names of his victims.”