UW students hold vigil for Ben Keita in Red Square

www.dailyuw.com - RSS Results in news,news/* of type article On Tuesday, around 30 students gathered in Red Square to hold a vigil for Ben Keita, a Seattle-area black, Muslim teenager who was found dead in January after being missing since late November.Keita’s body was found hanging from a tree in the woods near his home in Lake Stevens. His death was originally determined to be a suicide by a medical examiner, but the manner of death was later changed to “undetermined” because of the height the rope was tied.Student organizers from the Black Student Union (BSU) and Somali Student Association (SSA) organized the event to honor Keita and call upon the community to recognize his death.
BSU and SSA organizers opened the event by explaining the background of Keita’s death. They specifically noted that Lake Stevens High School and Everett Community College, which Keita attended as a running start student, had yet to release a statement about his death.“Too many times where violence has been committed against black people, the media tries to desensitize us to the loss of black lives,” one BSU organizer said. Many organizers of the event requested anonymity for their safety.The brief introduction was followed by one minute of silence and prayer to honor Keita.“His black life mattered,” an SSA organizer said.Following the opening remarks, Arsalan Bukhari, executive director of the Washington Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), took the microphone to discuss his organization’s involvement with the case. He stated that CAIR has been in contact with the family and recently drafted a letter to the FBI calling on them to investigate Keita’s death further.“We are here to make sure Muslim rights are defended,” Bukhari said.Bukhari requested everyone to follow CAIR’s lead and publicly call for FBI involvement and mention why their community is affected by this, whether they are a Muslim or ...


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