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Shattered Sense of Security

The Walking Dead, #28

In The Walking Dead #28, the Governor has taken Michonne to a locked storage compartment and tied her there. He asks her, "Tell me, girl -- how long do you think it would take for me to ruin your life -- shatter your sense of security -- really fuck you up?" I couldn't help but notice a similar theme in Assata Shakur's autobiography. Here is a real life strong black woman who is kept against her will, abused, and presented to the public as a form of entertainment.

For one example, when she becomes pregnant, and deals with the stress of being denied proper medical care, she also must deal with the media's telling of her situation: "I couldn't believe it. Sure enough, there were the articles. The one in the New York Daily News, i remember, was especially sordid. All of the papers speculated about who the father was and how i had managed to become pregnant in jail. One of them hinted that a prison guard was the father" (Shakur, 125). The media had nothing good to say about her or her situation. Nobody questioned whether she was being taken care of, but all anyone seemed to care about was that she had had sex in prison. Her image and reputation was cemented in the public's eye as a person who could and should not be respected.

This was not new for Assata. She was treated badly throughout the entire ordeal. When she was seriously injured by the police and in the hospital, the police officers would not leave her alone to rest or to heal. "Because i have to move around, the X-rays are painful, but the technician is cool. X-rays are over and i am rolled down the hallway, determined to keep my eyes closed. All of a sudden, flashes of light. My eyes pop open. This time they are taking my picture. The police photographer asks, "Don't you wanna give us a smile? Come on. Give us a smile." The police continue to torment her, wheeling in the body of her friend in a plastic bag and threatening "that's what's gonna happen to you before the night is over if you don't tell us what we want to know." Their goal was to make her bend to their will and shatter her sense of security.

Source:

Kirkman, Robert. The Walking Dead. #28. Berkeley, CA: Image Comics, Inc., 2006.

Shakur, Assata. Assata, an autobiography. Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 2001.

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