I Don't Hate WWBT's, I Hate Your Vanillacentric Doctrine

Over the weekend I actually tried to have a dialogue with a transsexual separatist on a Facebook trans group to find out for myself why they have their panties in a bunch over the transgender umbrella.  

The person I had the discussion with was one who had been kicked out of her home for being trans, admittedly had a sixth grade education and a hard life.  But that's no excuse for her obviously having a problem with award winning chocolate trans me being in this discussion. 

Despite me picking up on the bigotry in her comments, I tried to let it slide and attempted to focus on the discussion until she accused me of  'playing the race card'.   At that point I had enough of playing nice with her azz and dropped 50 megatons of knowledge on her behind.   She responded in typical WWBT fashion by tossing out the 'Moni is fixated on race' spin line, misgendering me and then when I called the person on her BS flee from the conversation while attempting to cry white women's tears .

As I've said and noted before in numerous posts about the TS separatists or as I call them the White Women Born Transsexual, they have a major problem with any transperson who doesn't think like they do or questions the genitalia=gender 'true transsexual' medical model.  

They especially have a problem if the transsexual who has a contrarian opinion is intelligent, non-white, proud of her heritage and is not going to bow down or stifle what she has to say in deference to them.

The fact that I am a longtime Trinity Award winning Black trans leader making the same arguments many of my white trans counterparts do with an Afrocentric twist in favor of an inclusive and expansive transgender umbrella and definition of transsexual makes it too damn easy for white TSers to revert to their old vanillacentric bag of silencing tricks and attempt to dismiss what I have to say.

They claim I hate then, attempt to use conservafool projection tactics to hide the bigotry and vanillacentric privilege, 'mud slinging' or try to paint me as 'angry'.  Every time I try to reach out individually to some of them it results in transsexual separatists disrespecting me, silencing attempts, outright racist slurs and bigotry aimed at me.  They also like to deploy a new trick they picked up in trying to use the 'white women's tears' gambit.   

As we say in the Lone Star State, that dog won't hunt.

As I said in that long ongoing thread, I'm not 'throwing around a card'. I'm speaking truth about my chocolate trans life and you refuse to hear it.  I get tired as a POC transperson of having that charge leveled at me in mixed racial company discussions because my truth does not and will not always neatly line up with yours because of the reality that my trans experience is filtered through the prism of me growing up Black in America.

And some of y'all can't handle that truth.

Race and class and the inequalities they cause exist in trans world along with white privilege and only a fool would deny that reality.

While having discussions about labels that affect all of us in the trans community, it is illogical to have a discussion that attempts to reimage any term applicable to the overall transgender community without having non-white transpeople and our leaders front and center in that discussion especially in light of the fact it has been POC transpeople's blood that has disproportionately been shed in this march for trans human rights.  

Some of those leaders that we in POC trans communities choose to take part in those discussions will not be palatable to you, but that's your problem, not ours.  

News flash:  In the second decade of the 21st century trans POC's have the talent, education and ability to hold thought leadership positions in this community.  You don't like that new paradigm, too damned bad.

Translation: to break it down for you WWBT's the discussions about trans labels that impact all of our lives as ttranspeople isn't going to be a whites-only party and y'all need to get over it..

I'm making it abundantly clear where I stand and you can run tell that to the rest of WWBT World and your radical lesbian separatist allies like the Exterminationalist Twins where I stand.

I hate your WWBT doctrine, the racist memes you're pushing, and the failure to realize that transpeople have 'been there done that' when it comes to the medical model.  It didn't work from the 1950's to the 1980's and it damned sure isn't going to work in the 2K10's.

I don't hate you TS separatists individually, I despise your selfish vanillacentric doctrine. 

I have to ask the question once again.  If you hate the transgender label and the community that has been coalescing and evolving around it, why stay in a community you loudly hate since you're women now? 

You are free to leave, adhere to the failed medical model of transsexuality and go on your quixotic mission of chasing pseudo-cisgender status. 

What I'm saying about you are some of the same things we've been saying in the Black Trans Revolution Will Not Be Televised discussions we in chocolate transworld have been having for years about TS separatism. I'm just the one who is in the position and ain't 'scurred' to bring that hard dose of reality to your behinds in living color, pun intended.

And you and your separatist buds can hate that all you want.

I don't hate WWBT's, I hate your vanillacentric exclusionary doctrine you're trying to pimp.

Leave It To Whoopi Goldberg To Defend Blackface

Guest Post from Renee of Womanist Musings, who is all that and four bags of ketchup flavored chips.

Watching The View this morning, I was given yet one more reason to wish that Goldberg came with a mute button.  You know it's a bad day, when you find yourself saying thank heaven for Sherri Sheppard.

It all began when Whoopi Goldberg brought up the incident in which 6 Southern Miss Sorority girls were suspended for wearing Blackface to dress as the Huxtable family, from the 80's sitcom The Cosby show for Halloween.

"Though it is clear that these women had no ill intent, it was also clear that they had little cultural awareness or competency, and did not understand the historical implication of costuming in blackface," Dean of Students Eddie Holloway said in a news release.

What "probation" means exactly is unclear. Phi Mu Fraternity National President Kris Bridges said Phi Mu does not make public specific disciplinary actions taken against individuals.

Bridges said in a news release that she is "deeply disappointed" in the actions of the girls but added she does not believe they had any "malicious intent."

"That is why some of the sanctions the members will face will include opportunities for education on this topic," she said.

Chapter sanctions include diversity and cultural competency educational requirements, including the sponsorship of a campuswide program with a nationally known speaker on diversity appreciation. (source)

I think to most people, dressing up in Blackface is understood as an instant no no, but there are others who always seem to find a reason to defend it and they are not always White, as the following transcript from this mornings segment of the view will show.

Whoopi: I think it's bull. They weren't out there with big red lips and walking around like they used to do in the old days. That's now what they were doing. They were doing a show, that was actually on tv, that had an entire Black family.  Now, when I did the queen of England at the Oscar[s], isn't that the same thing?
Behar: What do you mean, like Blackface?
Whoopi: I was in Whiteface. But the idea that these girls dressed as The Huxtables, feels very different than someone doing, say
Behar: something with the big lips
Walters: Also minstrel shows were banned because they were all so hokey and it was all portraying
Whoopi: Right but that's not what these girls were doing
Walters: But if you're doing Othello and your doing it on stage, and your a White actor, nobody thinks a thing, of if it's halloween and you want to look like - I don't know
Whoopi:  Me
Walters: You know, I think this is when the politically correct goes, this is incorrect.

Okay, so if your intent is not to demean, that supposedly removes all of the history and racism that is encoded with Blackface? Ummm, in a word, NO.  It is not right for a White person to play Othello and it is only recently that Black actors have been given a chance to play this role.  This of course because of discrimination, and so the idea that we willingly accept a White actor in this role ignores the man ways Blacks have been silenced every time we have complained about this.

Sheppard: I got a different about it, I think that - not upset at this girls that they didn't know the cultural references.
Whoopi: which cultural references?
Sheppard: of Blackface, when it was originally done what it meant.
Behar: Do you know what it meant?
Sheppard: When they would do the Blackface and you can correct me if I'm wrong Whoopi, you studied this.  As I understand it, when Blackface was done, it was because Black performers could not perform as themselves and they had to wear cork makeup on their face, so it was saying to them, you're not good enough as you are to perform, because White audiences would not accept Black people performing in the venue
Whoopi: Right
Sheppard: Unless they were in Blackface and Blackface has been taken throughout those years. It takes the most horrible stereotypes of Black people and the cruelest stereotypes and it puts it out there.
Whoopi: Let's be clear that's not what these girls were doing.
Sheppard: that's what I'm saying. If you know the history that Blackface is coming from
Behar: The dean of students - let me read this to you, his name is Eddie Holloway from the university of southern Mississippi. "It was clear that these women had no ill intent, it was also clear that they had no cultural awareness of competency and did not understand the historical implications of costuming." This is at a university. Maybe they should teach them.

This was a great explanation as to why Blackface is wrong.  I absolutely reject the idea that it is a matter of cultural ignorance though. Whiteness has the choice to educate itself about Blacks or live in ignorance, and ultimately many are so wrapped up in their privielge that they don't bother to learn, however the ongoing debate about Blackface is far from obscure.  Blacks are constantly speaking out about how offensive Blackface is and every Halloween their is a round of discussion when invariably some White people thinks that Blackface constitute a costume.

Whoopi: Don't you see that the fact that they dug the Huxtables enough to want to dress like them, says that they have cultural awareness. I'm sorry, but the Huxtables were Black, they were the first whole Black family we ever saw on tv, who actually had jobs on both sides.
Sheppard: If you take the Huxtables, you know Dr. Huxtable, he had this family - they were an affluent, educated Black family.
Walters: Do you think these girls should not have done it? Is that your point?
Sheppard: I think that they were not aware that this is something that causes a lot of emotion in people. You're reducing to me, the Huxtables to this kind of buffonish character
Whoopi: Now hold up, there's a difference between what the Huxtables looks like, and what actual buffonery looks like. Now there's a huge actual difference. Basically what you are saying Sheri, is that no one can put on makeup to darken their skin. Now I know you were darker when you were younger. [addressing Behar]

There is absolutely no reason for a White person to dress up like a Black person. Even if their intent is not mockery or outright racism, you cannot divorce the historical meaning of this action.  It is not a true limitations to White people to avoid Blackface.  The world already caters to them and so the fact that they have to avoid Black characters does not constitute any form of oppression.

Behar: When I went to a party one time, I really went as an African woman. I was wearing what I thought was kind of a deshike kind of thing, the hair came curly and I wore tinted make up on my skin, so I looked a little darker. Now, I thought that was kind of an homage basically to a beautiful - a looked good - to a pretty African woman. I wasn't making fun of anything, I was basically saying look at how good this can look on me, I like that.
Sheppard: And you made a point [addressing Whoopi]  you know how you dressed as the queen of England, you know White face  and I would say to that, White face was never historically meant to oppress White people.
Whoopi: Listen, Black people were infuriated with me that I would do that.
Sheppard: Why?
Whoopi: I don't know. Here's the thing, that means that none of us can ever be anyone historical, we can never be any characters that we see, who are not absolutely Black. I think that it's too limiting.
Walters: and you cannot have a White actor playing Othello.
Whoopi: Yeah, we're going to keep talking about this.

This is the point at which I wish that Goldberg would stop talking about it. Considering that she had a role to play in Ted Danson's Blackface incident, I am hardly surprised that this is the position that she chose to take. Whoopi is the White man's best friend, when it comes to excusing or otherwise justifying racism.  Her position is clearly an example of internalized racism, and I fear that it will be used to justify Blackface in the future.

Her actions are dangerous because they serve to support White supremacy.  What sell-outs like Whoopi fail to acknowledge, is that Whiteness rules with the aid of Blacks exactly like her. Whiteness is highly invested in ensuring that its privilege remains beyond question socially. It further emboldens the ignorance and arrogance that goes into not acknowledging or learning about the historical wrongs committed by Whiteness against Blacks. Essentially, Whoopi's comments make it seem as though Blacks are just ruining simple fun and complaining about nothing.  It's similar to those who charge that historically marginalized people are on a constant mission to look for something to be offended about.

I truly wish that I could ignore every single word that Whoopi says, because she has shown such an extreme amount of ignorance over the years about various subjects.  I cannot afford to sweep her under the rug and forget about her specifically because she is a public figure.  Blacks are not seen as individuals socially, and so even though Sheppard did publicly agree with Goldberg, what will be remembered is what Whoopi had to say, because it was in the service of White supremacy.  Just as many White people turn to people like Obama and Oprah Winfrey to point out how good Blacks have it today, they will turn to Whoopi to defend Blackface.

Toure, Limbaugh And How We Talk About Racism

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

Preach, Toure!   And here's the transcript.

TOURÉ: This week I’m proud to say, Rush Limbaugh called me a racist.

RUSH CLIP: Touré on MSNBC, where the motto is “resist we much.”  That’s right, Touré. For 23 years I’ve been hearing it. Maybe not from you, but people all over your side of the aisle. For 23 years, I’m racist, and I’m not. Never have been. You guys are.

Well, if that’s not a badge of honor, I don’t know what is. When I heard that, I said, “mama, I made it!” But whatever small comical victory that moment represents for me, it’s part of a loss for the country. It shows you the American conversation about race is devolving, because some people want to destroy that conversation.
The absurd idea that we are post-racial has emboldened many to reject the legitimacy of talking about race. To them, discussing race in and of itself is racist, because you’re playing the race card and injecting race into the world, as if it’s not already there.

For some people, racism is a word to fling around in an attempt to distort the meaning of the word and contort the necessary race conversation into meaninglessness. And whenever the conversation is pulled into the gutter of meaninglessness, we all lose.

Because we still have a significant racial problem in this country. We still have much to work on. Racism nowadays is more subtle and nuanced than ever, and that means un-nuanced thinkers like Rush can play easily dumb. “What do you mean I’m racist? I don’t have slaves, I’m not in the klan! What do you mean you experienced racism? You don’t have segregated fountains, you have a black president. Why are you still complaining?”

Well, white privilege is something while people need do nothing to access. White people who aren’t racist still accrue the benefits of being white. This in a world with institutional racism and glass ceilings and white men with felony convictions being more likely to get jobs than black men with clean records — that makes it too much to accept quietly.

While some things have changed so much has not changed. Smart people understand we’ve got to talk about all this.

LOUIS CK CLIP: Oh, god, I love being white. I really do. Seriously, if you’re not white, you’re missing out, because this [bleep] is thoroughly good. But, let me be clear about it. I’m not saying that white people are better, I’m saying that being white is clearly better. Who could even argue?

Pointing out that race still matters isn’t racist any more than bad weather is the fault of the weatherman. I’m not the problem. People who want to destroy the still-necessary American race conversation are a big problem. The refusal to feel white guilt is understandable, but the almost violent use of the word racism to battle against actual instances of racism and pointing out racism and trying to silence those who would call out racism is, in fact, disgusting, and frightening, and that is racism.

DYLAN: And at the end of the day, even in a rant like that, you obviously don’t expect Rush Limbaugh or anybody who has that thought process, that you’re going to persuade them to think differently?

TOURÉ: No, of course not.

DYLAN: At the end of the day, when you look at the conversation we were just having with the Stanford professor that wrote this book, “Rights Gone Wrong,” Richard Thompson Ford, how do we move collectively toward an advocacy where we’re resolving the race conversation in this country, but moving towards an advocacy of equanimity, which is the intention of Civil Rights. The intention is, you and I are equal, and me and him and her are equal, and that is our aspiration. And I guess, quickly, interested in whether you think we’re closer towards that — or moving towards it?

TOURÉ: Are we moving toward it? I don’t know. Is there a desire of certain people to not even have the conversation and not move forward that? Absolutely.  But are we moving toward it? I don’t know.

If You Hate Being Called Racist, Conservative White Males...

Stop engaging in the racist behavior in the first place.  It's that simple a concept, but your WMP wielding behinds have a hard time grasping that simple fact.

You can whine, gripe and complain all you want, your centuries long reputation of gleefully and murderously at times engaging in suppression and the rolling back of the human rights of anyone who didn't share your ethnicity precedes you.

When you wax poetic about the 'Lost Cause', utter rhetoric about how you want to 'take our country back', pass legislation in the name of a political philosophy that only benefits people like you to roll back the voting and human rights of non whites, scream the 'securing our borders' code word, we non-whites that were on the receiving end of your crap have deja vu moments we don't want to revisit and say to ourselves 'There they go again."

And there's the matter of your beyond over the top vitriolic hatred of President Obama that has you so irrationally blinded with vanilla scented WMP to the point that you are willing to destroy this country just to deny him a second term. 

This is the 2K10's. The crap your parents, grandparents and great grandparents perpetrated and got away with isn't going to be tolerated by non-white people any more.

If we're calling you racist, we have a damned good reason for doing so and we don't make that charge lightly despite what they tell you on Fox Noise and 'white wing' talk radio.   As long as you keep engaging in the negative and racist behaviors, keep proposing and passing regressive unjust legislation and making boorish and bigoted remarks we're going to keep calling your behinds out on it until you permanently cease and desist with it.

But we non-white Americans won't hold our breath for that day to come any time soon for you conservative white males.