Kenneka

I am struggling with the story of Kenneka Jenkins.

If you don't know about it, then you are the precisely the reason why I am writing this blog post today.  Kenneka, was a 19 year old woman, who was found dead in a hotel freezer this past Sunday morning, in Chicago.  She had gone to a hotel party with her friends, obviously unknowing that it would be the last time she would be seen alive.  Her death, is yet another in a long line of young black women and girls, who died under mysterious or violent circumstances, and the media and our own community fails talk about it enough.

I am going to post the link to a news outlet article about her death http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-kenneka-jenkins-hotel-freezer-timeline-20170912-story.html. I'm not going to make any conjectures about what exactly happened to her here. I don't know. I am like everyone else who thinks they have an idea.  I am like everyone else who has heard the story and added up the angles only to find out that they don't quite make a square.
here:

There is not much I do know, except that she shouldn't be dead right now and that someone who was with her knows exactly what happened and for whatever reason, will not say.  I also know that had she been a White girl, there would have been more immediate answers and a larger response. The police would not have taken their time gathering the evidence.  However, she pays the penalty for being a young, black, girl, from a city plagued by violence...and those who have not the faintest idea of what it's like to grow up with these three qualifiers might say, this sort of thing was bound to happen and then quickly move on with their lives. There is no moving on for Kenneka and none any time soon for her mourning family.

When I think about her story, it makes me think back to all the times that that could have been me.  The college parties, hanging out with a co-ed group of friends in dorm rooms, going out of town and staying in a hotel alone.  At 19, I was still pretty naive, and while I didn't drink or do much of anything risky, that did not exempt me from anything that could have happened.  The argument will arise soon enough that Kenneka was drinking, that she shouldn't have been there.  This is the all too common rebuttle that comes forth any time something tragic happens to a woman.  These ridiculous arguments ignore the fact that someone was harmed and that no one deserves that.

As I'm still reeling from this story and anxiously awaiting more details, the only thing I can hope for is that the story gets more coverage than it initially has.  I am also hoping that there are more efforts made to draw attention to crimes against Black women.

And lastly but most importantly, I am hoping for Justice for Kenneka very soon.