And Again

[Content Note: Carcerality; misogynoir; reported self-harm.]

On the same day news broke of Sandra Bland's death in a jail cell in Texas, an 18-year-old black girl named Kindra Darnell Chapman reportedly ended her own life in an Alabama jail, according to authorities.

Chapman was arrested on a first-degree-robbery charge for allegedly taking a cellphone and booked at Homewood City Jail Tuesday around 6:22 p.m., AL.com reports. She was last seen alive at 6:30 p.m by jailers and found unresponsive at 7:50 p.m. Officials report that Chapman used a bed sheet to hang herself.

Chapman was pronounced dead at Brookwood Medical Center. Homewood police are currently investigating this death.

So let's just say, for the sake of argument, that it's accurate these two women (and all the other black women and men who have allegedly killed themselves in police custody, often while wearing handcuffs) really did take their own lives. That doesn't mean agents of the state aren't culpable, as so many white people are keen to argue. That means we need to interrogate why it is, exactly, that black people in police custody view taking their own lives as their best possible option.

There is no context for these deaths that doesn't demand our attention and concern.

(And just to be abundantly clear: I don't believe for a second that every one of the black women and men said to have killed themselves in police custody did. My point is that even if we set aside all rational skepticism, there is still no excuse to ignore these deaths, or pretend that they're happening in a vacuum.)

My condolences to Kindra's family and friends. I hope they get the answers they deserve.