Why Joan Rivers FLOTUS Comment Was Racistly Insulting

As an unapologetically proud Black trans woman, one of the cornerstones of this blog is working to build self esteem, confidence and pride amongst my sisters in being Black women of trans experience.

Joan Rivers'' transmisogynist comment aimed at First Lady Michelle Obama Wednesday pissed me the hell off on a lot of levels.  Here's why it wasn't humorous nor complimentary

There has been a determined effort by the conservafool slime machine and conspiracy conservawackos  to plant this meme in the media that the 5'11" FLOTUS is a transwoman.   While we in Black trans world would be proud to embrace her as one of our sisters if she was,  there is overwhelming evidence she showed up on this planet on January 17, 1964 in Chicago in a cis female body, has given birth to two beautiful daughters, and has spent the last 50 years of her life in that gender role.

Congratulations Joan, you just did the conservafools dirty work for them by taking that crap our of their cesspools of right wing crazy and injecting it in the mainstream media.

It's infuriating because this First Lady, even before her husband was elected to the Oval Office, has been subjected to unprecedented levels of disrespect up to and being compared to a simian, un-American, 'racist' , 'Stokely Carmichael in a dress', called ugly and having 'that's a man' shade thrown at her by comedian Jay Mohr in 2009. 

And yes, Rivers made a borderline racist 'Blackie O' comment in 2011, so this isn't the first time she's thrown shade at the First Lady.   Now she's weaponized 'transgender' and aimed it at the First Lady as an insult.

Another element of why I'm not happy about the comment is that it plays into the racist four century old pattern of whiteness and white supremacy pushing the unwoman meme that demonizes the femininity of Black women.

If you have a group of women that you put on a societal pedestal as the paragons of beauty, fertility and the femininity gold standard that all women should aspire to, then it stands to reason that you would set up a group of women as the ones to not emulate. 

Unfortunately Black women are the ones who have been saddled with that problematic situation for the last 400 years due to the toxic legacy of the Atlantic Slave Trade.  With Michelle Obama being the defacto public face of Black womanhood as the president's wife, her femininity has been under severe assault.

It also fit into an ongoing pattern of throwing transphobic shade at any Black woman you dislike whether that woman is Fantasia, Serena Williams, Brittney Griner or the FLOTUS.   Any woman who doesn't fit the critic's narrow designation of what a woman is get saddled with transmisogynistic insults or 'that's a man' shade to police her gender presentation.

The fact the comment came out of a white woman's mouth, and one of Jewish heritage who have struggled at times through their own  tortured history with being demonized, also heightened the insensitivity and offense level of Rivers' transmisogynistic comment when seen through the eyes of Black women.

It's also telling to note that Michelle Obama's documented 50 years of life on this space rock, delivering and raising two Black female children of her own and being the First Lady of the United States still didn't shield her from being attacked by the Black Unwoman Meme and having her femininity denigrated. 

And finally, when you look at it from my vantage point as a Black transwoman, I'm pissed off by the comment because it fauxgressively implied to the world by cattily weaponizing transgender as a insult you hurled at the First Lady, that being a transwoman is something to be ashamed of, or makes you less than you as a elderly white woman with multiple surgical enhancements.  

Let me emphatically state it is not insult to be called or something to be ashamed of to be a trans woman. Neither is it shameful to be a Black woman no matter how hard whiteness and white supremacy tries to sell those woof tickets to us. 

The only person that has anything to be ashamed of is Joan Rivers for parting her collagen enhanced lips to say something that jacked up in the first place.

Victoria Carmen White Didn't Deserve To Die

There's a pair of disturbing memes I hear in these trans murder cases like the recently concluded Alrashim Chambers one far too often that deserve to be called out and eviscerated.

They are the ones cispeople frequently peddle that the transwoman in question 'deserved to die' because the transwoman 'deceived' them into spending romantic time with them and the cisman was justified in killing them.

Please.  You cisboys (and cisgirls in some cases) are stepping to us, not the other way around..  Judging by the photos I've posted here of Ms. White, she didn't have to 'deceive' anyone into spending romantic time with her.

But back to the post.  Victoria Carmen White didn't deserve to die because she wanted some romantic attention, Alrashim Chambers' eggshell fragile ego couldn't handle the fact he spent some romantic time with a transwoman and didn't want people to know that.

Well Alrashim, if you thought nobody would find out you boned a transwoman, too late in that regard, playa playa.  The whole planet knows your business now. 


Alrashim Chambers shouldn't have been acquitted, his azz should have been found guilty.  The waste of DNA should be doing time in a New Jersey iron bar motel and looking over his shoulder for the rest of his life wondering if he's going to be getting unwanted romantic attention from some of his fellow prisoners.

Well, have to trust in the moral arc of the universe to work in this case now.   But damn it, I'm beyond sick and tired of being sick and tired of seeing far too many of our young Black transsisters die year after depressing year for just trying to living their lives to the best of their ability and nobody giving a shyt about it.


The jurors in this case get just as much blame for this as Chambers does for committing the original September 12, 2010 crime that landed him in the Essex County Courthouse in the first place. 

I don't doubt that some of that transphobic 'she deserved what she got ' stench permeated the jury and was fed by the ongoing Black 'unwoman' meme that is also violently deployed against African descended transwomen. And yes, I've served on three juries in my lifetime so I know what it's like to have someone's life and freedom on the line based on the decisions you make in a jury deliberation room. 

If you are doing your job properly, you think about that part of your juror's responsibility as you are weighing the evidence presented to you in addition to thinking about the person who is not there to speak for herself in this case in Victoria Carmen White.

The jury failed on both counts.  Justice wasn't served and Chambers got away with murder.  Instead he's walking the streets of Newark as a free man for killing Ms. White. 

Bear in mind Eseex County jurors who served on this case that the man you freed will be trying to pick up your daughters at a New York-New Jersey metro area club near you. 

You also just sent a message to every transperson living in Essex County that it's open season on transwomen and if they are killed, no biggie, player.  They ain't real people, they don't matter, and we'll give you a societal 'get out of jail free' card for doing so 

Victoria Carmen White didn't deserve to die, she deserved justice.   Unfortunately that didn't happen in that Essex County courtroom last week for her and her family.    

Victoria Carmen White mattered to her family, friends, and the people who loved her.  She mattered to her extended national and international trans sisterhood.  She mattered to transwomen of African descent who have depressingly seen and heard this bull feces story far too often inside our community. 

She mattered because her unnecessary death painfully reminds transpeople that no matter what their location on Planet Earth is, no matter if we are trying to positively live our lives, one armed transphobic bigot can end it with little or no legal repercussions.

There but for the grace of God go I.  And every time we transwomen ponder that possibility, it pisses us the hell off.

Christie Vetoes Gay Marriage, Cue The Negative Fatphobic Reaction

Well, well well, isn't this interesting that another white male Republican governor acts as an oppressor to the GL(bt) community and the GL boys and girls are shocked, shocked that it happened.  

And especially the clueless sellouts in GOProud.

Gov. Chris Christie did what Republican governors with a national audience usually do in this situation and vetoed the gay marriage bill a day after the New Jersey legislature passed it by a 41-33 margin in the NJ Assembly and a 24-16 margin in the NJ Senate earlier in the week. 

Elections matter people.   Did you GL peeps in New Jersey (and elsewhere) really think that a northeastern GOP governor that is being considered as a 2012 vice presidential nominee and is a favorite for the 2016 presidential nomination in the Republican Party would sign that bill?   You don't need a doctorate in political science to know the answer to that question.  

And how did the vanillacentric privileged readership in the gayosphere react?   By being justifiably angry about it.  But unfortunately some rainbow peeps stooped to the level of engaging in fatphobic attacks on Christie. 

I was really bothered by one I saw in the Queerty comment threads on the veto story with commenter CBRad combining fatphobia with misgendering bigotry in the insult this waste of DNA aimed at Christie.

No. 12 · CBRad
…he looks like Pam Spaulding in drag .

Posted: Feb 17, 2012 at 7:36 pm · @Reply · [Flag?]

CBRad, this is Pam Spaulding.  The editrix of Pam's House Blend is not only a cis female since it escaped your ignorant attention, she's happily married to her partner Kate as well. 

Note she doesn't look like Chris Christie, especially since she's African-American and he ain't.  She is also one of the people in the Afrosphere I have mad respect for.
.
Even though Pam and I respectfully disagree on just how much attention should be focused on marriage equality in the rainbow civil rights movement vis a vis ENDA and other pressing issues, one thing we see eye to eye on is that we are both proud African-Americans who believe trans and SGL peeps in our community need to be involved in pushing rainbow human rights issues.  

But you misgendering Pam was a low blow I and other African-Americans didn't fracking appreciate.

I'm tired of Black women trans and cis being misgendered and having unwoman shade hurled at them by ignorant people wallowing in vanillacentric privilege. 

It was also uncalled for especially when she's a longtime supporter of marriage equality and ossifies the perception of non-white members of the GLBT community that we are only members of it at your whim or when you want melanin in the photos of your events to prove how diverse you are.    

CBRad, if you and the rest of the like minded GL community peeps want to fling juvenile insults at Chris Christie all day, that's on you.   Still doesn't change the fact he vetoed the NJ marriage equality marriage bill and doesn't get you any closer to making it happen in New Jersey or anywhere else in this nation.  .