Please stop using “#SayHerName” for Renee Good
That hashtag was created as a tool for Black women’s visibility
Renee Nicole Good deserves grief, outrage, and accountability. Full stop. But not every tragedy gets to wear Black language like a hand-me-down.
“Say Her Name” didn’t fall out of the sky as a generic phrase for “a woman died.” It was built — on purpose — by Black scholars and organizers to confront a specific kind of erasure: the way Black women, girls, and femmes are harmed by state violence and then disappear from the story. #SayHerName was created to resist the invisibility of Black women in conversations about police violence, because even inside movements for justice, we were still being edited out.
So when white people grab that hashtag and slap it onto a case that isn’t rooted in that history, it’s not “solidarity.” It’s hijacking. It’s theft. You discovered something that already had owners, ancestors, context, and wounds — and you planted a flag like you found it first.
And here’s why it’s a violation: it tells Black women, “We heard you. We saw what you made to survive. And we’re going to use it how we want.” That’s not harmless. That’s theft disguised as empathy.
Because the whole reason “Say Her Name” exists is that Black death is routinely minimized, rationalized, and buried — especially when the harm comes from people with badges, uniforms, authority, or “credible” narratives. Meanwhile, when white people are harmed, the country tends to treat it as inherently legible: immediate sympathy, saturation coverage, and a justice system that moves like it suddenly remembered how to function.
So yes — Renee Good’s killing deserves scrutiny and justice. (And it’s been widely reported and contested, including video, official statements, and the federal response.) But using “Say Her Name” here isn’t neutral. It’s an insult and an indictment: it proves people are paying attention to Black pain — close enough to imitate our language — while still refusing to sit with why we had to create that language in the first place.
If you want to honor Renee Good, do it plainly: invoke her memory, demand accountability, show up, donate, organize, even create your own hashtag. Just don’t take a tool forged for Black women’s visibility and turn it into a catch-all slogan.
Theft and co-option aren’t solidarity, but respecting history and honoring the social contract are.
 |
|
So often we white people lack the cultural awareness to consider the origin of new language. So we use words we have heard others use without applying any curiosity.
We accept our shallow understanding of the language, thereby reducing the richness of a movement into a literal interpretation of the words.
It’s whiteness—it is who we are conditioned to be.
Whiteness is a rip off and a scam and a system of oppression.
Whiteness is shallow and weak and harmful.
I will work to expand my awareness to ensure I seek first to understand so I always support and amplify rather than reduce and appropriate.
Black women, I apologize for every way I have misused your language and I thank you for everything you have done to liberate us.
I agree. I have seen it used in support of missing Native American girls and women. I believe this is another important use of this phrase. Unfortunately the phrase looses power when EVERYONE uses it for whatever they want. It's like having a strait pride parade. It's giving the same energy.