Are Black Men Letting #KorrynGaines Down?

Black Men And Defending #KorrynGaines

Korryn Gaines was killed by police on August 1st when police barged into her house to serve a warrant for traffic violations. Other than that, most of the details are sketchy. Police originally said they entered the house with a key but we now know they kicked the door down. We don’t know who shot Gaines’ son. And apparently the body cams stopped working, too. So there’s that.

The whole thing seems questionable.

But there’s a bigger question here. Since Gaines was killed, there seems to be a divide about how her death has been treated. There have been Black men on social media who have questioned Gaines and found ways to place blame on her for her own death. Black women have been quick to point this out. It’s sad to see especially since Black women are so ready to ride for any Black man killed by police.

The truth may be somewhere in the middle as there are plenty of Black men speaking up as well as Black men disrespecting her life and finding ways to say she deserved to die. We gathered a few tweets that cover the full spectrum of the debate — men defending Gaines, men questioning her, women defending her and calling out the men and everything in between.

So we ask: are Black men treating her differently? Would they be more fervently defending her if she were a man? And what does this all say about the state of Black women in this country?