The fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother of three in Minneapolis, has laid bare the tenuous relationship between white womanhood and white supremacy, according to sociologist Saida Grundy. Despite initial claims by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that Good was shot in self-defence, footage released after the 7 January killing contradicted that account. The Trump administration and conservative figures responded with a barrage of dehumanising remarks, with Fox News host Jesse Watters mocking her queer identity and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem falsely labelling her a domestic terrorist.
Good's killing has shocked many, particularly as it involved a white woman—a group traditionally seen as sacred victims in the American imagination. Grundy argues that this case reveals how the state will only defend those who uphold a white racial order. The vilification of Good, including comments by Donald Trump that she was 'very disrespectful to law enforcement', underscores that even white women can be sacrificed if their deaths challenge the narrative that state violence serves whiteness.
The response to Good's death highlights a historical pattern, Grundy writes, citing the 1915 film 'The Birth of a Nation' as an origin point for the social pact protecting white women. This pact, she contends, has always been conditional on white women deferring to white male authority and being sufficiently afraid of non-white communities. Good, who lived in a multiracial area and was killed near the site of George Floyd's murder, failed to meet these expectations.
The Justice Department's subsequent criminal investigation into Good's widow, Becca Good, and her ties to 'activist groups' prompted six federal prosecutors to resign in protest. Grundy concludes that Good's death forces a reckoning with who the state is willing to sacrifice in pursuit of its targets, revealing the fragility of a contract that has long been a cornerstone of white racial domination.
