Kelli, Stop Appropriating The Term 'Blackface'

One of the things that continues to be an irritant to me as the child and godchild of historians is when my people's history is used or taken out of context by non African Americans to promote an agenda..


I get the fact there are trans people in this community that don't like drag shows.  But you cannot compare a drag show you don't like to a blackface minstrel show.as Kelli Busey did on her Facebook page while expressing her displeasure about a drag show fundraiser held by Central Arizona Rainbow Education (CARE)  that's taking place tonight and January 12.

Just as Audre Lorde called our Mary Daly in 1978 for comparing transpeople to performing in blackface in Gyn/Ecology,  I'm calling out your problematic use of the term 'Trans BlackFace' to describe a drag show you have a problem with.


Unless it has a racialized component to it, like Chucky's reprehensible 'act' and you are selling products based on that racialized characterization, it's just a drag show.

Blackface was specifically designed to demean, denigrate and disrespect African-Americans for over 100 years .   Drag shows for the most part do not meet that standard of disrespecting the trans community unless the performer is specifically designing the show to do precisely that, tossing in a racialized component to boot and getting repeatedly paid for it. 

So Kelli and others, stop appropriating the term 'blackface' to express your disapproval of drag shows.   It's insulting to the African American community and your African descended trans peeps who know the difference.