Microagression Affects The Trans Community As Well

I've been thinking about the concept of microaggression since it puts a name to something I have experienced as a person of color for much of my life. 

So what's microaggression you ask?   The term was coined by psychiatrist Chester M. Pierce, MD in the 1970's and it's the idea that specific interactions between persons of different races, cultures and genders can be characterized as non-physical aggression.

The concept of microaggressions is also rooted in the work of Jack Dovidio, Ph.D. (Yale University) and Samuel Gaertner, Ph.D. (University of Delaware) in their formulation of aversive racism - many well-intentioned Whites consciously believe in and profess equality, but unconsciously act in a racist manner, particularly in ambiguous situations.

Dr. Derald Wing Sue also breaks it down further into three levels of racial transgressions on the racial microaggression scale.

Microassaults: Conscious and intentional actions or slurs, such as using racial epithets, displaying swastikas or deliberately serving a white person before a person of color in a restaurant.

Microinsults: Verbal and nonverbal communications that subtly convey rudeness and insensitivity and demean a person's racial heritage or identity. An example is an employee who asks a colleague of color how she got her job, implying she may have landed it through an affirmative action or quota system.

Microinvalidations: Communications that subtly exclude, negate or nullify the thoughts, feelings or experiential reality of a person of color. For instance, white people often ask Asian-Americans where they were born, conveying the message that they are perpetual foreigners in their own land.

Micoaggressions can also be gender based as well.   Gender based Microassauts are basically overt sexism but also break down according to Dr. Sue into the following categories.

• Sexual Objectification
• Second-Class Citizenship
• Sexist Language
• Assumptions of Inferiority
• Denial of the Reality of Sexism
• Traditional Gender Role Assumptions
• Invisibility
• Denial of Individual Sexism
• Sexist Jokes

And yes, it's prevalent in the trans community since we are a microcosm of the parent society and I suspect it plays a part in some of the testy drama we have with each other.

Tona Talks About Racism

In her latest Vlog, Tona talks about racism.

Apparently Black Hair Products Justify Racial Segregation

TransGriot Post:  You're going to get a two for one guest blogging holiday treat today. Two of my fave bloggers weighed in on this latest racism eruption in Cincinnati.   Here's Katrina Rose's commentary on the subject and Renee's for your reading pleasure   

Ever since segregation became illegal, there have been some White folks willing to jump on any opportunity to bring it back. Of course, this never makes them racist, because they have some trumped up excuse to explain the need to exclude Blacks.  

CINCINNATI (AP) — A landlord found to have discriminated against a black girl by posting a "White Only" sign at a swimming pool wants a state civil rights commission to reconsider its decision.

The Ohio Civil Rights Commission found on Sept. 29 that Jamie Hein, who's white, violated the Ohio Civil Rights Act by posting the sign at a pool at the duplex where the teenage girl was visiting her parents. The parents filed a discrimination charge with the commission and moved out of the duplex in the racially diverse city to "avoid subjecting their family to further humiliating treatment," the commission said in a release announcing its finding.

An investigation revealed that Hein in May posted on the gated entrance to the pool an iron sign that stated "Public Swimming Pool, White Only," the commission statement said.

Several witnesses confirmed that the sign was posted, and the landlord indicated that she posted it because the girl used in her hair chemicals that would make the pool "cloudy," according to the commission.  (source)

Don't we live in a wonderful post racial world?  I love how people keep trying to claim that things are getting so much better, and yet we have incidents like this continually cropping up. It was just a scant few weeks ago that Hermain Cain Uncle Ruckus, was lecturing Black folks about our failures, and declaring racism a thing of the past, as the GOP clapped happily.  Apparently, Whiteness does not mean to be racist, but they somehow keep coming up with reasons to exclude or oppress us at will.

When I write about Black hair, the usual pain in the asses show up to tell me that my complaints are a figment of my over active imagination, and yet Black hair continues to be a site of oppression for Black women.  I must admit that this is the first time I have seen hair used as an excuse to deny us access to a pool; however, Black hair has been known to lead to problems in employment, as well create the belief in White people that we exist to be petted.  Black hair is continually politicized and created as problematic.  It is simply another tactic of Whiteness to other us.

No matter what the White person looks like, no racially specific characteristics are considered problematic. Whiteness is perceived of as the only acceptable norm in existence. Straight hair is prized and promoted at every turn.  Even things like supposedly innocuous shampoo commercials often feature White women tossing their long straight locks around like it's a gift from heaven.  Whiteness continues to be the standard by which all others are judged, and any failure to comply is quickly subjected to discipline.

What bothers me the most about this is the fact that even those who choose to chemically treat their hair, often end up using very natural products to dress their hair, because Black hair is extremely fragile and breaks easily, for example, if for some reason I use gel, I use aloe vera gel, the very same gel that is used to treat burns. Products designed for Black hair, unless someone is still stuck in the soul glow days (shut up, I know I am aging myself), are specifically designed not to be harsh, but then that landlord would know this, had she bothered to learn the first damn thing about her Black tenants.

I am sure in her mind what she did was not racist, and only had to do with protecting her property, but it still amounts to setting up two different standards and purposefully excluding Blacks from public spaces.  These kinds of attacks dehumanize, and I can completely sympathize and empathize with the young girls parents.  One of the hardest things I deal with as a parent of colour is accepting that no matter how much I love and desire to protect my children, I cannot stop the hatred and bigotry that they will face at the hands of Whiteness.  I don't have the words to describe to you what it feels like to know that your are helpless in the face of this massive systemic force, or the pain that is experienced when you look into the eyes of your child, as you try to explain that to many they are considered less than human.

The stress from dealing with the ongoing onslaught of Whiteness is one of the reasons that Blacks die at a younger age.  Despite all of the consequences that come with racism, Whiteness still fails to take responsibility for its past, and present actions, and instead we are offered meaningless platitudes, and criticized for speaking of racism in systemic ways. One need not hang a sign to say no Blacks allowed to benefit from the action, and this is why Whiteness is culpable as a group.

Teenager Gets Suspended, After Reacting Violently to Ongoing Racist Attacks

Another guest post from my fave north of the border Timmy's Icecap chugging blogger

I have written many times about the struggles my oldest has had negotiating the racism in our small town.  I know that despite the mantra about childhood being a protected class, this definition only applies to White, able bodied, class privileged, cis gendered children.  If you are a child from a historically marginalized group, by the time you get out of diapers, you will have negotiate a discourse which 'others' and erases your humanity.

A Buffalo girls basketball team was suspended after the players allegedly used a racial slur as part of their pregame cheer.

Tyra Batts, the sole African-American on the Kenmore East High School’s squad, told the Buffalo News that her teammates would hold hands before the game, say a prayer and then shout "One, two, three (n------)."

The practice came to light when Tyra was suspended for getting into a fight about the use of racial slurs during practice, according to the newspaper.

She said that she was alarmed by the cheer, but had been outnumbered and told that the use of the slur was just a team tradition.

"I said, 'You're not allowed to say that word because I don't like that word,'" she told the newspaper. "They said, 'You know we're not racist, Tyra. It's just a word, not a label.' I was outnumbered."

The 15-year-old eventually exploded after a practice when a teammate called her a 'black piece of (expletive).’ She says she got into a fight with the girl later in school.

"It was a buildup of anger and frustration at being singled out of the whole team," she told the newspaper.

Tyra’s suspension was shortened after the principal learned of the racial allegations. At least a dozen girls were suspended. (source)

Gee, wasn't it nice of school officials to shorten her suspension.  Certainly, such magnanimous behaviour must be noted and celebrated.  They even went as far as to suspend the girls who were taunting Tyra Batts, and so I suppose all's well that ends well right?  What I want to know is where were the adults while the girls where screaming, "one, two, three nigger"?  I find it hard to believe that each and every single one of these chants happened in isolation. If these girls felt comfortable saying what they did, it can only be because there is a culture of racism alive and well in that school.  The girls who were suspended will serve their time, and life will go on for them, but it is Batts who will have to have to live with lasting effects of their racist assault. Unfortunately, Batts will join the ranks of Black children who have learned at the hands of Whitness that the colour of their skin determines their worth in a White supremacist world.


It enrages me that these girls could use a word like nigger and then claim not to be racist.  Nigger is not now, or ever will be just a word.  There is a long history of dehumanization and oppression that is attached to the word nigger.  The very fact that they felt that they could hold a vote to over rule the feelings of the only African American player speaks volumes.  Today, Whiteness acts as though being called a racist, is worse than living with the hatred of racism.  The word racist has become ugly, even as Whiteness acts in racist ways everyday, without ever acknowledging their behaviour for what it is. The following are but a few of the excuses that I hear on a regular basis:

• I didn't mean to be racist
• you're reading too much into things
• you're being too sensitive
• my best friend was Black in high school
• I don't see race/colour
• You're the one that's racist for interjecting race in the conversation
• I didn't know that was racist
• Why does it always have to be about race?

The bottom line always comes down to the fact that the average White person does not what to confront the ways in which they both live in privilege and support White supremacy. This school did nothing to protect this young girl, and then to have the nerve to punish her for acting in self defense is inexcusable. I have yet to read a call for accountability for the school.   It is inconceivable to me that hearing the chant of nigger and being called a Black piece of shit, could be construed as anything less than verbal violence.  How many times was the young girl assaulted before she finally lost her temper?

Over the years, Whiteness has co-opted much of the  Dr. King's pre 1963 message (note: post 1963 Dr. King was far more radical) because it makes them comfortable, and they love the idea that people of colour will peacefully turn the other cheek.  Not everyone can, or will turn the other cheek.  If we examine the history of violence between Whites and Blacks, Whiteness has by far exceeded us with it barbarity and desire to express power corrosively.  It is this knowledge that causes so many to fear a reckoning and it is this fear that is the basis for Batts continued suspension.  In short, Whiteness fears accountability, and that is why Batts is being punished for her act self defense.