“I rebuke you in the name of Jesus,” said the late Sonya Massey. “I’m sorry.”
These were the last words of the late 36-year-old Black Woman Sonya Massey, who was murdered by an Illinois Sangamon County Sheriff officer on July 6, 2024. Massey was shot dead by law enforcement only after calling 9-1-1 to get assistance with a suspected property trespasser.
As a Black Woman, I write this message with a heavy heart. Massey will now be added to the long list of Black women who have died by way of police brutality. Am I, as a Black woman in America, safe to call the police for help?
The events concerning Massey made national news after the body camera footage was released a couple weeks following the devastating events. I am angry. I am frustrated. I am grieved by the loss of Sonya Massey. I fear that being a Black Woman in America leaves me at an undeniable intersection – joyful about the potential of the first Black and Asian American female President of the United States and deeply sorrowful about the loss of another Black woman seeking assistance and met with death by those sworn to protect her. I sit in the reality of this condition. I sit with the words of Malcolm X at this time…
“The most disrespected person in America is the Black Woman. The most unprotected person in America is the Black Woman. The most neglected person in America is the Black woman.”(X,1962)
While I am concerned about my safety, and the safety of other Black women, in light of the 2024 Presidential election; I too am woefully panicked by the aggressive degradation Black women continue to face in media, the academy, and everyday life.
The Bible says, “12 for our struggle is not against blood and flesh but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12 NRSVUE)
As I watch the body camera footage from July 6, I am struck by Massey’s declaration of faith and spiritual power – “I rebuke you in the name of JESUS.”
We know the blood works. We know that faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen as said in Hebrew 11:1. We know that we wrestle against spiritual wickedness in high places as said in Ephesians. We know that discernment is real, and what Massey discerned must’ve been demonic to trigger her to use language only used in spiritual warfare.
We must pray AND work. We must keep Massey’s family and children lifted in prayer. We MUST ALSO reach out to our local congress women and men to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act NOW. This is not the time to be passive in our faith, neither is it time to be timid, quiet, and quaint about our desire for communal justice and equality.
This, too, is a serious matter.
Be Bold. Be you. Be Loved.
With love, sorrow, peace, and prayers,
Miss Ponder
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CITATION:
TRIGGER WARNING: The Body Camera Footage of events involving Sonya Massey can be found here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFun2GydGyU
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
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