Editor’s word: The next article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the writer’s personal. Learn extra opinions on theGrio.
Within the early hours of Thursday, April 15, Virginia’s former lieutenant governor, Justin Fairfax, shot and killed his spouse of 19 years, Dr. Cerina Wanzer Fairfax, of their dwelling earlier than turning the gun on himself. By midday, the 47-year-old disgraced politician was being eulogized like a saint by a number of individuals who as soon as knew him.
A number of posts addressed him as a “expensive brother,” whereas in others, he was described as “sensible,” “considerate,” and at the same time as a “gracious particular person.” It didn’t take lengthy for outrage to comply with.
As many Black girls have since taken to their platforms to name out these early reactions, beneath that outrage lurks an actual feeling of disappointment as a result of, as disturbing because the response is, it isn’t new.
Many times, with males who’ve triggered actual hurt, typically to Black girls, society rushes in to guard their humanity as an alternative of acknowledging the hurt they’ve triggered. We’ve seen this with figures like Chris Brown, R. Kelly, Dr. Dre, Russell Simmons, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Eric Adams, and others. Nevertheless, these character references don’t make clear what occurred — they only complicate the narrative and threat reshaping how the violence is known.
Within the hours after the information broke, preliminary framing from authorities stated it was “a home state of affairs” tied to a “messy” divorce, inadvertently inserting blame past the scope of a person who selected violence. In the meantime, a number of fraternity brothers of his, together with commentator Roland Martin, who got here to his protection, went as far as to suggest it was due to his psychological well being and never society’s penchant for violence in opposition to Black girls. Then there’s fellow politicians like former Republican delegate Tim Anderson, who’ve even begun revisiting his previous allegations of sexual assault and the way in which these claims arrived, as he was gaining political traction, successfully derailed his political future.
In 2019, as he was nonetheless serving as Virginia’s Lt. governor, he confronted sexual assault allegations from one lady who claimed the assault occurred whereas they had been each college students at Duke in 2000, and one other who claimed it occurred in 2004 whereas they had been on the Democratic Nationwide Conference. There have been requires him to resign, which he refused, and as an alternative pushed again onerous, denying the allegations and calling for a full prison investigation. He completed out his time period and ran for Governor in 2021, however misplaced to Terry McAuliffe.
It’s as if, for some, the true tragedy is {that a} Black man, who might have had the potential to be president, acquired caught up in allegations, and never that his story ends on this violent tragedy at his personal palms. What’s getting misplaced, nonetheless, is Cerina. A girl who misplaced her life by the hands of somebody who as soon as promised to like her. A girl who had been a dentist along with her personal observe, a mom of two, a thriving member of the group, a pal, and a daughter.
Black girls have lengthy stated they don’t really feel protected—not by establishments, not by society, and infrequently not by Black males. The response to this second that arrives as Black girls stay essentially the most susceptible to intimate associate violence and femicide, and amid a tragic few weeks wherein a number of Black girls have been killed or died underneath mysterious circumstances by the hands of their family members, together with Ashlee Jenae, who was discovered useless whereas on trip along with her fiancé; Coral Springs, Fl., Vice Mayor Nancy Metayer, who was killed by her husband earlier this month; and Davonta Curtis, a transwoman in Chicago who was murdered and robbed by a romantic associate, solely works to show why.
