Feministing Jamz: Women and queer people of color on state violence

our mudflap girl, jammin on her headphones

Though conversations on state violence tend to focus on (presumed straight) men, women, queer, and trans folks of color have a huge stake in this conversation. Violence on behalf of the state affects women, queer, and trans folks of color directly in a lot of different ways — not to mention the very real toll of state violence on other members of our communities: our fathers, our brothers, our children. It should come as no surprise, then, when women and queer folks of color address these issues in their music.

So I’ve put together a (non-exhaustive) list of women and queer folks of color tackling the subject of state violence. Whether they’re addressing violent and discriminatory policing, the ever-growing prison industrial complex, or increasingly criminalized immigration enforcement practices, these folks are making it clear through their music and/or visuals that issues of state violence are important to women and queer folks, that they are issues that affect us and our communities, and that these communities resist state violence in creative and beautiful ways.

Alicia Keys – Fallin’

Remember baby Alicia Keys? The video for “Fallin’” is all about the ways mass incarceration affects women. The bus full of women and babies going to the men’s prison to see their loved ones. When the women on the bus ride past a group of women prison laborers who, while being watched by a white baton-wielding correctional officer, nonetheless look straight into the camera and sing with dignity and humanity. The heartbreak of a short visit after such a long journey. Seeing these images in pop culture, where prisoners are pretty invisible, is really powerful.

La Santa Cecilia – Ice El Hielo

This heartbreaking video by Jamz faves La Santa Cecilia is all about the ways that immigration enforcement affects immigrant communities. Though immigration violations are not criminal (but rather civil) offenses, enforcement has taken on an increasingly criminalized element, with immigrant women and communities experiencing much well-documented violence at the hands of enforcement officers and in detention centers.

Le1f – Boom

I’m wilding out here, hope the cops don’t kill me/ They want to see me blend in like Realtree/ but I can’tz do thatz/I gots to do me

Le1f knows that being a feminine queer black man is deemed suspect by the cops. He knows it literally puts his life in danger. But fuck the cops — he’s gonna do Le1f. Hell yes.

Ana Tijoux – Shock

Todo se criminaliza/ Todo se justifica en la noticia

This track from another Jamz fave is about resisting shock doctrine and disaster capitalism in Latin America, and does not shy away from the ways neoliberal policies affect state violence. The video features the Chilean student protest movement in favor of free education for all and the ways the state, at the hands of the police, worked to violently repress it.

Dai Burger – Souffle

We pre-game, then hit the spot/ And don’t fuck with no fuckin’ cops

This track is mostly about going out and being fly and having a great night. But you know what can really ruin your night if you’re a queer femme of color? The fucking cops. Don’t fuck with ‘em!

Gabylonia – Abuso de poder

TW: This video shows explicit police violence

No queremos policias, ladornes, ni jefes, corruptos

In this track, my fellow Venezolana Gabylonia spits not just about racist police violence that she and other members of her community experience, but about youth protest of and resistance to this violence.

Mykki Blanco – Wavvy

This video starts off with Mykki being chased by police on the streets of Chinatown in NYC. It’s not a huge part of the video, but it’s there — a common experience in the lives of gender non-conforming people of color. Mykki Blanco’s inclusion of this little bit at the beginning of the video might not seem like a huge deal, but police harassment and violence toward trans women of color and gender non-conforming folks is an every day occurrence, and I think its inclusion as just part of Mykki’s orgy-performing life in this video is a statement.

1bfea3e7449eff65a94e2e55a8b7acda-bpfullVerónica is an immigrant queer activist, writer, and artist. 

New York, NY

Verónica Bayetti Flores has spent the last years of her life living and breathing reproductive justice. She has led national policy and movement building work on the intersections of immigrants' rights, health care access, young parenthood, and LGBTQ liberation, and has worked to increase access to contraception and abortion, fought for paid sick leave, and demanded access to safe public space for queer youth of color. In 2008 Verónica obtained her Master’s degree in the Sexuality and Health program at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. She loves cooking, making art, listening to music, and thinking about the ways art forms traditionally seen as feminine are valued and devalued. In addition to writing for Feministing, she is currently spending most of her time doing policy work to reduce the harms of LGBTQ youth of color's interactions with the police and making sure abortion care is accessible to all regardless of their income.

Verónica is a queer immigrant writer, activist, and rabble-rouser.

Read more about Verónica

Join the Conversation

Donna Dalton Vigil this

Ohio Cop Murders Donna Dalton, Sex Worker, Mother, and Friend

Last Friday in Columbus Ohio, Donna Castleberry Dalton, a 23-year old woman and mother of two was shot and killed by an undercover police officer after he forced her into his car and attempted to arrest her during a “prostitution sting.”  

Dalton’s friends and family are challenging the official police narrative of events. CPD Officer Andrew Mitchell is claiming he shot Donna Dalton 8 times in self-defense after she stabbed him in the hand during the attempted arrest. But the fact Dalton was not handcuffed at the time of the murder suggests ...

Last Friday in Columbus Ohio, Donna Castleberry Dalton, a 23-year old woman and mother of two was shot and killed by an undercover police officer after he

glo Merriweather speaks in front of a group of people that are sitting down. Behind them are other black and brown folks and a mural that says "liberation"

glo Merriweather, anti-police violence activist targeted by police, goes free

“My life is currently in the hands of the state,” glo Merriweather, a black trans and queer activist based in Charlotte, North Carolina, told me a few months ago. They were fighting for their freedom after being criminalized for protesting in the wake of the police murder of Keith Lamont Scott in Charlotte in 2016.

glo’s trial was set to begin this week. Only a few weeks ago, Mecklenburg District Attorney’s office dropped all charges against glo. But while glo is now free, state repression against black liberation activists in Charlotte continues, and glo’s reflections—on their case, state violence and the role of feminism in all of it—are as essential ...

“My life is currently in the hands of the state,” glo Merriweather, a black trans and queer activist based in Charlotte, North Carolina, told me a few months ago. They were fighting for their freedom ...