Sonya Massey: A Story of Compounded Oppression

Photo via Associated Press

Warning: This post discusses topics regarding police violence and mental illness.

Kimberlé Crenshaw, a critical race theorist and legal scholar, coined "intersectionality" in the 80's. As a Black woman, she recognized the compound oppression she and others face because of both her gender and race. Many different combinations of groups of individuals are "multi-burdened" by abstract limitations in society. For Sonya Massey, being a mentally ill Black woman saddled her with prejudice, especially from the police. It comes alarmingly but without surprise that Sonya is not alone in her horrifying story; this has become a common trope for police violence in America. 

Sonya, a Black mother of two, and paranoid schizophrenic, was murdered by Sean Grayson, a Sangamon County Sheriff's deputy. She called 911 to report hearing someone lingering around her property, and feeling that her safety was threatened. Sean Grayson and an unnamed deputy responded to the call and completed a search of her property, notifying her that nobody was there. The deputies were invited inside her house while she got her identification out of her purse. While opening her wallet, Grayson noticed boiling water on the stove and asked Sonya to turn it off because "we don't need a fire while we are here." Sonya walked over to turn the water off, and Grayson stepped backward; to that, Sonya said, "Why did you move back? Where are you going?". Grayson responded, "Away from your hot, steaming water," to which Sonya replied, "Away from my hot steaming water? I rebuke you in the name of Jesus," suggesting that his assumption that she would harm him with the hot water is undeserved. With Grayson's hand already on his gun, he responded shockingly, stating: "You better fucking not. I swear to God I'll fucking shoot you in your fucking face". He immediately drew his weapon as Sonya was putting down the pot. She raised her empty hands, just covered by oven mitts, and said, "I'm sorry," before Grayson shot her three times in the face as she ducked behind her counter. His partner suggested they get a medical kit to help her, to which Grayson responded: "She's done. You can go get it, but that's a headshot."

Sean Grayson was fired two weeks after he murdered Sonya and has since been charged with first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm, and official misconduct. As his past has come to light, he became an all too familiar example of the lack of vetting present in American police departments. He was discharged from the Army with serious misconduct. For more information on the details of his dismissal, Anthony Ghiotto, a former Air Force prosecutor and law professor, breaks down the details in this article with The Intercept. Additionally, he was convicted of two DUIs before working for law enforcement and has worked for six different police departments in the last four years. The most telling look into his past happened in May of 2023 when "high-stress decision making" training was recommended by his supervisors after he disobeyed orders by participating in a high-speed chase, eventually hitting a deer. Concluding this familiar storyline, a previous coworker saw the body camera video and stated, "I thought he was a loose cannon. He was just arrogant and cocky:" essentially screaming to America that this was preventable. 

Daniel Prude, Tanisha Anderson, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, Sandra Bland, and Laquan McDonald are all individuals who were unlawfully murdered by police. Being Black and disabled (to some degree, mentally or physically) left them more vulnerable to police violence than their white, able-bodied, and neurotypical counterparts. Even if you take mental health out of the equation, Black people are 2.8 times more likely to be killed by police compared to white people, even though white people are more likely to be armed. When paired with the fact that at least 76% of individuals killed in police encounters have had previous mental health treatment and 25% of people killed in police encounters involved someone with mental illness, the distinction of the compounded prejudice they face is evident. Given that policing started as "slave patrols" and a slave's desire to be free became a diagnosable mental illness called "drapetomania," it is no surprise that both racism and ableism run rampant in America and are deeply rooted in the legal system. The criminalization (and, at best, marginalization) of mental illness is a more significant issue that this post only scrapes a niche surface of. Above all, these "burdening" traits not only leave some people more likely to be a victim than others but also sends ill-omened messages to people of those distinguished groups.  

Black communities in America bear the brunt of our country's inequities. Lack of legislation that protects (specifically, low-income) citizens from environmental hazards like lead, poor air quality, Methyl mercury, and Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) can lead to intellectual disabilities, causing Black students to struggle in the classroom. Black students are often under-diagnosed or misdiagnosed due to the bias created by systemic racism. As it functions today, the American healthcare system was not created with all Americans in mind. Many Black Americans are stranded with poor care or lower access to care, leaving many of them with intellectual disabilities from environmental circumstances and without regular or quality assistance to get help. 

A 2018 study conducted by David Williams, Harvard professor of African and African American Studies and Sociology, concluded that the murder of an unarmed black person by police triggered three months of declining mental health of Black people in the state where the murder occurred. He found that these months of worsened mental health created an amplified sense of vulnerability among affected Black people. Williams stated: "There's a broader community grieving; there's a broader 'threat' to the community; there's a broader increase in personal vulnerability that's having mental health consequences." These findings exhibit the real-life effects of these murders in a way that has not been documented before. In his words, "It is not just what happens in the big things, like discrimination at work or in interactions with the police. But there are day-to-day indignities that chip away at the well-being of populations of color." These realities can contribute to shaping Black Americans' self-confidence and evolve into more significant societal issues that continue to cascade. 

Cases like Sonya’s highlight both the incompetence of police in responding to mental health crises as well as the inherent anti-Black bias present in our law enforcement system. Instead, crisis intervention teams or other proposed alternate response models prioritize the presence of a mental health professional to diffuse situations safely. Police work is taught using an “action-based” model, which frequently encourages excessive force. Paired with the inherently violent personalities that law enforcement often attracts, police encounters can quickly end in lethal outcomes for marginalized people. Deemphasizing law enforcement and centering alternate crisis response models can foster safe, healthy, and supportive communities- saving lives like Sonya’s.