Colorism Needs To Cease And Desist In The Black Trans Community

Just as race and class are issues the Black trans community will have to grapple with as we close ranks to become part of the greater community, so is the malignant cousin of race in colorism (or hueism).

African-Americans come in 23 identified skin tone shades from light, bright and damned near white vanilla creme to deepest darkest ebony.  

When we come out of the birth canal we have no control over what combination of characteristics we are going to get from our parents that are the building blocks of us. 

But you can bet that if you're on the lighter, middle or darker end of that 23 color skin tone palette the ways you experience being Black in America are undeniably going to be different based on that and what part of the country you grew up in.

If you came to the States from different parts of the African Diaspora like the Caribbean, the African continent or different North, Central and South American nations, that throws another variable into the mix.

Because we are a subset of the greater African-American community, the ills of colorism and hueism are also embedded in and contaminate our ranks. 

Just as the 'Are you Black' question comes up repeatedly for the people on the light, bright and damned near white vanilla creme end of the scale,  the reality is far different for the darker skinned Black trans folks among us because they get far more negativity unleashed upon them.  

The bottom line is that we are all Black and we are ALL hated for it, no matter whether we are light, bright and damned near white vanilla creme or deepest darkest ebony.

We have far more serious issues to tackle in terms of our crushing unemployment/underemployment, off the charts anti-trans violence aimed at our Black transwomen, lack of media visibility, a fundamental misunderstanding of what trans is in the cis and SGL African-American communities and a six decade old trans narrative in the parent culture that is overwhelmingly stacked toward telling the stories of our white trans counterparts.  

We don't need the distraction of who has 'good vs kinky hair', 'light skin vs dark skin' colorism battles taking root in our Black trans ranks and diverting our attention from the work that must be done to make trans life better for the kids behind us and ourselves. 

It is going to take all of our collective talents to help us trans African-Americans lift ourselves up as we close ranks and become part of the greater society.  We don't have much room for error in that regard and we cannot afford to have in chocolate trans world colorism dividing us and sowing seeds of trouble in our African descended trans ranks. 

All of us are beautiful and handsome no matter what our skin tone, body shapes or the way we choose to wear our hair.  We are all proud trans African-Americans, and we experience and express our cultural heritage in different ways.

Let's focus on the community building in our trans ranks that needs to expeditiously happen, the education in our African-American community that must be done, and the bigger civil rights prizes we need to fight to achieve together whether we are light skinned or dark skinned or have good, curly, natural, braided or kinky hair.