The Gaines Dilemma

Abstract This chapter deconstructs the events surrounding the 2016 police killing of Korryn Gaines just outside of Baltimore. The analysis focuses on autonomy—people’s sense of choice—and the way mass resistance was not embraced on account of Gaines’s apparent radicalism. Gaines’s politics were explicitly radical, including her being armed with a shotgun. However, the chapter argues that as a Black woman, her combined race and gender are interpreted as a type of radicalism and thus disqualify her and others from support. This analysis is juxtaposed with a discussion of political intersectionality—where justice initiatives focusing on race or gender can miss the oppressive implications of race and gender oppression overlapping. In the end, Gaines is not the only woman whose experiences are overlooked, and that is the basis of the #SayHerName campaign began by Kimberlé Crenshaw and organizers at the African American Policy Forum (AAPF). This exemplifies radical engagement.