When Marjorie Taylor Greene Was Slammed By Black Women For Her Shirt Bearing the Slogan "Say Her Name"

Marjorie Taylor-Greene (R-GA) wore a pin featuring the picture of 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley—who was killed by an immigrant who federal authorities claim entered the country without authorization—and a shirt bearing the slogan "say her name" as President Joe Biden gave the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress.

Black women throughout the nation slammed Greene for appropriating the protest term "say her name," which they came up with to protest police violence. The shirt, according to campaigners, appropriates the Black Lives Matter movement's slogan, whose purpose was to give voice to women whom police have murdered, per USA TODAY. Biden was prodded by Greene to mention the name of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, whose passing is currently at the center of the country's immigration debate, by using the adage coined by racial justice campaigners.

“Everywhere, we see the appropriation of progressive and inclusionary concepts to devalue, distort and suppress the movements they have been created to advance,” Crenshaw said in a statement, per ABC News. “When most people only hear about these ideas from those that seek to repurpose and debase them, then our ability to speak truth to power is further restricted.”

“The shirt worn by MTG which read "Say Her Name", is an appropriation of the Black Lives Matter movement's chant that is intended to give voice to Black women who had been killed by police,” a user explained the term's origins on X while slamming her appropriation. “Mtg’s appropriation of #sayhername is repulsive. And he didn’t look at the balcony he looked into the crowd on the side of him. Don't be so gross,” a user slammed her on X. “GOP appropriation game on point last night. First with MTG’s “Say her name” and then with #SOTU follow-up 'We see you',” another user slammed MTG and the GOP on X. 

A user slammed both Greene and the GOP's immigration tactics on X, saying, "More cultural appropriation on behalf of GQP. MTG is such an embarrassment to this country. If I were Miss Riley's parents I would demand they stop using my daughter's name for their political agenda, while refusing to sign the Border bill! Hypocrites."

The expression was first used by Crenshaw and others to highlight instances of Black women being abused by police. The shooting murder of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman in Louisville, Kentucky, who was shot and killed in her house during a poorly executed police raid, garnered more public attention in 2020 thanks to the hashtag #SayHerName.

“The list of women killed in fatal encounters with law enforcement and whose families continue to demand justice is long, the statement read with a list of names,” adding, “just some of the many names we uplift — women whose stories have too often otherwise gone untold. We must call out and resist this attempt to commandeer this campaign to serve an extremist right-wing agenda.”

Editor's note: This article was originally published on March 11, 2024. It has since been updated.