Y'all Don't Give Us A Reason To Vote FOR Conservafools

The more conservatives open their mouths, the more they prove just how politically savvy African Americans are, why we reject conservatism and why we vote at 90% clips for Democrats.

We've had this ongoing debate for years in the African-American community about whether or not we should be diversifying our political power and spreading it in both parties as opposed to the current situation of it being concentrated in the Democratic Party.  While in theory that's a sound strategy for us to have people involved in both parties, reality says otherwise.

There are 38.9 million of us making up 13% of the American population spread out across the country and concentrated in many high value electoral college states like California, Texas, Illinois, Ohio, Florida and New York.  As Dr. King presciently foresaw, the Black vote is often the deciding vote in many elections

Since the 1956 election, in which we liked Ike just like everybody else in the country and President Dwight Eisenhower got 39% of the African American vote in his reelection bid and Vice President Richard Nixon got 32% of our votes four years later, the Republican share of the African-American vote cratered to just 6% in the LBJ landslide in 1964.

Since that election the GOP percentage of the African American vote has stayed below 15% except in 2004, when GW Bush surprisingly got 16% of the African American vote.       

And why has that share of the African American vote dropped to those levels?

The passage of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts and the appointment and confirmation of Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court combined with a four decade long commitment since 1964 by the Democrats to passing civil rights legislation.  Democrats enacting or protecting policies favorable to our community, appointing Blacks to federal judgeships, ambassadorships, government posts and cabinet positions allowed us to compare and contrast the policies of liberal Democrats versus conservative Republicans.

Meanwhile we witnessed the Dixiecrats fleeing the Democratic Party for the Republicans with the corresponding ratcheted up engagement by the GOP in anti-Black policies.  The embrace of the 'Southern Strategy' and anti Black voter suppression tactics.  The rise of conservative pundits, politicians and Fox News who demonize the African American community ad nauseum.

We also noted the conservative trickle down economic policies implemented by the Reagan and George HW Bush administrations in the 80's-early 90's didn't help our community and only benefited the wealthy at our expense combined with their increasing far right wing anti-education, xenophobic and racist policies leading us to say thanks but no thanks to voting for them.

And when you have a Black* Supreme Court justice nominated by a conservative president who is the antithesis of the great Justice Thurgood Marshall and knee-grows in the Republican Party mouthing the same racist talking points and bigoted rhetoric that we hear coming out of the mouths of conservative white people, why should any proud, politically savvy Black person give up their precious vote for a party and a political philosophy that wants to oppress them?

Happy Birthday Mandy!

Could not let today pass without giving a TransGriot birthday shout out to one of the women I look up to in the activist community and one righteous human rights warrior in Mandy Carter.

I have much love and respect for her, have sought her advice a time or two on some issues and when I lived in Louisville even had the honor and pleasure of her company for dinner at the house.  

She was our keynote speaker for our first Transsistahs-Transbrothas Conference in 2005 and one of the joys of my recent trip to Washington DC was getting to see her at the 2011 NBJC Out On The Hill Conference.

So for all you do for our community Mandy and the advancement of human rights, thank you.

Happy birthday Mandy, and may you have many more!.
  

We Black Trans People Need To Know Our Black Trans History

And I'm not just talking about our Black history, world history, or American history (although we need to be cognizant of that as well) but our Black trans history.

One of the reasons this blog is named TransGriot is because I was tired of Black trans people being unaware of the Black people who walked in our trans shoes before we arrived on this planet to pick up where they left off.  I was tired of us not knowing who our pioneering transpeople were and not being told our stories.  I was tired of our accomplishments and things we have done being erased.

As Chancellor Williams said in The Destruction of Black Civilization in 1975, "As long as we rely on white historians to write Black history for us, we should keep silent about what they produce."

And no, keeping silent about Black trans people being erased from trans history is not gonna happen on my watch.  To ensure that doesn't happen I started this Black History Month doing a Black Trans History quiz and as long as this blog is in operation will be doing it EVERY Black History month from now on.

Diamond Stylz in my recent Ten Questions interview with her pointed out how important knowing our trans history is, ensuring our stories are told, and why we need to proactive in passing them down to the next generation.

"One of my favorite parts about TransGriot is when you showcase some of our trans history.  It opens my eyes to a world in the past that I can't imagine living in. From Lady Java to Lucy Hicks Anderson, I appreciate knowing that we didn't just pop up in the millennium. We have been here fighting. It shows me that I have been handed a torch and I need to continue running with the torch."

That we have.   We have people like Avon Wilson, who was the first patient of the Johns Hopkins gender program.  The African descended people involved in the 1965 Dewey's Lunch Counter Sit-In in Philadelphia.  The people in the ballroom community which drew inspiration from the drag balls of the Harlem Renaissance and Finnie's Ball in Chicago.  Trans people who were clustered in Chicago, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Houston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Detroit and Atlanta just to name a few of the cities.

And oh yeah, I am one of four African-American IFGE Trinity Award winners along with Dawn Wilson, Dr. Marisa Richmond and Earline Budd

Much of the reasons we need to know our history is not only for our own knowledge and edification, but to point out we're intertwined with and share a common history and culture with cis African-Americans.

It's also to counter the haters.   If somebody comes at me with 'Black transpeople haven't don't anything' or the other foul stereotypes they aim at us, I can quickly counter with the fact that we helped organize GenderPac and NTAC.  We have a transwoman who was a member of the Mattachine Society.  We jumped off the first trans specific protest in 1965 and the Stonewall Rebellion in 1969.   A Black transwoman was the first patient in the Johns Hopkins Gender Program.  We have a transwoman in Pamela Hayes who has written and published novels.  We had people who modeled like Tracy Africa Norman and we had present as a delegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention Dr. Marisa Richmond..       

And yes, some of the legal cases that are helping to define trans legal issues or fight discrimination against us have African American trans plaintiffs in them such as Patricia Underwood, Patti Shaw, KK Logan, Diana Taylor      

We also can't forget our African Diaspora cousins like Victor Mukasa, Audrey Mbugua, Mia Nikasimo  Jowelle De Souza and Skipper Mogapi just for starters or the people we've lost along the way.


We have people such as Janet Mock, Laverne Cox, Isis King, Tona Brown, Jordana and Diamond who are taking Black trans visibility to new levels.   They are paving the way for the acceptance and support we'll need to aim higher and fully integrate ourselves in the African American community so we can continue to make more history.   And yes, knowing our history is a vital building block to ensure we have the healthy self esteem and positive self images we'll need to deal with the slings and arrows of life that will get hurled at us.


I know we just didn't pop up in the late 90's and early 21st century.    Miss Major's existence tells us that along with Cheryl's, Sharyn's, and Marsha P. Johnson's.  And nope, not going to forget the transmen like Alexander John Goodrum, Marcelle Cook-Daniels,  Rev. Louis Mitchell, Kylar Broadus and countless others who are doing the work to not only advance our chocolate section of the trans community, but uplift our people at the same time.

It's past time for us to get to know ourselves by getting in touch with our Black trans history.

Rangers Manager Nine Innings From Baseball History

Ron Washington became the first African-American to manage the Texas Rangers in 2007, and so far he's led his team to back to back World Series appearances in 2010 and 2011. 

He's not however, the first African-American baseball manager to do that.  Cito Gaston was the first and did so with the Toronto Blue Jays in 1992-1993.

Gaston's Blue Jays also won back to back titles in the process.   Dusty Baker when he managed the San Francisco Giants in 2002 became the second to take a team to a World Series but unfortunately lost to the then Anaheim Angels in seven games.  New Orleans native Ron Washington is the third African-American manager to take a team to the World series..

With the Rangers taking a 3-2 series lead into Game 6, Washington is nine innings away from becoming the second African-American manager to win a World Series, and after the foul tweet from Tony LaRussa daughter Devon about him, I'm rooting for him to do so.