I can go on and on about Lauren and you know, so
many different memories and like all the years that we spent
together.
I do want to say that, Lauren before her passing, like within
the last couple years she became more spiritual with herself. I
feel like that gives me some type of acceptance that her soul
is okay because here she was trying. But, Lauren was never the
one to take drugs like absolutely not even marijuana.
Like absolutely nothing like that. She never needed it like,
honestly, she⁠—the girl was just a ball of life, like she was what
you know when people would say high off life.
I've been in media for so long, I might be a little
desensitized to really caring if somebody is going to pick up a
story or because I'm so used to it being ignored. So sometimes
it takes us building our own platforms and making our own
space and creating our own tables for our stories to be
told.
Today would have been Lauren Smith-Fields 24th
birthday. 23⁠-year-old Lauren Smith-Field was found dead in her
Bridgeport, Conn. apartment after going...
Have an update for you guys, in regards to the case
of Lauren Smith-Fields and Brenda Rawls.
So I first heard about Lauren Smith-Fields case,
back, I think it was like mid to late December. And it was
actually a follower had asked me to look into it. You know, what
immediately struck me was how little information there was.
This was a woman who had died under mysterious circumstances.
But they were talking about how the police said that they
weren't looking into the guy that was last with her. And that
just really, it honestly just really irked me and made me
really angry. And so I decided to post about it and share all
the information that was out there, which was, you know,
close to nothing.
Please share Lauren's story, the more attention the story gets, the more likely the Bridgeport
Police Department will do a proper investigation and get
Lauren's family answers.
We know that some scenes are just failed, because
the officers on scene didn't realize that there was something
going on. But when you have a scene that is so clear, this is
a stranger. It's inside of a home. There is questions about
the scene. I don't understand why you wouldn't. And the only
thing I can say is it leads exactly what we've always been
talking to you, which is the officers on scene are not taking
Black women seriously. They just thought of her as well must
be overdose.
Is there anything about her case that
stood out to you something that surprised you at all?
After Gabby Petitio's disappearance in all of the
conversation around the lack of equitable coverage, I was
hopeful going into the future that maybe we'd see some
differences in coverage. And so for me, seeing Lauren's case it
was—it actually hit me pretty hard to see that social media
was so far ahead of the mainstream media, because it was
a really stark reminder of how far we have left to go when it
comes to the 'missing white woman syndrome'. The 'missing white
woman syndrome' is a term that was coined by the late and
amazing journalist Gwen Ifill. And it essentially refers to the
fact that the media over represent stories about white
missing women and girls compared to missing women and girls of
color.
I never set out for 'Our Black Girls' to be an
organization or a nonprofit. I just wanted to do something to
add my voice to a cause. As I saw these girls and these women
that look like me, they look like my friends. They look like
my family members. Historically, Black women have not been seen as full
people. I mean, even as simple as going to the doctor and
saying that you're in pain as simple as the mortality rate
when it comes to pregnancy and birth within Black women. Our
pain, our voices are often the last even when it comes to
dating. If you talk about dating apps are the most were the least
desirable.
Take me back to the moment when you first heard about Lauren's case,
and why were you compelled to become involved?
I thought it was important to be involved in
a case like this because I'm living in an era where Black
lives aren't valued the same as white lives. And I mean that from a
systemic standpoint, not from my neighbor, or friends that I know
who are white or other from other races, but systemically, whether
it's implicit biases, or straight up our racism is
something that devalues our lives. So when I heard how her
daughter was just disregarded, etc, I said I was all in. So I
signed up right away, and we've been working ever since.
So according to
the autopsy report, Smith died of acute
intoxication due to the combined effects of fentanyl, alcohol and
prescription medication. What does Lauren's family want us to
know about her?
The mother wants, you know, the biggest
misconception about this case is this implication that she was
using drugs. The idea that the, the idea that the medical
examiner's will say this was an accidental overdose leads people
to believe that she was using drugs, and just took too much.
That's a misconception. She wasn't using drugs and took too
much. She doesn't use drugs. And so we get some negative people
saying, oh, that's what it was. She was just a drug user. Now
they're saying is race? No, that's not right. And aside from
that, she wants you to know that her daughter was beautiful,
ambitious, she was in college to be a physical
therapist. She was just a great kid and she's a kid. That's
what it was. She was 23.
Can you talk about the 'ideal victim
stereotype' and explain the treatment of white victims
versus Black and brown female victims by the criminal justice
system?
So when I think about the 'ideal victim
stereotype,' I think it's important to point out that in
the United States, we actually have a very long history of
white women and girls being viewed as the ideal victim. The
ideal victim is essentially a person or a group that when they
are victimized, they're believed to be innocent, blameless and
deserving of protection. And in essence, the ideal victim is
somebody who is worthy of our collective attention, but is
also viewed as worthy of the collective resources as well.
So in my research, we found that women who do not conform to this
ideal victim stereotype do tend to be shown as being somehow
responsible for their victimization. So some examples
of victim blaming statements might be that they're using
alcohol or drugs, or that they're dressed in a particular
way, or maybe that they have associations with people that
have an arrest history. There's some research out of the Poynter
Institute that actually shows that most people engage with news
stories through the photograph, the headline and the caption.
And so something that really struck me in some of the stories
about Lauren is that she was framed in a photo of her with a
bikini, which I think is just so striking on so many levels and
and in this case, so inappropriate to what the story
is actually about. And, you know, research shows that women
of color are often sexualized in ways that white women are not
and I think that that was a very clear example of that.
So social media, specifically
TikTok and Instagram have been instrumental
in bringing national attention to Lauren story and keeping it
alive. The rapper, Cardi B was also instrumental in raising
awareness about the case and that her tweeting about it was
significant. Would police have taken this case seriously had
social media and celebrities like Cardi B not gotten
involved?
Um, you know, absolutely. The answer's no, you
know with Gabby Petito, the national media should be ashamed of
themselves because they—they went right after
the story, her story, and they wouldn't stop. It was it was a
little relentless, CNN, etc. And they said to us, said to me, if
it wasn't for social media, or what role do I think social
media played? And my answer is clear. Social media was like
Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad, you had to do whatever
you have to do to get to the freedom that you were seeking.
So if these national media companies didn't take us
seriously as they did Gabby Petito we started underground with TikTok
and social media. It was only when, when we got those
followers that the big giants like CNN, and the rest of them
start calling us. You could bet your bottom, that if it wasn't
for the groundswell and social media and the underground
movement that we started, they wouldn't call us.
I think that TikTok is unique in its algorithm and
the way that videos can go viral. I mean, I've literally
seen products sell out because of a viral TikTok video, so I
just don't think it would have reached as many people had it
not been for the TikTok videos that went viral about it. And I
think that if it hadn't reached that many people, I mean, maybe
they would have done a criminal investigation, but I don't think
the whole internal affairs investigation into the
detectives, I don't—I honestly don't think that that would have
happened because it would have just been the family who was
outraged. Not so many people around the world.
In your ideal world. What would justice for
Lauren look like?
For us, justice can never really be
achieved until we stop losing young girls like Lauren.
I know here on earth she was a very good soul.
So I know, in the afterlife, God needed his angel back obviously.
Like, he just wanted her back. So, I think that gives me peace
of mind that you know, she was very in tune with herself. So I
know she's okay.