I was checking out my Louisville play nephew Jaison Gardiner's Facebook feed when he started a thread discussing Fantasia. He's a big fan of hers (and Wendy Williams) and asserted during this discussion that Fantasia is one of the most talented winners American Idol has unearthed during its time on the air.
We were debating that proposition when the thread was interrupted by one of his commenters making a crack comparing Fantasia's looks to gospel call and response rapper Kirk Franklin.
Of course, you know I brought the pain on that one. Nephew deleted the comment in question, and I'll have mercy on the guilty by not further embarrassing him.
@name...watch the transphobic crack... our sisters get enough disrespect about their femininity and their looks vis a vis the vanilla flavored beauty standard without Black men, who are supposed to be our swords and shields and defenders, contributing to that disrespect
One of the things that really pisses me off in terms of the disrespect leveled at African-American women is how quickly Black men pile on.
It doesn't matter whether the Black woman in question is 5'2" or 6"2", if she isn't 'feminine enough' in the beholder's eyes, the transphobic comments freely flow from their mouths. Ask Ciara, the Williams Sisters, writer Kola Boof, Wendy Williams and a distressingly long list of African-American ciswomen how fast the 'that's a man' shade gets deployed against them.
And sadly, the people leading the charge are Black men.
News flash boys, you're disrespecting the mothers of civilization when you do so. You are also breathing air on this planet because you were conceived, carried to term in her womb and given birth to by a Black woman. You better recognize and respect that fact.
I'm compelled to point out the obvious once again to some of y'all that transwoman does not equal 'NFL linebacker in a dress'. Some of my transsisters are stunningly beautiful women. Beautiful enough that some have walked runways from New York to Milan, competed on America's Next Top Model and gotten high dollar contracts to model in advertising campaigns.
As I stated in the Facebook comment and it bears repeating, Black women take enough crap from society being compared to a vanilla beauty standard that wasn't designed or created with us in mind.
The last people on this planet that need to be joining in on the attacking of Black womanhood, and using transphobic insults to do so is Black men.
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