SANDRA BLAND'S LAST CONVERSATIONS WITH WOMAN IN NEXT CELL

In the video link below, there's an interview of a witness who was in jail with Sandra Bland. It sounds like Sandra was every bit as terrified as I would have been. Every bit. Crying so hard she couldn't be understood.  

The initial shock of being in jail for the first time aside, there are too many racists and too many lies all together in one place for me to believe she killed herself. And I don't really do coincidences. Therefore, I think they killed her.

At the same time, I kind of resent the strong black woman trope being trotted out to "defend" the "Black Queen" Sandra  -- as if we'd be ashamed of her if she broke down, like she wouldn't be truly black anymore if she simply couldn't take it for three days.  More than that, it makes me damn angry to think most black women cannot confide in anyone or depend on anybody when they cannot carry the load we are forced to bear in this county--- not one more day.  If a black woman confesses that she is breaking down there is a solid chance that her "sisters" and "brothers" will count her as weak and not deserving of their skin color.

And if you think it's damn near impossible for a black woman to commit suicide, then you are the one your black female friends cannot depend on.  

Read More On Black Women And The Expectations of Invulnerability - To suggest that Sandra Bland was not the type of person to commit suicide results not only in the absolving of any accountability/responsibility police have in leading people to committing suicide, but can also lead to a really victim blaming narrative of ‘she did it to herself”. An empire of white supremacy and police terror predicated upon anti-black racism killed Sandra Bland. Being a black woman in the United States who is living through inherited and embodied instances of state-induced trauma for lifetimes is what killed Sandra Bland. The carefully calculated last moments of Sandra Bland’s life of getting pulled over for a minor traffic violation on her way to work, being brutalized by law enforcement officers, and subsequently seized and held in captivity for being a Black woman is what killed Sandra Bland. THE STATE DID THIS TO HER. Whether she committed suicide or not THEY ARE RESPONSIBLE.

https://thisbridgecalledourhealth.wordpress.com/2015/07/22/she-would-never-commit-suicide-a-quick-note-about-the-ableist-discussions-around-sandra-bland/

But I digress.

Alexandra Pyle
In The Cell Next Door, Could Only Speak to Sandra Through A Hole

This white woman's conclusions in the video aren't that important. She was there with Sandra. She was physically closest. She talked to her last or close to last. But Alexandra Pyle's credibility is low because it's obvious that she simply cannot imagine a person murdering another person due to their skin color. She cannot imagine that the same guards kind to her could kill Sandra because Sandra was black and "didn't know her place." There are black people that can't imagine this. But most of us? We know our own history and white people's history with us too.

And we know our history with white people better than white people do. We don't have to put on rose colored glasses to look on our own history to avoid shame. Most of us, can look at our history and our history with white people in this country head on. Therefore we know different than Alexandra Pyle. We know perfectly damn well "the nice guards" are capable of murder. They always have been when a black person "doesn't know their place"  -- and especially in the South, still home to that American Swastika flag.

Most important to me is that this is the second or third time I've heard reference to Sandra being in "the tank" as if she was completely alone. 

This sounds like a type of "solitary confinement"  And solitary confinement has been described as a type of mental torture more than once. 

It breaks my heart to think that Sandra Bland was cut off from all human contact for most of 3 days, except for that small rectangular hole that's usually shut, all because of Driving While Black stop and a refusal to put out a cigarette when asked.

And don't get it twisted.

Sandra Bland was "asked" not ordered to put out her cigarette in her own car. She was "asked to put out cigarette" and the white cop even added "if you don't mind" as he set himself up to arrest her as planned....for being an uppity n*gger.   

http://abc13.com/news/sandra-blands-co-inmate-recalls-conversation-before-death/875741/