Kenneka Jenkins: Will The Real Killer Please Stand.

Kenneka Jenkins' mysterious death has hit a nerve with young African-Americans. Everyone seems to have a theory about how the 19-year-old Chicago woman's body ended up in a freezer in a deserted area of a hotel near O'Hare. That is to be expected when such an intriguing tale goes viral on social media. 

What's more important, though, are the messages these young people are sending to each other. In their own unique way, they have begun a long-overdue conversation about sexual assault.

To be clear, authorities have said nothing to suggest Kenneka was assaulted before she died, or even that her death was criminal. But unanswered questions have fueled speculation on social media about what might have happened to Kenneka that night during a party in a ninth-floor hotel room with friends, including whether she was attacked.

The amateur sleuthing on Twitter has evolved into an open discussion about relationships — not just friendships between women but also the kind of men they allow into their lives. And the responsibility women have to look out for each other when they are socializing in public.

In language that is at times vile and crude, they are talking about trust, jealousy and deception, about the perils of underage drinking and the troubling lack of respect too many young African-American men show toward African-American women.

They are forcing each other to look deeper into the rape culture that for so many teenagers and young adults has become the norm.

It is a subject Africans-Americans don't always like to talk about openly, largely for fear of promoting the racist stereotype that most black men are sexual predators. We know that is not true, but sexual assault does occur and the discussion has long been needed in our community.