Copy Paste Remix #4: “Who Gets a Name?: Keith Porter, Renee Good, and the Politics of Public Memory
There is a troubling pattern in American public life about which deaths are named, amplified, and memorialized and which disappear into silence. Two recent killings by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, one of a Black father in Los Angeles and one of a white mother in Minneapolis, illustrate this painful truth.
On December 31, 2025, Keith Porter Jr., a 43-year-old Black man, was shot and killed by an off-duty ICE agent in Northridge, Los Angeles (ABC7, 2026a). According to reporting, Porter’s family disputes the federal account that he engaged the officer; they say he was celebrating New Year’s Eve and that neighbors did not hear a law enforcement announcement before the shooting (ABC7, 2026a). His loved ones, including his mother and co-workers, have been demanding answers and transparency in the investigation. Yet news coverage of Porter’s death has been limited, and his name has not entered the national lexicon in the way that other victims of state violence have. Advocates in Los Angeles have held vigils and called for justice, but the story remains largely local (ABC7, 2026b; San Fernando Sun, 2026).
Exactly one week later, on January 7, 2026, Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old white Minneapolis mother of three, was fatally shot by an ICE agent during a large federal immigration enforcement operation (Associated Press, 2026). Video and eyewitness accounts circulated widely; local and national officials publicly weighed in; and within days, Good had a Wikipedia page documenting her death and the ongoing fallout (Wikipedia contributors, 2026). Coverage of Good’s killing spanned major media outlets, and her family’s grief became part of a broader national conversation about federal law enforcement tactics (Associated Press, 2026).
The contrast between these two deaths has sparked frustration and critique in activist and media spaces. Commentators have pointed out that Keith Porter’s death has not achieved the same cultural visibility as Renee Good’s, despite the fact that both cases raise serious questions about use of force by a federal agency (The Root, 2026). In public memory and national discourse, it is no small thing for a death to be named, to be linked to a narrative, to be woven into history. Until a name becomes widely known, it risks becoming just another statistic.
This dynamic touches directly on the history and intent of movements like Say Her Name, which was founded to highlight the often ignored police violence inflicted on Black women and girls, and Black Lives Matter, which insists that Black lives are treated as less newsworthy or less grievable (Crenshaw et al., 2015). Yet in the reaction to these two killings, we see something troubling: the co-optation or redirection of symbolic movements toward stories that attract empathetic attention, even when those narratives do not center the intended subjects. In the case of Renee Good, protests, vigils, and political responses have surged nationwide; in Keith Porter’s case, community efforts persist, but without the same public mobilization or media attention (San Fernando Sun, 2026).
This is not merely about who dies. It is about who is seen, who is mourned in public, and whose story becomes legible to America’s conscience. There is moral urgency in demanding justice for every family impacted by loss, but we must also ask ourselves why the death of a white mother becomes a national story almost instantly while the death of a Black father fades without commensurate attention. This question is not rhetorical. It is central to understanding the deep roots of systemic racism in American institutions and in the media that reflect, amplify, and sometimes distort those values.
When movements are co-opted to elevate those who already have visibility, who already have a name in public discourse, it dilutes the broader fight against injustice. It insists on symmetry where there is inequality, and in doing so, it upholds the very structures that allow some deaths to be grieved publicly and others to be rendered invisible.
Insisting that we remember Keith Porter by name, we reclaim the essential truth that Black lives deserve to be seen, mourned, and reckoned with. In a society that decides who gets a Wikipedia page and who does not, whose protest is televised and whose vigil stays local, we must continue pushing for justice. We must make it unconscionable for a media and cultural ecology in which Black lives go unnamed and unheard in their own movements, that directly respond to their own oppression.
Reference List
ABC7. (2026a, January 12). Keith Porter family seeks answers after man shot, killed by off-duty ICE agent in Northridge. https://abc7.com/post/keith-porter-family-man-shot-killed-off-duty-ice-agent-northridge-seeks-answers-la-police-commission-meeting/18396677/
ABC7. (2026b, January 9). Vigil held for Keith Porter after fatal shooting by off-duty ICE agent. https://abc7.com/post/keith-porter-death-vigil-justice-northridge-man-shot-off-duty-ice-agent/18382815/
Associated Press. (2026, January 8). Minnesota mother killed during ICE operation sparks outrage. https://apnews.com/article/6386af3234405e93f68ea00dbf8c98f1
Crenshaw, K., Ritchie, A. J., Anspach, R., Gilmer, R., & Harris, L. (2015). Say her name: Resisting police brutality against Black women. African American Policy Forum.
San Fernando Sun. (2026, January). Community members, family press for answers in the killing of Keith Porter Jr. https://sanfernandosun.com/2026/01/14/community-members-family-press-for-answers-in-the-killing-of-keith-porter-jr/
The Root. (2026). Why the tragic shooting of Keith Porter Jr. by ICE is not getting national attention. https://www.theroot.com/why-the-tragic-shooting-of-keith-porter-jr-by-ice-is-n-2000082368
Wikipedia contributors. (2026). Killing of Renee Good. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Renee_Good