As I’m sure we all know, in the United States, we’re allowed very long amounts of time to grieve for some people and small amounts of time for others. We grieve and memorialize Pearl Harbor 50 years+ after the attack, and honor victims of the 9/11 attacks decades later. We fly the flag at half mast for victims of terrorism in other countries, and when problematic former presidents pass, but we tell our black mothers to get over the violence their children and families are faced with every day on this American soil. Where is the outrage for these black bodies? Why are Black Lives Matter marches policed and sabotaged in Atlanta but the march for our lives is glamorized and protected in D.C.? There is an intricate web of grievable people and events in our country. This web doesn’t include violence against communities of color unless it happens in another country and is done through obvious genocide toward an ethnic group. The web doesn’t include grieving mothers and families of victims of police and government sanctioned violence. We can only grieve for brown boys and girls when they are killed for their country and make “the ultimate sacrifice”, are straight laced, and conform to society’s rules. Even then it seems our brothers and sisters are just faces on a news screen that no one will mourn publicly after a week and a purple heart. Black celebrities are mourned under the condition that they have produced something white people can lay claim to. Some are even dishonored in death, with documentaries detailing their untimely demise and the troubles they faced during their lives. But black bodies are not the only deaths swept under the rug. LGBTQ+ youth are not mourned nationally, nor are they a source of policy change or a reason for stricter gun control laws. When a trans woman has a life expectancy of 30 years, it’s not seen as a source of national outrage, as trans and gender non-binary bodies are not a source of national grief. There is a checklist of qualities and characteristics you must have to be grievable in the United States, and historically that list excludes just about everyone who isn’t cisgendered, white and male.