Bresha and Marissa, a Black girl and a Black woman, are part of the US legacy of criminalizing survivors of violence for self-defense. This is particularly true for women and gender nonconforming people of color (especially Black people) who are inherently seen as threats, who are never vulnerable, who cannot be afraid, who are always the aggressors, and whose skin is weaponized, making it impossible for them to be considered victims of violence. Women and gender nonconforming people of color seem, under the law and in popular consciousness, to have no selves to defend.
