The Real Cost of "Progressive" Justice: Black Women Are Paying With Their Lives

Kada Scott and Keon King

In this episode of Divested Diary, I’m speaking directly to the women who feel like nobody's listening — especially Black women who’ve divested from the toxic systems and communities that were supposed to protect us, but never did.

There’s a real silence around how liberal policies like ending cash bail and defunding the police have backfired. They were sold to the public as justice. But for us? For Black women? The cost has been deadly.

Kada Scott is no longer here. She was a young Black woman with her whole life ahead of her, murdered by a man who had already been charged with strangulation and kidnapping of another Black woman. He should never have been walking free. But the courts didn’t see her life as worth protecting. They released him. And now she’s gone.

This isn’t an isolated case. I’ve tracked stories like these for years — of Black women who were harassed, stalked, beaten, or killed — while judges, DAs, and so-called reformers looked the other way in the name of "equity."

Let’s be clear: there is nothing equitable about ignoring our safety.

These aren’t just failures — they’re patterns. Over and over again, Black women report violence and are dismissed. We say we feel unsafe and are told we’re overreacting. And when we die, the news cycle moves on in 24 hours like our lives never mattered in the first place.

This episode is about us. About the way Black women are expected to be endlessly strong while enduring abuse. About how, even when we divest from toxic relationships and communities, the larger systems still fail to protect us.

I made this episode because I’m tired of the silence. I’m tired of the gaslighting. I’m tired of watching women like me lose their lives and nobody being held accountable. And I know I’m not the only one.

If you’re divested, if you’re tired, if you’re trying to stay alive in a world that keeps putting you last — this one’s for you.