There are some horrors that never leave our minds. There are some traumas that haunt us daily and eternally. They are perpetual films on the screens of our souls.

They are legendary tragedies like: the unsolved and dismissed Atlanta Child Murders; the brutal framing of Wayne Williams; the public executions of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X; the explosion of the Challenger shuttle; the federally sanctioned executions at Waco; the municipally sanctioned torching and framing of MOVE members in Philadelphia; COINTELPRO's slaughter of the Black Panther Party, and its framing of Assata Shakur and Mumia Abu-Jamal; the foul murder of Tupac Shakur; the savage beatings of Rodney King and Reginald Denny; the untimely deaths of Aliyah and Lisa Lopes; the brazen and unavenged murder of JonBenet Ramsey; ODB doing modern day minstrel shows on MTV; Elton John betraying his friendship with Gianni Versace for CD sales with Eminem; Michael Jackson's ghastly visage and dementia from white supremacy; O.J. Simpson getting away with a sloppy double murder; Roman Polanski's raw grief over the grisly murder of his wife Sharon Tate and others by the Charles Manson clan; O. J.'s mindless fans ignoring Mumia Abu-Jamal; President Select/King Shrub stealing a national election; the sad murder of Robert "Yummy" Sandifer in Chicago; the genocidal phenomenon of children being coached by toxic "parents" to play psycho at school to garner mental welfare checks; the belated exposure of pedophiles and other ancient evils inside the Catholic Church; watching twisted gaybashers enjoy spinning this Catholic shame so very much; the terrorist mass murders on 9/11; watching the CIA sell crack and destroy generations of African-American families; the beautiful black eight-month old baby girl (Tameka Young) who choked to death on a huge live cockroach in an Olympic-fevered Atlanta in 1996; the captivity of Nelson Mandela; the sabotage of Winnie Mandela...and much much much more....

There is one lesser known and less publicized tragedy that haunts me daily and eternally. It is the public execution of Deletha Word. Deletha was a college student and a mother of a teen. She was murdered by a sexist thug named Martell Welch, Jr., in broad daylight, on a crowded Detroit, Michigan bridge. The 33-year-old Deletha was killed for bumping the fender of this misogynist 19-year-old monster. He hated women and he loved his car. Thus, a fender bender was all the excuse he needed to lynch Deletha.

Martell and two of his boys pulled Deletha from her car and stripped her to her panties. As Martell slammed her small head against the hood of her car, his boys took crowbars and destroyed her car. They simultaneously made two objects (the female and the car) pay for the dent on Martell's car. Initially, after stripping her, the 300 pound Martell lifted Deletha's entire tiny body like a flag and asked if anyone wanted "to buy some of this bitch because she has to pay for my car."

Then, Martell dropped her, chased her, and savagely beat her, while his "posse" cheered him on. When Martell became bored with beating her, he forced her to jump over the edge of the Belle Isle bridge. When she clung onto the edge of the bridge, he beat her fingers until her petite, brutalized body fell into the waters where she drowned alone. Over 40 men and women watched, but did absolutely nothing to help or save Deletha. Some found the wilding comical and laughed as she died.

Eventually, this beast Martell was sentenced via a racist and lenient charge of second-degree-murder. In 1995, he was sentenced to a mere 16-40 years in prison. Martell will be freed to live and abuse more women. But, Deletha's life is tragically gone forever...

I am an Amazon warrior. I am 5'9" and healthy. In 1980, I was a 5'10" college student and 135 pounds of pure, feminine muscle. Back then, I recall male gym buddies often joking about my strength when we were weightlifting or jogging together: "Alicia, you are so much stronger than you look girl...Damn, if we had a fight I'd have to kill you...shoot you etc..." I remember when they joked like this, I quietly thought: "I am glad  that you know that I will fight you to the death. And, if you shoot me, you better not miss!"

I wish that Deletha had been tall and strong. I wish she'd could have beaten this brother down. I wish she had a gun and had blown him away in self defense. I wish some taller, stronger brothers who watched had protected her as brothers always should, and real brothers always do... There are still some really beautiful and righteous brothers in the world. I just wish only one had been on that Detroit bridge the day that psycho, sub-human beast Martell mauled and murdered Deletha...

Misogyny is en vogue globally. From lewd music videos to sexist laws, the hatred and abuse of women is global sport. This Detroit sporting event that featured Deletha's murder epitomizes the brutality of misogyny, the danger of being disposable, and the perils of public apathy. Many onlookers chose not to intervene. Her killer chose not to respect her life. Twisted boys like him respect men only. Some man could and should have saved Deletha's life that day...

There are droves of Delethas all over the world, whose lives are discounted,  disregarded, and destroyed daily. It is dually deadly to be black and female in America. We sisters represent two things that America loathes most intensely: women and Africans. This sexist and racist world deems us to be dually disposable and doubly damned.

Dear Deletha: I will remember you always my slain sister. God bless you and your eternal soul. You are in a superior place, where our brothers really are our keepers, rather than our killers.

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1995

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For related info, see these additional columns herein:

ON SEXISM IN GAYBASHING

ON FEMICIDE: GIRL X v. JONBENET

REMEMBER SHERRICE IVERSON: DAVID CASH IS BABY KILLER

FATAL TRANSACTIONS: ON RAE CARUTH & CHERICA ADAMS

AMADOU DIALLO SONGS: HIP HOP-PIMPING PAST THE REVOLUTION

THE TRUTH WILL SET MUMIA-ABU JAMALE FREE NOW

MUMIA ABU-JAMAL: GENERATIONAL GENOCIDE

ON MOURNING TYISHA MILLER

MOVE & WACO: PUBLIC EXECUTIONS

THE FRAMING OF WAYNE WILLIAMS I & THE MYTH OF "THE BLACK MECCA"

THE FRAMING OF WAYNE WILLIAMS II: ATLANTA AS NIRVANA FOR SERIAL KILLERS

EULOGY FOR MERLE AFRICA

WARIS DIRIE: DESERT FLOWER -FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION

ASSATA SHAKUR: EXILED SHERO

ASSATA SHAKUR: BETRAYED BY THE CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS

O. J. SIMPSON IS A DOUBLE MURDERER

O. J.'S LUCKY STREAK FINALLY ENDS

THE NEW WORLD ORDER: ACTUAL GLOBAL CONSPIRACY

EULOGY FOR TUPAC SHAKUR

WINNIE MADIKIZELA-MANDELA REIGNS SUPREME ALWAYS

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