 |
| Sisonke Msimang |
Sisonke Msimang, The Daily Maverick
I was asked this week
what it takes to tell the stories of black lesbians killed in the townships in
South Africa. The answer, in some ways, lies in Ferguson, Missouri, far away
from South Africa, in an American community that has been burning all week.
There is much that South
African journalists and editors can learn from the coverage of the protests
that have arisen in the wake of Michael Brown’s death. Under normal
circumstances the shooting death of a black teenager from a segregated
community in the Southern state of Missouri would not have garnered much
attention nationally, let alone globally. After all, two black men are killed
every week by law enforcement officials in the US – most of them unarmed.
Indeed, until he died, it is unlikely that Michael Brown mattered much to
anyone except those who loved him. In his death he has come to matter a great
deal to a great many people in America and beyond.
