Naw Conservafools, Clarence Thomas Doesn't Belong In The NMAAHC

The newly opened National Museum of African American History and Culture has over 350,000 square feet of exhibit space in the beautifully designed building that resembles an Egyptian pyramid that is ten stories tall, five of them below ground.

It has a collection of over 33,000 objects, with 3,500 of them on display in the museum including the Parliament-Funkadelic Mothership.  Tickets to enter the NMAAHC are sold out for the remainder of the year and through March 2017.

But one of the things that is pissing conservatives off is there is no mention of Supreme Court (in)Justice Clarence Thomas except for his contentious SCOTUS confirmation hearing.

They want Thomas included in the NMAAHC, and have launched a petition campaign to make that happen.

Aww, poor conservababies. It's amusingly ironic they are pissed off about Thomas not being included in a national African American history museum they fought tooth and nail for decades to ensure would never open.

I say not only no, but hell no to Uncle Thomas' inclusion in the NMAAHC.

Selling out your people has a cost, and one of those is being considered a pariah amongst your people and going down in Black history as the man who was the antithesis of the towering legal legacy of Justice Thurgood Marshall.

Thomas was on the wrong side of far too many cases that involved or negatively affected our people including being the deciding vote in the Shelby case that eviscerated Section 4 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, Citizens United, Voter ID laws and voting rights, and affirmative action just to name a few.

And no amount of whining from you conservatives or attempts to sanitize that odious anti-Black legacy will change the decades of disgust we African-Americans feel and have for him whenever we hear Clarence Thomas' name mentioned.

So nope, the only way Clarence Thomas should get into the NMAAHC is to buy a ticket.

Anti-Trans Violence In NYC Subway

One of the things I'm beyond being sick and tired of being sick and tired of is the anti-trans hate being directed at Black transwomen in our community by Black cis males that manifests itself into anti trans violence.as demonstrated in the MARTA attack on two transwomen by Luther Thomas and Frederick Missick back in May. 

I had this video clip sent to me by longtime TransGriot reader LaSaia Wade of another depressing transit system attack on a Black trans woman by a cis Black 'man' as this Black trans woman is trying to just go through her day without drama.  

Not aware of what transpired between the two to drive it to this level that is videotaped in this attack on the transwoman in question in this NYC subway platform, but I am bothered that no one came to her aid.

I'm even more upset about the fact some people thought this crap was humorous, and this alleged 'man' thought it was okay to put his balled up fists on a trans woman. 

No dudes and ignorant transphobes,.trans* women are women, and you're a punk if you think it's ever okay to take a swing at us.  

Sharae Kavoskii, your transphobic ignorance and poisonous self loathing is also on display for using the t-slur word in your caption of the video.

People throwing their balled up fists at a transwoman isn't cute, funny or entertaining.  If you think it is, something is seriously wrong with you as a human being.  We transgender women are not your punching bags to take out whatever anger issues you have in your miserable life out on us.

We transpeople are part of the diverse mosaic of human life on this planet and we aren't going away.   Deal with that reality. 

Trigger Warning for language in fight video  

Questions For Rev. Max Miller

In this battle to pass and now keep the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO) on the books, the interesting permutation for me was this attempt by the far-right wing Houston Area Pastor Council run by the odious hate monger Dave Welch to execute the NOM crafted strategy of driving a wedge between the African-American and TBLG community.

They propped up non-white useful fool Black, Latino and Asian ministers to do the optical dirty work for them of attacking a HERO ordinance that would benefit their communities while the conservative people stayed on the down low.and tried to work behind the scenes in conjunction with the Harris County Republican party to kill it. 

In addition to the now disgraced Rev. Kendall Baker,  one of the other prominent kneegrow front men during the HERO fight was Rev. Max Miller, the pastor of Mt. Hebron Baptist Church in southeast Houston and head of the Baptist Ministers Association of Houston And Vicinity.    

Miller is the nephew of JJ Roberson, the legendary founding pastor of the church who passed away in 2012 at the age of 94.   His uncle also headed the minister's organization he now chairs.

But Miller and the Baptist Ministers Association of Houston And Vicinity. were on the wrong side of this as Councilmember C.O Bradford correctly called it, an international human rights fight.  My inquiring TransGriot mind along with other human rights minded African-American Houstonians and our allies want to know why. 

I damned sure want to know why as part of the group of people you and your right wing friends demonized in the Houston transgender community (and sadly continue to do so). 

I and my fellow trans Houstonians saw this as a life and death issue, and we fought like hell to debunk the lies and ensure the HERO passed.

I'm also part of the community who has the moral high ground in this HERO human rights struggle, not you.


You lending your name Rev. Miler and the Baptist Ministers Association to the HERO.opponents was disappointing and problematic.    I ask why were you part of an unholy bargain with conservative white evangelical fundamentalists and gay baiters like Dave Welch and Dave Wilson?  

Surely you can't be that obtuse to not be aware of the fact Welch, Wilson and the Pastors Council are part of a Republican Party apparatus and conservative movement that seeks to roll back all the civil rights progress your uncle fought to help achieve in Houston and Texas?


Why has your group, that you are the head of, spent money on Majic 102 commercials that violate Exodus 20:16, and more importantly, if you aren't spending your own money for those anti-HERO commercials, who is providing you with the money to do so?

I'll definitely be coming up with more questions as my inquiring mind ponders them, but the main one I'd like an answer to is this one:

Why are you Rev Miller selling out our Houston African-American community by actively working to oppose a human rights ordinance that protects 15 categories of Houstonians and visitors to our city?

Black America, Stop Hatin' On Black Transwomen

I've been discussing this subject in various posts ever since TransGriot first started in 2006.  Sadly I'm still talking about it eight years later and in last month's column at Black Girl Dangerous.   

Once again, I'm compelled to discuss Black America's culpability in the anti-trans hatred aimed at Black transwomen.  

One of the things I and the Black trans feminine  community are sick of is the rampant ignorance and transphobia in elements of the African-American community.   Far too often the people who have been dissing, oppressing or killing us have been other African-Americans.    

The security guard that jumped off the disrespect of Andraya Williams on the Central Piedmont Community College campus in Charlotte back in March was survey says, an African American cis woman.   The 12 murders of African American transpeople (Evon Young was a trans man) that occurred in 2013 were all perpetrated on us by other African-Americans.  Much of the anti-trans hatred and violence Black trans women have to deal with as demonstrated in this recent case in the ATL comes from our own people.

And yeah, need to point out some of that anti-trans oppression has been coming from elements of the Black SGL community.   Y'all seriously need to chill out with that crap. 

Note to you chocolate faith-based trans haters:  Your religious beliefs do not justify willful faith-based hatred and ignorance of the reality that Black trans people exist and have for decades.  

Black cis women, a special message for you.  

If you're jealously mad because some random transwoman is performing femininity better than you are, pulling more 'menz' at the club or in the hood, I suggest you step up your own femme presentation game and stop shadily setting up the transwoman in question for harassment or anti-trans violence.  

We transwomen are simply trying to live our lives to the best of our ability.  We have to deal with the same challenges you do in navigating a planet hostile to Blackness in a Black feminine body.  We have an additional challenge of navigating society and this planet as trans women of African heritage.  

We don't want drama with you, cis Black women.  We want to live our lives united in sisterhood as the Black women we've always wanted and are proud to be.  Instead of succumbing to the people trying to drive wedges between us to make us adversarial opponents, we would rather be fighting the common systemic problems that ail all Black women. 

If you cis sisters take the time and make the effort to get to know us trans women, you'll discover you'll be rewarded with a solid friendship in the process.  You'll also discover some of the issues we deal with are remarkably similar.   We may not have been born with female bodies at birth like you were, but we did have our versions of girlhood and tried to become the Phenomenal Black Transwomen we are as fast as we could.

Whatever issues you cispeeps have going on in your life doesn't justify you taking them out on Black transwomen with your tongues, fists or weapons.  We in Chocolate Trans World have enough drama to deal with just for being our trans selves, plus the onerous application of racist oppression we all get. We don't need an additional helping of hostility, disrespect and dehumanization from the people we share bloodlines, African heritage and history with.    

Bottom line is we realize that many of you aren't cognizant of the fact you know a transperson or have one in your family.  But the odds are you have bumped into one of us somewhere during your daily routine.  You have pooped or pissed next to one of us in a public bathroom.  You have passed us at the mall makeup counter. You've checked us out in the club. You have walked past us as we are busy studying in the library for our midterms.

As for those of us who are publicly out, we range from models to New York Times bestselling authors, MMA fighters, a GLAAD media award nominated blogger, academics, and an actress on a historic cover of TIME magazine.     

At least 1-3% of the African-American population is transgender.  We've been part of this community for over a century and aren't going away any time soon.  Human rights for transpeople are also international human rights issues that benefit the ongoing human rights struggle of the African-American community we interact and intersect with. 

Neither are we transpeeps going back in the closet so you can avoid talking about us or our issues.   

And what are our issues?   In addition to the ones unique to our community, they are same ones the Black community deals with.   Crushing unemployment or underemployment.  Voter suppression.  Unacceptable levels of violence being aimed at us.  Stop and frisk police harassment.  Being targets for anti-female violence and sexual assault.  Body image issues.

Black trans issues are Black community issues.   It's past time Black politicians, our legacy organizations such as the NAACP, the Urban League and our clergy recognize that.   It's also past time for cis African-Americans to realize we trans peeps have much to contribute in order to make Black America, our country and the world better.  

We chocolate transpeeps realize that Trans 101 education needs to be done in our communities and at our HBCU's.  But that's not an excuse for you to not do any 'ejumacation' on your own.  There's this wonderful technological invention called Google  easily available on your computers that you can use to get better informed about our trans lives.
 
It's past time, Black America, that you started loving me and my transsisters instead of knee-jerk hating us.

The 4 Year Old African-American Genius

Anala Beevers of New Orleans is just a precocious four years old, but at just 4 months of age she was learning the alphabet, counting in Spanish at eighteen months, knows the location and capital of all 50 US states and many of the world's nations and can identify the planets and dinosaurs.

Hmm, that makes her way smarter than 47 US senators, 234 US congressmen, 4 US Supreme Court justices and her state's current governor.

Anala also has an invitation to join MENSA, the international organization for super smart individuals that requires a comprehensive standardized Q test and a 130 or better IQ to get in.  .

MENSA menbership is much older than Anala and claims people with intelligence that are in the top 2% of the world's population.  Anala is in the top 1% with a 145 IQ.   I'm a slacker compared to her, because the last time I took one a few years ago I tested out at a mere 118. 

But raising an exceptionally smart child can be a challenge.  Her mom Sabrina says that Anala is 'always correcting their grammar' and dad Landon says 'she keeps us on our toes'.

At a time when African-Americans are once again getting bashed in the conservamedia, this child genius is a breath of fresh air in a stale racist conversation of negativity about us as African-descended people.

And sadly, note in the various articles about her on the Net the racist comments in the threads . 
. 
She's aware of her intellectual gifts and when you ask her she wants to be when she grows up, her answer is a nurse.  While the nursing profession may be happy to hear that, I think as she gets older that career choice might be subject to amendment.

Why The Unacceptable Levels Of Anti-Trans Violence Aimed At Us?

Danielle King touched upon the frustration and anger we all feel about Bree Wallace, another Black transwoman being viciously attacked last Friday morning in the Washington DC area and us being beyond sick and tired of being sick and tired about it.  

I'm also praying along with the DC trans community and her sisters around the world for Bree's swift recovery from her injuries.


Someone asked in the comments on my Facebook page why we African-American transwomen (along with our trans Latina sisters) are facing unacceptable levels of anti-trans violence, and I submit it's multiple factors playing into this.

*The anti-trans hate speech regurgitated by TERF's, conservative religious groups and Fox Noise.
*The meme injected into American society since slavery that a Black life isn't worth that much or as important as a white one and a trans life is even less important.
*The lack of visibility and respect for trans people of color inside and outside our community.   
*The outright media disrespect for Black trans women as exemplified by the Cleveland Plain Dealer's journalistic hate crime aimed at Cemia Acoff.
*Black trans women getting killed or having anti-trans violence aimed at them and the perps either never getting arrested for it or when they do, getting little or no jail time for it or getting acquitted.

If you don't think that DC cop Kenneth Furr getting off for discharging his service revolver at three transwomen didn't play into this or the fact that I as of yet can't hit Bing or Google and find any information about Gary Niles Montgomery's trial for killing Deoni Jones, you are sadly naive.

There's a perception that it's open season on Black transwomen in DC and beyond, and too many people and our legacy orgs have been cricket chirping silent about it.  Time for that sorry dynamic to change ASAP. 

Bottom line is that the POTUS and FLOTUS need to know about it.  The Congressional Black Caucus.   The NAACP.  The Urban League.  Our national, state and local politicians.  Every organization in Black America and our people need to be aware that Black trans women are catching hell besides TPOCC and the National Black Justice Coalition.

Why?  Because Black trans issues are Black community and Black LGBT issues.  What affects us also affects the entire African-American community and vice versa. 


And yes, Black SGL community,  let me repeat what I just said in that last sentence in terms of Black trans community issues being Black LGBT issues because some of your Black trans sisters also intersect and interact with the LGB and same gender loving end of the community.

Black LGB community, you will also need to do your part as well of being standup allies for us just as we are for you instead of elements of you trying to suck up to the Gay, Inc power structure that hates you just as much as they hate us. 

And my beautiful Black transsisters, yes I understand your concerns, but visibility is what will ultimately stop this wave of anti-trans violence directed at us, not hiding in the closet and cowering in fear.  That's what the haters want so they can deny we exist.  

It's nation time, Black trans women.  It's us being out, proud and open about our lives that will eventually stem the  tide of anti-trans violence along with us interacting with all the communities we intersect and interact with.  

We Black trans women have to come to grips with the fact we are walking targets for anti-female violence and sexual assault.  We must be hyper vigilant about our surroundings and the situations we potentially end up in.   One small lapse in that vigilance can result in us being seriously injured or having our names read at the next Transgender Day of Remembrance memorial ceremony.   

We have had three African-American trans women killed this year and all were under age 30. There is a pattern of anti-trans violence and disrespect in DC that Earline Budd alluded to that has existed since the mid 90's. That's gotta end.

What also has to end is nobody caring about a Black trans woman unless they need her in a photo to prove their organization is diverse or they want to use us as bargaining chips to pass GL rights only legislation.

I can write about what happens to African-American trans women every day, but if you aren't sharing my TransGriot posts or talking about it, the news doesn't get disseminated. To borrow a slogan from the ACT-UP era, Silence=Death     

Your votes also put those national, state and local politicians in office.  Let them and the folks in these organizations know this is an unacceptable situation and ask them what concrete steps will they be taking to help stem the tide of anti-trans violence aimed at African-American trans women.   If they try to spin their way out of it, don't accept that.

I want you 40 and under African-descended transwomen to not only enjoy your lives, but know what it's like to get to my age so you can be mentors to the next generation of trans women.

It's why I want to do my part to ensure the unacceptable levels of anti-trans violence aimed at African-American trans women in DC and elsewhere in this country ends as expeditiously as possible.