Breonna Taylor’s Name Has Become a Hot Commodity

Photo source: ABC 7 News.

We need to do more than “say her name”

Written by Sasha Ashton

2020 was supposed to be Breonna Taylor’s year. She never asked to be the subject of a viral hashtag or to have her name on t-shirts, or for a documentary about her to be made. She was saving up money to buy a house. She wanted to have a baby with her boyfriend, Kenneth. They had already picked out a name. 

In a not too distant past, if you looked up Breonna Taylor on twitter, you’d find an account where a sweet 26-year-old EMT chronicled her desires, her goals, and her everyday life. Now, so many accounts have changed their name to “Breonna Taylor”, that finding her real account is nearly impossible. According to hashtags.org, the phrase ‘Breonna Taylor’ can reach a daily usage peak of up to 125 tweets an hour. 

In the Absence of Trauma Porn 

Despite the thousands of social media posts shared in Taylor’s honor in the six months since her death, only one of the police officers who entered her apartment back in March, unannounced and in plainclothes, has been fired. The long-awaited decision on the charges of Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly and Detective Myles Cosgrove came to a head yesterday, on September 23rd when the Kentucky states attorney announced that no charges relating to Breonna’s murder would be brought to her killers.

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Sasha Ashton is a writer and radical organizer based in Philadelphia, PA. She is a freshman studying political science on the pre-law track at Temple University. For more from Sasha, you can find her on Instagram @ashasashton and twitter @slashatrashton.