Janet Mock On MSNBC

Y'all know how much I'm looking forward to the day that I finally get to meet Janet Mock, and was looking forward to seeing this MSNBC interview on Friday before it got bumped for last week's breaking news. 

The interview with MSNBC's Thomas Roberts was rescheduled for yesterday and I missed it, but thanks to the Net, I and you TransGriot readers get to watch the video of it and talk about being nominated as one of theGrio's 100 influential leaders in the Black community. 

Here's Janet!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The 2nd Annual African-American Trans History Quiz

I got so much positive feedback after doing last year's inaugural Black Trans History Quiz I decided to make this an annual blog feature for Black History Month.

Just like last year's quiz, I'll give y'all a few days to mull over the questions before I post the answers in a separate post that I'll eventually link to this one.

And now, the second annual TransGriot African-American Trans History Quiz

1.  Transman Kylar Broadus founded an organization to lobby for the human rights of transpeople of color.  What is the name of that organization and what year was it founded?

2.  This People.com editor was recently named to TheGrio's 100 History Makers List for 2012.  Name her.

3. True or False:   An IFGE Trinity award has never been won by a Black trans man.

4. Last year we lost three iconic African-American trans leaders   Name them.


5. This transperson was the first to perform for a sitting US president.  Who is she?

6. What transwoman uttered this quote?  "I defy any doctor in the world to prove that I am not a woman.”   Bonus points if you can also answer what state she was born in.

7. Transwomen Patti Shaw and Diana Taylor have this in common.  What's the link?

8.  In what city will the first annual Black Transmen Empowerment Retreat Dinner and Conference on March 29-April 1 take place?


9. IFGE award winner Dr. Marisa Richmond heads this statewide trans human rights organization.  Name it.

10. This transwoman made Diddy's Band in 2009 and in the process became the first transperson to actually win a reality television show competition.  Who is she?

11. There have been three autobiographical books written about or by African-American transwomen.   Name them.  


12.  This transwoman in November 1995 confronted job discrimination aimed at her on a college campus.  Name her and the school that perpetrated it.

13.  Miss International Queen runner up and London resident Miss Sahhara was originally born in this African nation.   Name it.

14. This internationally known trans human rights warrior is from Uganda.   What's his name.

15. What happened to Washington DC friends Stephanie Thomas and Ukea Davis on August 12, 2002?

16.  What is the name of the organization that Miss Major is the executive director of?

17.  Name the two ballroom houses that Octavia St Laurent was part of.

18.  True or False:  The National Transgender Advocacy Coalition's first board chair was an African American transwoman.

19. This transwoman is chronicled in a1979 JET magazine article that discusses her life, her discrimination suit suit against GM and her founding of a Detroit gender organization.   Name her.


20. Toni D'Orsay now runs this Phoenix based organization founded by Regina Gazelle.  Name it.  Bonus points if you can also name what the letters in the group's name stand for.

21. What college did trailblazing NCAA division one trans athlete Kye Allums play for and what was his sport?

22. Video blogger Diamond Stylz was the plaintiff in a successful ACLU discrimination lawsuit that allowed her to wear her dress at her high school prom.  What year did it occur and bonus points for the state it happened in.

23. What continental African trans woman wrote this and bonus points if you can name the country she's from?  'I don't think saying something derogatory to someone who has insulted you is being unladylike. And maybe trans women need to knock it off with this perpetual ladylike garbage. Sometimes you can't be ladylike. Circumstances preclude that.'  

24. This transman was featured in the book 'Love Makes a Family' , a supporter of COLAGE and was a presenter at several True Spirit conferences in the late 90's.  Name him.  

25. True or False:  The TransGriot is the first Texan to win the IFGE Trinity award.

I Want To Continue Seeing African-American Trans People Make History

I was extremely happy and proud to see my trans sister Janet Mock make theGrio's 100 History Maker's list for 2012.   I was just as happy for her as I was when Isis King made the Out 100 last year, Laverne Cox won her GLAAD award, Kylar Broadus got one at last year's Creating Change conference and Dr. Marisa Richmond back in 2008 became the first African-American transperson to be elected as a delegate to a major party convention.

Dr. Richmond also received the doubleplusgood bonus of being in Denver when then Sen. Barack Obama made history of his own.

As we have made Black trans history, it's becoming crystal clear to others we're making Black history as well. It's one in which I have the unshakable faith in myself and the Black trans community that we can, will and will excel when we are given the opportunity to do so.

I've done my part and will continue to do so in not only helping make the history but chronicling it on these electronic pages.  

But the salient point I'm segueing toward is that trans African-Americans are finally getting recognized for the positive community building things we do and not being othered for a change.  The point is being driven home that we African-American transpeople are doing our part to make Black America better.

At the same time we're making Black America better, we're shining a spotlight on a chocolate trans community that has long toiled in the shadows, been ignored, disrespected, and had near genocidal levels of violence aimed at us.  But yet we rise, own our power, continue to build community and make history in the process. 

I no longer want to have people outside the Black trans community and across the African Diaspora and the world attempt to define us by the worst we produce.  I want the momentum of the outside world judging us by our best people continuing to move forward at an exponential rate.

I want to see the Black trans community continue to own its power as NBJC's Sharon Lettman-Hicks likes to frequently remind us.   I  want to see more Black transpeople stepping up to leadership positions in their communities.   I want to see Black transpeople making history by running for public office.  I want to see Black trans judges, councilmembers, college professors, ministers and public officials and in professional positions and occupations.  I hope and pray to see a Black trans congressmember, mayor or state legislator sworn into office.    

I want to see more Black trans people in the entertainment world making movies and getting roles like Isis and Laverne are.  Want to see more singers like Jaila Simms and trailblazers like Tona Brown and Diamond Stylz.

I want to see more transbrothers like Kylar owning their power and stepping up to lead because frankly my transbrothers, your transsisters and the African-American community need to see you doing so more often. 

As much love as I get from the chocolate trans and SGL community for being the TransGriot, I do want to see more African-American trans writers and bloggers stepping up and adding your voices and perspectives to transition Black trans style.   

I want to increasingly see us in leadership positions and as thought leaders inside and outside our community.  I want to see Black transpeople so thoroughly integrated into the kente cloth fabric of African-American society it's not an anxiety producing moment when we come out to our families at whatever age we do so.


So yes, I want to continue seeing African-American transpeople make history this year, for the rest of this decade and into the forseeable future.  

Because it's not just a dream I have, it's one I share with other transpeople of African descent in this community.  It also benefits all of us when a Black transperson blazes a trail for others to follow.

Southlands Regina King WOC in the Media

A guest post from Renee of Womanist Musings, who is all that and four bags of ketchup flavor potato chips. 

One of the reasons I tune into Southland each week is for Regina King.  Though there are a lot of women in prime time television there are not a lot of women of colour staring in roles that reduce them to cheap stereotypes. Regina King plays, Det. Lydia Adams.

Lydia grew up in the hood and she is not policing it.  I do at times have a problem with the things she asserts in character like drugs and criminality being a choice, because Lydia was able to pull herself up by her bootstraps but I fully recognize that the message of meritocracy is something the media is very committed to despite the fact that it is in many cases impossible to achieve a positive shift in class location.  Considering that minority actresses and actors are often forced to say lines that are abhorrent to keep their jobs,  the character of Lydia is far from the worst of examples that appear on television.

Lydia lives with her mother and she has an active sex life for which she does not feel any shame.  She is committed to her job and she is good at it.  My only question in terms of casting has to do with the fact that in the last two seasons she has very specifically been cast with a partner of colour and it feels a little like racial segregation.

If we didn't live in a White supremacist, patriarchal society the fact that Regina King plays Det Lydia Adams, there wouldn't really be worthy of an comment.  The truth of the matter is that King is a rarity in mainstream entertainment despite the so-called post racial world and African-American president.

“I’m just really thankful to have the chance to portray a character you don’t see every day,’’ said King in between filming. “I have women come up to me all the time and say that exact thing to me. They say they love my character and how she is a real woman with a real career that they believe. People love to see themselves on screen in a way that makes sense and seems on point.”

“I’ve tried to be flexible in my career by doing a little bit of everything and that’s worked for me,” says King. “It’s incredibly hard out there for women of color. That’s why I do love being a woman of substance on Southland. Someone who isn’t a caricature and isn’t a stereotype. But remember she wasn’t written as a black character and that makes a big difference in how she can be portrayed.”

King credits the writers and producers of TNT and Southland for encouraging the development of characters based on true human portraits and not on preconceived notions and ideas.

“We’ve all worked together to make Lydia an interesting person that isn’t based on being a girlfriend or sidekick on the show, which is something totally different in terms of writing and acting,” said King. “It’s great to work and have those kind roles, but it’s also great to have the key scenes and be the key character. It’s good for it to be about you sometimes.’’ (source)

What we should be asking is why King is the exception to the rule rather than the rule?  It's not just Black women that are subject to this sort of erasure?  Where are the women of colour in primetime, who are playing characters of substance?  If you turn to reality television, we exist to either be the token Black girl (I'm looking at you Bachelor), or we exist to be shamed for being ghetto, angry, loud or just generally unwomen?  There is a much greater chance in seeing a Black woman show up in an episode to be a prostitute, drug user, or an abusive mother.


Time after time we have heard Black women complain about the lack of good roles available to them, and yet nothing has changed.  It certainly does not help matters that the only ones consistently talking about this issue is us.  Every time I come across a feminist blog talking about roles for women in the media and declaring the degree to which they are feminist, I always wonder to myself when if ever are they going to note that at least they are seen, while we remain largely invisible?  Part of a feminist analysis of media should include the inclusion of marginalized women and yet it continues to be sadly lacking from our so-called allies.

It is my belief that it is even more important for women of color to see positive images of ourselves in the media than it is for White women, because we don't have the shelter that Whiteness to help mitigate the harm that sexism causes.  We don't need anymore Black sidekicks, girlfriends, or BFF's.  I am sick to death of seeing Black women reduced to the role of support staff for White people.  Turning us into new age Mammies is not progress, it isn't even changing the discourse. 

When we complain about this clear bias, we are once again labelled bitter, angry and even untalented.  Any excuse is drummed up rather than dealing with the ongoing active oppression of women of color. Socially, when think of womanhood, Whiteness is the automatic default and this is why as much as sexism is an issue for White women, they are not heavily invested in ensuring that woman means all women, rather than a very small select group.  Whiteness is dedicated to ensuring that whatever opportunities exist for advancement remain specifically in White hands.  This is why when they come to women of colour, with the typical but we're all women routine, I tend to role my eyes with frustration.  We may all be women, but we experience womanhood very differently. The truth of the matter is that we are only partners when you can exploit us.

This is why in everything I do, I commit myself to supporting the work of marginalized women. We cannot count on anyone to come to our aid, or speak about the various ways in which we are oppressed because it is a direct conflict with their unearned and quite frankly undeserved privilege. I am absolutely desperate to see more women in prime time like Regina King.  It is now the year 2012 and I still have not forgotten the fact that as a child, Clair Huxtable was the only face I could turn to who looked like me.  I know first hand the pain of erasure and as such, I cannot help but think about how tough the little Black girls born today will have it. I was shaped in ways I didn't even recognize as a child and I had parents who were very socially aware in terms of race.  Erasure tells us which bodies matter and it seems as far as the media is concerned, Black women still don't rate much mention.

Dear Massa, Thanks But No Thanks

One of the things that pisses me off at times is when I hear the southern history revisionists try to pimp their 'happy darkie' lie about slavery to absolve themselves of the fact their ancestors committed a monstrous human rights crime.

Slavery had and still does have deleterious effects on this nation, race relations, and their community and mine almost 150 years later and was nothing Gone With The Wind happy about it for my people.

Was delighted to see this 1865 letter that's been making the rounds in the Afrosphere, the Net from letters of note.com composed by freedman Jourdon Anderson in response to a letter from his former master Colonel P.H. Anderson of Big Spring, Tennessee asking him to come back to the big house to work for him.

Here's Jourdon's response to that letter.

***

Dayton, Ohio,

August 7, 1865

To My Old Master, Colonel P.H. Anderson, Big Spring, Tennessee

Sir: I got your letter, and was glad to find that you had not forgotten Jourdon, and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again, promising to do better for me than anybody else can. I have often felt uneasy about you. I thought the Yankees would have hung you long before this, for harboring Rebs they found at your house. I suppose they never heard about your going to Colonel Martin's to kill the Union soldier that was left by his company in their stable. Although you shot at me twice before I left you, I did not want to hear of your being hurt, and am glad you are still living. It would do me good to go back to the dear old home again, and see Miss Mary and Miss Martha and Allen, Esther, Green, and Lee. Give my love to them all, and tell them I hope we will meet in the better world, if not in this. I would have gone back to see you all when I was working in the Nashville Hospital, but one of the neighbors told me that Henry intended to shoot me if he ever got a chance.

I want to know particularly what the good chance is you propose to give me. I am doing tolerably well here. I get twenty-five dollars a month, with victuals and clothing; have a comfortable home for Mandy,—the folks call her Mrs. Anderson,—and the children—Milly, Jane, and Grundy—go to school and are learning well. The teacher says Grundy has a head for a preacher. They go to Sunday school, and Mandy and me attend church regularly. We are kindly treated. Sometimes we overhear others saying, "Them colored people were slaves" down in Tennessee. The children feel hurt when they hear such remarks; but I tell them it was no disgrace in Tennessee to belong to Colonel Anderson. Many darkeys would have been proud, as I used to be, to call you master. Now if you will write and say what wages you will give me, I will be better able to decide whether it would be to my advantage to move back again.

As to my freedom, which you say I can have, there is nothing to be gained on that score, as I got my free papers in 1864 from the Provost-Marshal-General of the Department of Nashville. Mandy says she would be afraid to go back without some proof that you were disposed to treat us justly and kindly; and we have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you. This will make us forget and forgive old scores, and rely on your justice and friendship in the future. I served you faithfully for thirty-two years, and Mandy twenty years. At twenty-five dollars a month for me, and two dollars a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to eleven thousand six hundred and eighty dollars. Add to this the interest for the time our wages have been kept back, and deduct what you paid for our clothing, and three doctor's visits to me, and pulling a tooth for Mandy, and the balance will show what we are in justice entitled to. Please send the money by Adams's Express, in care of V. Winters, Esq., Dayton, Ohio. If you fail to pay us for faithful labors in the past, we can have little faith in your promises in the future. We trust the good Maker has opened your eyes to the wrongs which you and your fathers have done to me and my fathers, in making us toil for you for generations without recompense. Here I draw my wages every Saturday night; but in Tennessee there was never any pay-day for the negroes any more than for the horses and cows. Surely there will be a day of reckoning for those who defraud the laborer of his hire.

In answering this letter, please state if there would be any safety for my Milly and Jane, who are now grown up, and both good-looking girls. You know how it was with poor Matilda and Catherine. I would rather stay here and starve—and die, if it come to that—than have my girls brought to shame by the violence and wickedness of their young masters. You will also please state if there has been any schools opened for the colored children in your neighborhood. The great desire of my life now is to give my children an education, and have them form virtuous habits.

Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me.

From your old servant,
Jourdon Anderson.

   

African-Americans For Obama Launch

I want the POTUS to win another term not only because he is the best man for the job of leading this country, I'm going to enjoy the looks on the faces of his haters on January 20, 2013 when he gets sworn in for his second term.

Here's the video announcing the 2012 launch of African-American For Obama

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Yep, It's Black History Month

February not only ushers in Valentine's Day on the 14th but is also the start of Black History Month.   We get an extra day to celebrate it on the 29th thanks to 2012 being a leap year.

As you longtime TransGriot readers know, every month on this blog is Black History Month.

As the child and godchild of historians I'm always on the lookout for nuggets of Black history that African-American transpeople past and present have made.   

It's also one of the missions of this blog to post it here and kick that knowledge to you. 

Moni's also going to do her part to talk about it live and in person when I journey to the University of Arizona on February 28. I was also asked by GLAAD to write a post they will publish on their blog concerning Black trans icons and Black trans history which I'll crosspost here when it finally goes up.

I might have something cooking locally Black history related in H-town as well and if it comes to pass I'll let y'all know.  

And yes, I'm gonna hit y'all with my second annual TransGriot Black Trans History quiz sometime this month. 

And a hint to the wise, some of the answers to that Black Trans History quiz can be found in TransGriot. 

So get ready to get your learn on about my people for the next 29 days.