After Ferguson, a viral photo turned the tween into a symbol of post-racial America. But his murder — at the hands of his adoptive white mother — shows how much of an illusion that all really was
We don’t yet know if 15-year-old Devonte Hart died when his adoptive white mother, Jen Hart, 38, stomped on the gas pedal and drunkenly, intentionally, drove her 2003 GMC right off the edge of America. We do know the SUV plunged 100 feet down the cliffside and crashed into the Pacific Ocean, killing her, along with Sarah Hart, 38, Devonte’s other adoptive white mother, and four of his siblings:
Markis, 19
Jeremiah, 14
Abigail, 14
Ciera, 12
The apparent murder-suicide remains an open mystery.
At present, Devonte is listed as missing. Local authorities haven’t recovered his body, nor have they located his sister, Hannah Hart, 16.
(Devontes bio mom) Sherry Davis’ children were forcibly removed from her home by Texas authorities due to her struggle with cocaine addiction. Davis, who was complying with her court-ordered drug treatment program, also fought to get her children home. But before she could get them back, they were adopted by a couple in Minnesota: the Harts.
In light of what we now know about his murderous adoptive white mothers — who’d been cited for a pattern of repeated child abuse dating back to 2008— this powerful image twists into a more potent symbol. A symbol of systemic failure. Far more heartbreaking than anyone imagined at the time.
full offense but cis people dont get to call us shemales and trannies and femboys and traps and “its”, and campaign to “drop the T” in LGBT and deprive trans people of resources and beat the shit out of us in bathrooms and make fun of us for having “baby faces” and strip us of our rights and murder us for being trans and joke about how we “identify as an apache attack helicopter”, only to turn around and call themselves “allies” when they police OUR identities, just because they call themselves “cis transmeds”! i cant!! im not fucking allowing it!!!
