It is one of the few blogs that has a declared mission of not only highlighting the accomplishments and history of African descended transpeople across the Diaspora, I make no bones about the fact that my analysis about issues inside and outside the trans community comes from an Afrocentric point of view.
Had an exchange on my FB page with a white trans woman who forgot that point when she started immediately going into 'you're a racist' mode mere minutes after I posted a link to my Your 'Trans Papers' Please post on it..
Candice: Wow. I don't know in what universe someone would think this issue only pertains to trans people of color. Kinda fucked up, and sounds pretty racist if you ask me. I'm about as white as it gets, yet I don't have any 'trans papers' and won...'t for a long time because I can't afford to see a therapist plus there are none close by. I've never seen one. It takes an awful lot of arrogance to assume this issue only applies to trans people of color. I fear for my safety everywhere I go, every time I walk down the street. I don't know who will treat me worse, the ignorant bigoted cops or the homophobic black males who yell "faggot" and other bullshit at me, threaten me, or send me running for my life every time I leave my house. Oh yes, being a white trans girl in the ghetto is a cake walk.Genia from SistersTalk Radio makes a couple of points in her comment
TransGriot: @candice...I'm writing it from the POV of a trans woman of color and focused it specifically on our issues with that clause.
So buy a vowel and get a fracking clue before you step to me with that 'racist' bull feces.
racism=prejudice plus systemic power, not what privilege wielding white girl call a POC because she has reading comprehension issues.
Candice: You know, you're right, as a homeless trans sex worker I'm just totally weighed down with privilege over here. And I'm sorry that I forgot that you had the right to define terms however you wanted. My bad.
TransGriot: You came ranting on the FB page of an African American trans woman about a post on her Afrocentric trans blog and you got the nerve to get an attitude when I call you on your BS? Wake up and smell the vanilla scented privilege.
Thank you, Genia.In my experience, whenever I write an article or blog post that focuses specifically on a perspective formulated from a POC's view, at least 1 non-POC gets angry. What that non-POC fails to realize is that often our perspective is ignored, which is why we feel the need to write that blog post to begin with. That non-POC also fails to realize that we all experience things differently. All gay men are not the same. All lesbians are not the same. All trans people are not the same. When a non-POC trans person expects 1 trans person's point of view to represent all trans people, it definitely implies that person is speaking from a place where he or she once enjoyed a life where the world revolved around his or her needs.
While those white oriented trans blogs cheered the passage of the Connecticut trans legislation and took different tacks in doing so, I zeroed in on the problematic clause in it that has the potential to negatively affect POC trans people and went from there.
And as a wise Canadian blogger tells y'all, "If it ain't about you, don't make it about you."
If you have a problem with me doing so, too bad. There are hundreds of other trans blogs you can peruse to fit your vanilla centric point of view or you can start your own. Black transpeople have my Afrocentric one, and I'm not apologizing for its focus on trans issues from that perspective.
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