Black Noise, White Ears: Resilience, Rap, and the Killing of Jordan Davis

Abstract

I am a black woman over six feet tall. My laugh sounds like an exploding mouse. I squeak loudly and speak quickly when I get excited. I like knock in my trunk and bass in my music. . . . I am especially attuned to how my sonic footprint plays into how I live and if I should die. As a black woman, the bulk of my threat is associated with my loudness. – Regina Bradley (2015), on the “sonic disrespectability” of Sandra Bland