It’s unspoken in some Black spaces that when one of us is missing, it’s because someone wanted their organs. While we don’t know the whole story, these three true cases certainly show a history of our organs coming up missing.
#1 Bruce Tucker – When Tucker had a work accident, his colleagues rushed him to the hospital. Instead of treating his severe head wound, white doctors took his still-beating heart and transplanted it into a rich white businessman.
#2 Fannie Lou Hamer – Like many Black women, Hamer suffered from uterine fibroids. When the civil rights icon went to have them removed, racist doctors gave her a full hysterectomy, hoping she wouldn’t be able to birth more uppity Black people.
#3 Kendrick Johnson – In 2013, 17-year-old Johnson was found folded in a gym mat at his high school. Law enforcement initially tried to close the case, citing a ridiculous scenario of him reaching for a shoe and falling into the middle of the mat, but his family kept fighting. A second autopsy revealed the teen’s liver, heart, brain, and other organs were missing.
There are so many ways our bodies have been abused, exploited, and stolen. Imagine spaces where we are safe and made whole instead of being picked to pieces by hatred. How can we make that happen?