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Kenneka Jenkins We Failed You

Her Campus Placeholder Avatar Yinde Newby
Her Campus Placeholder Avatar Ania Cotton
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Hampton U chapter.

The Kenneka Jenkins story was a story that took the media by surprise. From Twitter to Facebook Live videos, everyone was promoting the idea that you need to have better friends and that you shouldn’t let your drunk friends out of your sight. Which is correct but it’s also important to realize that friend or not we need to protect everyone who looks like us. 

No one is concerned with the progression of the case, or even how things ended. As soon as the Kapernick case swept Twitter, everyone stopped talking about Kenneka. This is one of the main reasons why our cases never get solved because we only care within the first week of the story.

She was a 19-year-old girl who was found dead in a hotel freezer after being missing for 24 hours. There were rumors of her being drunk, drugged, wobbling, sketchy footage from surveillance cameras but we still don’t know what has happened to her. The link to her story will be attached below, however; I just want to give you all some insight on how we must protect our sisters.

This world wasn’t created for us, we were brought into a world feared and envied and considered ¾ of a person. We have to protect those who look like us because no one else will. This self-hate, this temporary love, this shadiness being thrown, this barely looking out for your sisters best interest has to stop! We don’t know what has happened to this girl, what she was feeling, what she was going through and we are no longer concerned, that’s a problem.

This world thrives off us being eliminated, and not caring about our own sisters and brothers. We have got to do better, we have got to make sure that we’re not letting jealousy, envy, hate, and lack of awareness kill those around us.

That mother doesn’t know how her daughter was feeling if she was crying, if she was killed, if it was an accident and she won’t know because sadly this world isn’t looking to protect us that’s why we must advocate for ourselves.

Kenneka, I don’t know what happened to you but I know that it could’ve been avoided, something else could have been done, someone could have spoken up and spoken out.

I apologize that we failed you, I apologize that we didn’t try and advocate for you justice instead just eliminate your name as a whole. But you will not be forgotten and this should not have happened to you and you don’t deserve anything that has happened.

September 20th was the last update of the Kenneka Jenkins case: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kenneka-jenkins-no-video-entering-freezer-where-she-was-found-dead-hotel-says/.

You’re important again, I am so sorry that we failed to protect you.

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Yinde Newby

Hampton U

Yinde Newby is a Journalism and Communications major on the pre-law track. Yinde currently is a junior in the Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications at Hampton University. Yinde is expected to graduate May of 2018 but she is also a candidate for early gradation securing her spot on the dean’s list since her freshman year. The treasurer of the pre-law society, eldest of 3 girls, and spoken word artist when does she find time to sleep? She is a Fashionista by day and prepping for LSATS by night. Yinde is dedicated to finishing her undergrad at Hampton and going straight to the city either New York or DC for law school. With dreams of becoming a district attorney for the state of Florida hoping to repair the justice that was lost in the Trayvon Martin and Zimmerman case this dream is very dear to her heart. Restoring justice isn’t the only thing on her agenda; she also wants to open up a non-profit called “L.I.S.T.E.N” for fatherless daughters ages 5-18. Knowing the misfortune of an absent father, she wants nothing more than to fill that void immediately for someone else with positive mentoring and unconditional love and support. Yinde wants to do it all so kids aren’t in her future, her dream as a child has always been to work until she’s no longer helping anyone. Interning for online publications like The Odyssey and College Fashionista Yinde loves to keep her hands busy when she finds the time.Determined, driven, humble and modest Yinde wants nothing more than to give her sisters several opportunities to fall back on. Through faith and her mother’s motivational letters Yinde’s manage to become confident in who she is and what she brings to the table, therefore she isn’t afraid to eat alone.
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Ania Cotton

Hampton U '18

Ania is a charismatic, outgoing, fun loving individual with aspirations of owning her own public relations firm. Her favorite shows are Spongebob, Regular Show, and Bob's Burgers, and she loves to eat. Ania graduated from Hampton University in May 2018 with her Bachelors of Arts in Strategic Communications with a minor in Spanish. Ania loves to talk and give advice to her friends and family; the motto that she lives by is to always be a blessing to others because you never know who may need it. To learn more about her, visit her website at www.anianicole.com.