A Crisis Ignored: Why Black Women Need Targeted Protection in Wisconsin
At the heart of Wisconsin’s legislative struggle lies a painful disparity: Black women in the state are 20 times more likely to be murdered than white women. This staggering statistic, reported by a 2023 Columbia University study, is the highest such disparity in the nation—yet legislative action has stalled time and again. The recent reintroduction of a bill by Rep. Shelia Stubbs (D-Madison) seeking a state task force to investigate the epidemic of missing and murdered African American women and girls brings fresh urgency—and heartbreak—to this longstanding crisis.
Consider the story of Sade Robinson. Robinson’s disappearance and murder in Milwaukee earlier this year became a grim touchstone, galvanizing activists and grieving families who have felt unseen for too long. Her mother, Sheena Scarbrough, stepped into the State Capitol urging lawmakers to not only seek justice for Sade, but to ensure other mothers are spared the same agony. As she put it, “We need resources and support, not just sympathy. This can’t keep happening.”
Robinson’s case is far from unique in Wisconsin. Decades of data paint a consistent picture: Black women and girls routinely face higher risks of violence, with few systemic safeguards or mechanisms for accountability. The need for focused solutions is obvious—if only legislators would listen.
The Vision: A Task Force to Name and Change the Systemic Causes
The current bill, championed by Rep. Stubbs along with Attorney General Josh Kaul, seeks to create a 17-member bipartisan task force comprised of law enforcement, legal experts, survivors, community advocates, and—crucially—family members of victims. Their mission would be manifold: meticulously analyze the role of policies and institutions in facilitating violence against African American women and girls, improve the accuracy of data on cases, and develop recommendations aimed at prevention, intervention, and family support.
This isn’t a novel idea. Several states have established similar task forces after public pressure and grassroots organizing surged in the wake of high-profile tragedies. Minnesota’s task force on Missing and Murdered African American Women and Girls, for example, issued a landmark 2022 report showing how structural racism, chronic underfunding of victim services, and inadequate law enforcement response built a tragedy of neglect and impunity. Their recommendations have begun to shift both policy and practice.
Attorney General Kaul argues that addressing the unique threats facing Black women isn’t just a moral imperative—it’s a public safety priority for all communities. “When we protect those most at risk,” Kaul said at a press conference, “we make everyone in Wisconsin safer.”
If lawmakers truly believe public safety and equality matter, then refusing to act on Wisconsin’s crisis of missing and murdered Black women is not just negligent—it’s a willful, systemic failure.
Beyond that, family members of victims will have direct input into the task force’s agenda, a recognition of the importance of lived experience and trauma-informed policies. The focus will also include connecting grieving families to mental health and legal resources—services that are often out of reach for marginalized communities coping with loss and uncertainty.
The Roadblocks: Political Resistance and the Danger of Inaction
Despite bipartisan approval in the Assembly, the bill has repeatedly failed to reach a vote in the Republican-controlled Senate. GOP lawmakers have argued that no group should receive “special treatment” and that crime prevention efforts must address all victims equally. At first blush, this egalitarian rhetoric may seem reasonable—but a closer look reveals a troubling disregard for lived realities. Wisconsin’s Black women do not suffer violence at equal rates, nor do they have equal access to justice and support. Ignoring these disparities is not neutrality; it is complicity.
Republican resistance to a race-specific task force exposes a deeper ideological divide. Conservatives frame universal victimhood as justice, while progressive voices counter that Colorblindness in the face of lopsided suffering is itself a form of injustice. Sociologist Dr. Monique Morris, author of “Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools,” explains that “universal” policies have often shielded the powerful from accountability, while real equity demands focused attention where the harm is greatest. As she notes, “Refusing to acknowledge difference is not fairness—it is erasure.”
Beyond the political maneuvers, opposition has frightening consequences. When the State Assembly passed the bill in early 2024, families like Sheena Scarbrough’s hoped for meaningful change. Days later, it stalled in Senate committees without a hearing. Meanwhile, Wisconsin’s Black female homicide rate had doubled in just one year, rising from 10.1 deaths per 100,000 in 2019 to 20.2 per 100,000 in 2020, according to The Lancet. The upward trend is clear. The GOP’s impasse is not just bureaucratic—it puts lives at risk.
Toward Accountability and Justice: A Progressive Path Forward
Advocates for the task force say the failure to act reflects a deeper pattern of institutional neglect. Professor Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, whose scholarship on Black politics and gender illuminates these struggles, has long argued that narrowly tailored policies are not only justified—they are necessary. Only by naming and actively addressing the drivers of inequality can we create communities where everyone is safe and valued.
Are Republicans truly prepared to claim that attention to missing and murdered Black women undermines broader public safety—or are they avoiding the discomfort of confronting residual racism in Wisconsin’s systems? The urgency is evident; hesitation is indefensible. Until lawmakers listen to experts, survivors, and their own constituents, Black women and their families will remain at risk, left to mourn and organize in the absence of state protection.
Voters who believe in equality and justice have a clear call to action. Demand committee hearings. Write, call, and organize. Hold officials accountable. The lives and safety of Black women and girls in Wisconsin—and the moral legitimacy of the State Legislature itself—hang in the balance.
