Sauanaffe Tustunnagee
Banned
Texas Town Renames Street After Sandra Bland
JUSTICE
Generally speaking, I am uneasy when a street is renamed. Whether to extoll the virtues or someone living or dead, oft times done at the behest of a well-moneyed political patron, the practice has always felt like a cheap expression of what we say are our highest ideals. Witness the pervasive poverty and economic decline that has unfolded along thoroughfares named after Dr. King. Time and time again, renaming avenues has been another bad check written on a municipal declaration in a frame suitable for hanging.
That being said, I feel differently about Sandra Bland. The Prairie View City Council voted to rename the street where she was arrested in her honor. Sandra Bland Boulevard, which connects to Prairie View A&M University, will not change the legacy of police profiling that led to her jailing, nor with it keep another just like her alive long enough to get to court. However, it will serve as a constant reminder to every motorist who makes the drive — including police officers — of what happened there. From here going forward, every traffic ticket written to a driver on that street will bear the name ofSandra Bland.
In a town where even the dead are segregated along racial lines, this carries a measure of significance. It speaks to the power of collective power of social media, without which we may never have known her name or what came of her life. We may never have seen the witness video of her violent arrest and begun demanding answers about her death. Without question, there will be other hashtags, other names added to a most unfortunate list — some forgotten within hours or days, others in months. By renaming the street, Prairie View has decided that it does not want to forget what happened out there on that roadside.
And for that, I am glad.
H/T: Blavity
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