Top GOP Congressional Leaders No Show Selma 50 Event

For those people, especially in Conservaworld and even the liberal ranks who don't understand why I have an intense dislike for the Republican Party, it's simple.

The Republicans hate me and my people.

I'll repeat it for you again if you think Moni was kidding about what I just wrote in that last sentence and write it in bold print for you this time:  The Republicans hate me and my people.

You would think that a part that bristles at the commentary I and other African-Americans inside and outside the TBLGQ community that they are racist, bigoted toward African-Americans, anti-Black, (fill in the blank), you would think they would jump at opportunities to at least symbolically show African-Americans they aren't as bad as we say they are.

But the Selma 50 event came and went without an appearance from top GOP leaders like Speaker of the House John Boehner, Sen Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and House Majority Klansman, er Whip Steve Scalise or their leading candidates for the GOP 2016 presidential nomination.

And naw, I don't want to hear any false equivalence grousing pointing out some Democratic leaders didn't show up either.

It ain't the Democrats who are gleefully saying racist crap on an almost daily basis or passing repressive legislation, that's all on you Republicans.   

Hell, it would have been more shocking to me if they had shown up, seeing that their party has made attacking the Voting Rights Act one of the centerpieces of conservative movement activity over the last 50 years.

So the next time I or anyone else in Black America calls you out on your racism and your blatantly anti-Black commentary, demagoguery, laws and policies detrimental to our community, I don't want to hear a mumbling FOX broadcast word in protest of it.  

And don't be surprised when I look at you funny when you say you're a proud Republican.

You Republicans and the conservafool movement as a whole are the party of white supremacy, and it's past time that people call them on it and vote accordingly.

When Is Vandalism NOT Vandalism?

When white kids engage in it.

In our latest episode of White Privilege Gone Wild, several University of Michigan fraternities and sororities did their best Animal House impressions and trashed two ski resorts in Gaylord and Harbor Springs, MI during the January 16-18 weekend.

At the Treetops resort in Gaylord, 120 members of the Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity and Sigma Alpha Tau sorority did $50,000 in what was termed significant damage.  

They were staying in 45 rooms at the resort and according to reports, damaged hallway ceiling tiles, broke windows, broke and damaged furniture, ripped lights out of fixtures and generally left the place a filthy mess before they were escorted by Michigan State Police off the property.

Meanwhile at the Boyne Highlands resort in Harbor Springs, the Pi Kappa Alpha and Chi Psi frats and the Delta Gamma and Alpha Psi sororities were merrily engaged in destroying furniture and fixtures, putting holes in the drywall, broke doors and ruined carpet in the 12 condo units they were renting to the tune of several thousand dollars.

The resorts are considering filing charges in the wake of this incident, the Michigan State Police are still investigating, and the University of Michigan Greek Life office is still doing their own investigation that could result in sanctions for the orgs involved.

"The entire University of Michigan community is deeply saddened by the actions of some of our students last weekend at two northern Michigan ski resorts," said UM spokesperson Rick Fitzgerald

"The damage caused by out-of-control students fueled by excessive alcohol consumption at Treetops Resort and Boyne Highlands is an affront to the thousands of respectful, hard-working students on our campus."

The Sigma Alpha Mu chapter national office has suspended the chapter indefinitely as chapter president Joshua Kaplan issued an apology for the actions of their off the chain members

But it was interesting to note in the comment sections of the stories about the college students gone wild, how quick people were to try to excuse their behavior.   Non-whites in those story comment threads pointed out that if these had been Black kids or Black Greek orgs, those resorts probably wouldn't have waited until Sunday to call the po-po's, and you can bet those kids wouldn't have been politely escorted off the property by the Michigan State Police.

A Black frat or sorority engaged in the same level of nekulturny behavior would have had the cops called on them as soon as the music got too loud.    The state police would have showed up with guns drawn, hauled people off to jail upon arrival and the resorts would have immediately filed charges.

FOX Noise would be putting this story on an endless loop, calling the kids 'thugs and hooligans' as they did so, castigated their parents, dissed the frats and sororities, injected the arrest mugshots in the story and gleefully used it to race bait the entire Black community.

They would have also found some kind of way to blame President Obama for it.

We'll be watching in Black America to see what actually happens to these affluent frat and sorority kids that were involved in this reprehensible incident, but we're pessimistically expecting that affluenza and white privilege will prevail as we wait for Bill O'Reilly, Geraldo Rivera  and Sean Hannity to call out the bad behavior on their shows.

But judging by what we've observed from the justice system over the last few months, we have a reason to be pessimistic.

Seriously? Cops Justified In Shooting a 12 Year Old?

If you want to know why I call the police forces in this country the stormtroopers of white supremacy and Black America is still singing NWA when it comes to the po-po's, hope you had a chance to check out the jacked up interview on MSNBC last night with Cleveland Police Union President  Jeffrey Follmer.

He whined about Cleveland Browns players wearing 'Justice For Tamar Rice' shirts before their game with the Bengals on Sunday, but had no empathy for parents worried that their kids would be the victims of a shooting by out of control white cops.

"How about this? Listen to police officers commands, listen to what we tell you, and just stop," Follmer said during the interview "I think that eliminates a lot of problems. I have kids too, they know how to respect the law. They know what to do when a police officer comes up to them.

"I think the nation needs to realize that when we tell you to do something, do it, and if you're wrong you're wrong, and if you're right, then the courts will figure it out."

How about this Officer Follmer?  How about weeding the racist cops out of your departments instead of protecting them?   How about you and your fellow trigger happy white cops who have the same dismissive and racist attitudes, stop treating all Black people like suspects.

You also need to consider that this negative drama between white cops and Black people goes back over 50 years and we're beyond sick and tired of it.

Why Y'all So 'Scurred' Of Black Trans People Owning Their Power?

So white transpeeps, the attack on Janet Mock and other Black trans leaders 'isn't about race'?   Bull feces.  

Peep this comment from transman Mark Angelo Cummings:

I am seeing a very strange twist in our community, and why are we all of a sudden admiring individuals who have recently come out as advocates with little to no experience in that role. One is an actress, the other stealth for many years working at Peoples magazine behind a cubicle and now decides to write a book and is identifying as a fierce advocate? Both trans woman of color, which seems to be a very prominent twist these days as if they are the only ones in the trans community who have suffered and constantly harp on how bad they have it, leaving behind the rest of us. Separating themselves, creating their own groups and associations and hijacking the community at large.

Now all of sudden we see this rage, this uproar, this hatred towards "Cis" Gender individuals, there years of hurt is coming out in their attempt to advocate and it is creating one ugly picture. in addition, they are leading a war path, a path that will lead us into an abyss. I believe we need to stop this movement before it back fires and redirect our efforts to showing love and compassion and stop seeing color.... Mark Angelo Cummings.

Strange Mark?  The question I have to ask is why are you (and white transpeople in general) feeling threatened by the ascendance of an intelligent masters degree wielding Black transwoman who OWNS HER POWER?   

I note the only people in Trans World who have been trashing Janet ever since your 'ally' Piers Morgan led the attack to 'deal with her'  have predominately been white.

By coming out, Janet and Laverne's ascendancy not only gave our community possibility models they can be proud of and point to, they have opened the doors to a sorely needed dialogue (like the one I had in Houston at the Montrose Center last night) in the Black cis and SGL community about trans issues.  

How is that 'a problem' or 'a threat'?   

I and other Black trans leaders don't see it that way.   We have been asking for years to be included in trans leadership ranks that look like a Republican Party convention and you keep ignoring or dismissing our concerns and requests to do so.  We are suffering with a 26% unemployment rate in Black Transworld and near genocidal levels of anti-trans violence being aimed at us that needs to be dealt with now, not 5, 10 or 50 years from now.    

For the last 61 years the trans narrative has centered on whiteness.  The transfeminine one has like in the parent society, white transwomen being the penultimate in beauty and femininity while Black transwomen are belittled, denigrated and murdered along with our trans Latina sisters.

Don't even get me started about how the transmasculine conversation has been centered on whiteness as well when media time does get allocated to talk about it

Now that you see Black transpeople confidently owning their power, have our own heroes and sheroes we can point to with pride, having their own conventions and TDOR events, have people like Kortney and my GLAAD Media Award nominated self and other video bloggers discussing our issues from an Afrocentric perspective, beginning to be supported by Black mainstream advocacy orgs like the NAACP and our SGL allies in the National Black Justice Coalition, you delusionally see this as 'cis' hatred and something that 'needs to be stopped'?

Seriously?   Have a seat Mark (and 'errbody' else in White Transworld who shares that jacked up opinion) and drink a nice tall Southern sweet tea flavored glass of STFU.

Laverne and Janet are in the media eye.   They are sheroes to a Black trans community that for the first time ever has out trans spokespeople who share their ethnic heritage.  We are reclaiming and talking about our trans history.   Dr. Kortney Ryan Ziegler is not only writing critical essays on his GLAAD nominated blac(k)ademic blog but has created the Trans* H4CK that seamlessly combines a hackathon with trans social justice.   Dee Dee Watters in Houston successfully organized the first ever Black trans organized TDOR.   Trans 100 honoree Carter Brown's Black Transmen, Inc is holding another BTAC Conference in April with a multicultural list of presenters and speakers while his org is helping Black transmen organize and own their collective power.   

And how is Black trans people showing pride in being Black and trans, doing for self and building institutions and community infrastructure similar to the ones that white transpeeps have enjoyed for decades 'hijacking the movement'?  You are clueless or have been standing in the Florida sun for too damned long if you think that way. 

I don't see that as a threat or something that 'needs to be stopped', I see it as something that is long overdue. It is also a breath of fresh air in a trans movement that for six decades has been far too focused on whiteness. and the desire of elements of the white trans community to regain their lost white privilege at POC transpeople's expense.

Not like Moni didn't warn y'all on the pages of this blog for years the Black Trans Revolution was coming. 

Bottom line is that we're beyond tired of the invisibility and it's time for the chocolate trans community to do what our Black sisters did in the late 80's and early 90's when they separated themselves from a similar jacked up situation in the feminist ranks.    TransGriot March 29, 2011

As Kwame Ture said, "In order to participate in the greater society, you must first close ranks." 

I also see this as the long overdue awakening of Black trans people finally doing what our parents, grandparents and great grandparents did decades ago when faced with the same intransigent racism in our parent society.  Because of your lack of vanillacented privileged wisdom, it was made necessary for African-American transpeople to tell our stories, do community building and close ranks.to build our own community so that we as free human beings have options.

And you have no one to blame but yourselves for this development.  We warned you that if something wasn't done about trans leadership ranks that resembled a GOP convention and you kept ignoring our pleas to change that and share the responsibility of leading this diverse community, the day was going to happen that we made our own damned tables and we wouldn't care if you liked it or not. 

As I've said on multiple posts here on this blog and on countless discussion Internet threads inside and outside the trans community for over a decade in various ways, race matters, even in the trans community.

We Black transpeople do not have the luxury of separating our race and ethnicity from our trans status because they are inextricably part of us.   We also get reminded of the kente cloth woven ties we have to the Black community every time we get whacked by the same microaggressive and macroaggressive bull feces whiteness and white supremacy aims at the entire community.

I am Black first, trans second.  If I had any doubts about where I stand in that regard as a member of the trans community, I get a reminder of it every time I call out the bigoted and racist bull feces that occasionally pops up in our trans community ranks and you angrily hiss back I'm 'angry' or 'playing the race card' for simply for being willing to call your unacknowledged white privileged behinds out.

Your White Privilege Rewards Card isn't the platinum one mind you, it just got downgraded to one with a transgender flag sticker on it. 

It was past time for Black transpeople to close ranks, lift each other up as white transpeople have done for the last six decades, have those trans conversations in our Black SGL and cis communities, and do the education because we are the people best suited to discuss trans issues in our community. 

Having a strong, confident, politically aware and vibrant Black trans community telling our stories strengthens the entire pink, white and blue flag waving trans community as a whole.  It also strengthens our Black cis and SGL communities and any other one we choose to ally with. 

We in Black Transworld will choose who our heroes and sheroes are and the people that we consider leaders in it.   You don't like who we choose, tough.   But you are on notice White Transworld that we will not stand by and sit on our hands when you unjustly attack our leaders, and you do so at your peril.  . 

If you fear the rise of the New Black Transwoman and the New Black Transman because of your unacknowledged privilege, have several seats.  You can #bemad and #staymad about it.

We would rather work together to build community with our white trans brothers and sisters and our cis, bi  and SGL allies to advance our common goal of human rights for all.  

But we Black transpeople will no longer do so as a disrespected junior partner that you throw under the bus every time our opponents wave an opportunity in front of your noses to get your lost platinum white privilege levels back.   
 

Piers Morgan Is STILL Tripping

The BS continues from Piers Morgan, who let his vanillacentric cisprivilege take over and continue his attacks in the wake of his first jacked up CNN interview with Janet Mock.  She called him out about it, and he then went on the counterattack on Twitter.

Hell, if this is an example of you being an ally, I damned sure wasn't feeling the love (and neither was much of the trans community and our true allies) after watching the two train wreck interviews that I can confidently say probably won't be nominated for GLAAD Media Awards.  .

And frankly, Piers Morgan claiming that trans people are 'cisphobic' is as laughable as the right wing conservatives polluting his network and elsewhere who claim that people of color calling them on their bull feces is 'reverse racism.'

The thing that has pissed the trans community off about both these interviews is that Piers not only didn't listen, he kept interrupting Janet. Then to add insult to injury, Morgan had the nerve in his vanilla scented privileged arrogance to claim that he was not only an ally, but we should be grateful for the TV interview time.

It's the optics of this interview that set many of us off, and especially those of us in the trans POC community.

And once again, what sets us off is that far too many people, especially in the media, focus and obsess on that past prior to our body morphing and use it to erase the people we have evolved to become now.
  
If you claim that you respect and admire the person that Janet (or any transperson) is now, what her birth name was or what genitalia she's packing in her panties shouldn't matter to you unless you want to date her, and she already has a man who loves her.  

All that should matter is the content of our characters, how we treat you as a fellow human being in 2014 and beyond, not when we came out of the birth canal decades ago.

As A White LGBT Person, You STILL Have More Privilege Than A POC TBLG Person Ever Will

Your White Privilege Rewards card just comes with a rainbow sticker on it.  But it still functions the same way.

As Kenyon Farrow (who I had the pleasure of meeting at OUT on the Hill 2012)  wrote back in 2005 in an essay entitled “Is the Gay Marriage Movement Anti-Black?”

While homophobia in the black community is certainly an issue we need to address, blacks of all sexualities experience the reality that many white gays and lesbians think that because they’re gay, they “understand” oppression, and therefore could not be racist like their heterosexual counterparts. Bull____. America is first built on the privilege of whiteness, and as long as you have white skin, you have a level of agency and access above and beyond people of color, period. White women and white non-heteros included.

You most certainly do.  Being part of the TBLG community doesn't change that basic fact you still benefit from white privilege even if it is not quite at the same level it would have been if you were straight.   And deep down you know it too and act like it in TBLG community circles. 

Kenyon Farrow and I aren't the only Black LGBT writers who have noted the phenomenon. So did James Baldwin back in the day.  

Baldwin explains in a 1984 Village Voice interview that white LGBTQ men and women feel slighted precisely because they know that had they been straight, they would have been heirs to incomparable privilege. In that interview with Richard Goldstein, then the editor of the Village Voice, Baldwin said, "I think white gay people feel cheated because they were born, in principle, in a society in which they were supposed to be safe. The anomaly of their sexuality puts them in danger, unexpectedly."

Baldwin went on to say:

"Their reaction seems to me in direct proportion to their sense of feeling cheated of the advantages which accrue to white people in a white society. There's an element, it has always seemed to me, of bewilderment and complaint. Now that may sound very harsh, but the gay world as such is no more prepared to accept black people than anywhere else in society."

Nor are they prepared to accept finite disappointment when things don't go their way legislatively.  They are quick in the initial stages to blame things that go wrong toward the achievement of their legislative and policy goals on everybody but themselves as last weekend's events in Illinois are quickly demonstrating.

There were rainbow flavored bigoted to blatantly racist anti-Black comments, calls to frack the Democrats, withdraw their support  from (fill in the blank) to comments about petulantly sitting out the 2014 midterms and irrationally letting the GOP take over.

You don't make those kinds of statements unless you believe you have the power and privilege to carry them out and make them a reality. 

So the next time you claim as a white GLBT person that you don't have vanillacentric privilege, don't be surprised when I and other non-white members of the community give you the side eye or burst out laughing in your face concerning how ridiculous that statement is.
  
Because by dint of your rainbow flag waving self being born with white skin, you'll always carry more privilege than non-white members of the TBLG community. 

New Jersey Teens Create A White Girl Club

Guest post from Renee of Womanist Musings 

I recently came across a story about a group of teens who created a White Girl's Club. The club became so popular that it quickly spread to other schools. Apparently, a group of these young women showed up at school on PI day wearing shirts identifying them as members of this club with a teachers permission no less. The teens communicated using Instagram and Twitter.  

 Another Franklin High School club member commented the club members aren’t offending anyone and tells others to “stfu.”

When another girl commented that the postings were offending people, a club member responded that they weren’t offending anyone.

“You’re choosing to take offense to statements that weren’t about you in the first place,” a club member responded.

Twitter postings by this student included comments such as “Al Sharpton ain’t gonna save your ass now” and “Sometimes I wonder if I crossed a line, but then I remember I’m white and I can do whatever the (expletive) I want.”That same girl sent out a tweet saving “Africa this way” with a arrow pointing down. (source)

Thankfully, the school board is disbanding the club and demanding that those involved get counseling.  The local NAACP is apparently going to investigate the club.  There are some parents speaking out about the club itself, but I am more interested in the parents of the teens involved in the club itself.  You see, attitudes like this don't just develop over night; they are carefully nurtured for years and represent a society which uplifts Whiteness in every agent of socialization.  The families of these girls in particular let them down because they didn't not confront their White privilege and in fact encouraged them to believe and promote their undeserved White privilege.

A White Girl's club is certainly not needed anywhere in North America.  Unsurprisingly, many of the comments on the linked article seek to defend the teams by claiming hypocrisy citing the possible intervention of the NAACP.  A group dedicated to the advancement of Blacks is seen as racist by many of the commenters. Groups like the NAACP can only be deemed problematic by those refuse to admits the historic privilege which Whiteness has lived with for centuries and how this privilege has negatively impacted the lives of POC.  They absolutely refuse to acknowledge that ongoing inequalities exist and claim that the pendulum has swung so far that Whiteness is now in fact systemically under attack.

 In recent years, we have seen an upswing in students wanting to form clubs to support Whiteness, which suggests that youths are being taught that Whiteness is under threat. What they perceive as a threat is actually a fear of a loss of privilege.  The irony is that this loss of privilege is largely in the mind because Whiteness still exists with massive social power and White people can always count on the colour of their skin to grant them access, opportunities, power, and wealth, relative to POC in the exact same circumstance. These children are being taught that they will not be able to benefit from their Whiteness like generations before them.

The idea that Whiteness is a stigmatized and oppressed group is pervasive despite how ridiculous it is. Look for example at some of the comments on, 'White Girls Club' at Franklin High School forced to go to counseling:

notmyidea

How is it the BET ( Black Entertainment Television ) channel exist's with no trouble,but the moment something associated with white people its a big problem? Double standard me thinks...

Eric F

So a group dedicated to "Colored People" is upset and sitting in judgement of a group dedicated to White Girls? Hypocrisy of the highest order. This "counseling" BS needs to be refused by the parents. We don't want your political correctness social engineering garbage.

Tremley

These girls are racial aware! They are more educated on race than most people here making comments! White women who have minority spouses are 12.4 Xs more likely to be murdered by them. Vey little chances of that happening to these girls.

Bob Backlund

So other groups can have appreciation months, tv channels I.e. bet, have groups like NAACP which is all a okay but if a group of girls not harming anyone or inciting violence or harm towards others is in need for counseling because they are proud of their heritage?

Wow.

Ralphie

If a group of students started a Black Girls' Club, or a Muslim Girls' Club, or a Lesbian club, no one would dare touch them.

As disturbing as these comments are, they are hardly surprising.  I want to focus on Ralphie's comments because though short, they are very illustrative.  No matter what marginalized group we are talking about, they are always attacked when they organize. Every June straight people line up to complain about not having a straight pride parade. Despite the fact that POC are under represented in the media, television stations which focus on marginalized people are attacked as being racist. Marginalied people organizing, communing and supporting each other is threatening because that means we aware and not content to accept a second class status.  These groups are necessary for our survival, our progress and our mental health. Every marginalization is stronger in numbers and dominant groups know this and that is why they are continually under attack.

When dominant groups form clubs such as the White Girl Club they are reacting to a perceived loss of privilege.  They are ignorant of how power really works and that is why they twist themselves into knots to justify their actions.  They talk about the idea that there is social pressure to be ashamed and guilty about the historical actions of their group and a need to stimulate feeling of pride to counteract this. They talk about the perceived social pressure to conform.  What they refuse to understand is that this isn't about historical guilt or shame but the ways in which they continue to dominate the social world and oppress out groups. One need not feel ashamed for ancestors who engaged in slavery but one should feel shame for continuing to benefit from it, and not pushing for equality.

No powerful group in history has ever willingly capitulated or taken responsibility for their actions.  These groups represent a form of resistance to change. They will continue to gather and propagate outmoded forms of thinking simply because it benefits them. So when these powerful groups attempt to pacify us by telling us how much better things have gotten, we simply need to look to groups like this to see how far we have to go.

Almost Done With The Latte-Sipping Activist Crowd

TransGriot Note: Guest Post from Indigo Sage Morada discussing her frustrations with activists in her area focused moreso on the illusion of inclusion and talk about checking their privilege than actually doing the hard work to make both happen.


I am seriously wondering if I should even deal with the latte sipping "activist" crowd. White, young adult LGBT activists in the Michigan area are some of the most privileged and undercover bigoted people I ever met.

They sit there and preach about equality, checking privilege and compassion, acceptance and open-mindedness. But their personal lives are another matter. I've experienced intolerance, bigotry, outright hostility and just douchy treatment from privileged activists.

They are too busy going to their coffeeshops, drinking micro brews and congregating with clones of themselves to care.

Why was I often the only black person there? Why did black people who went to groups felt unwelcome? Quite simply, the lot of them are too absorbed in their hedonistic lives and pursuits to actually care. They actively exclude people who are not like them.

I finally concluded that people like me, who are truly diverse.....we are not welcome in their communities. We are too different, too alien to them. We are a constant reminder of their privilege, the suffering incurred by us reminds them that the system they are part of does this to us, it reminds them they they are involved and benefit from the system they oppresses us all.

And instead of checking their privilege, they just remove all sources of guilt and live in divine ignorance. They pat themselves on the back and tell themselves they are not a part of the problem. They hang in crowds of the same latte sipping clowns and tell themselves they are pro diversity.

They are not. They are just as privileged as anyone else upper middle class, white and socially acceptable.

They just get a free pass because they are LGBT.

And I want nothing to do with them. They are a obstacle to equality. I am no one's token. Not anymore.

Transphobic British Feminist Troika Crying White Women's Tears

I've had several people blow up my e-mailbox and my Facebook page asking my opinion about the vile transphobic scribblings of the unholy trinity of British feminists Suzanne Moore, Julie Burchill and Julie Bindel.

Y'all sure about that?   Because you know I'm not going to hold my tongue about it.

This kind of passive-aggressive crap that white radical feminists have been aiming at transwomen and engaged in for over 40 years now with not a peep of complaint from major white feminist blogs is a prime reason why I can't stand and reject feminism. 

And while I'm on that subject, do not ever refer to me as a feminist.   I am a proud womanist, thank you very much.  I consider it an insult to be called a feminist since it is painfully obvious feminism is of, by and for white cis women only.

If you think I'm overreacting or off target with my assessment, peep what Renee of Womanist Musings wrote back in October 2009, 

It comes down to the fact that many self labelled White feminists aren't really interested in equality for all, they are interested in equality with White men.  It's never about tearing down the system, but assuring that they have the power to oppress others.

And when it comes to oppressing transwomen, you have shown that you will gleefully engage in that nekulturny behavior.  When you get called on it, you climb back onto the pedestal of white womanhood, shed those tears, try to play the harmless victim who wouldn't hurt a fly role and assert these people you disrespected and oppressed are being mean to you when you know in your soulless hearts you threw the first sucker punch.

That crap is getting old.  You need to pull up the big girl panties, practice what you screech at others and take responsibility for your reprehensible words and actions.  But then again, you're white women reeking of vanillacentric privilege and will never apologize for the stank shyt you do, so why am I wasting mine and the international trans community's time demanding an apology that will never come?.      

But back to riffing on these across the Pond jerkettes.   This troika of transphobia has some nerve to think that just because they were born white, British and with a vagina they could just write their transphobic screeds and think British transpeople and their allies here in the States and around the world weren't going to justifiably call them out on it.  

But then again, they're white women reeking of vanillacentric privilege, so that level of arrogance shouldn't surprise me.    


News flash for your flat arses, we transwomen could, should, can, and will push back just as hard rhetorically and not give a rat's anus whether your feelings were hurt or we plucked your delicate, precious nerves, because you and your like minded ilk haven't cared about our feelings or our humanity since the 70's. 


We'd be justified in playing the dozens on your behinds being that as usual, you started it.  We're fed up with you radical or whatever kind of feminists you call yourselves disrespecting us and then crying white women's tears when we trans women call your arses out about the stank stuff you do .

But as tempting and temporarily ego satisfying as that would be, then we'd be stooping to your sophomoric WWE level of discourse and I don't feel like going there today. 

The bottom line in case you haven't noticed is this is January 2013, the second decade of the 21st century, not the 1970's.  You can no longer say or write whatever in the hell insulting comments you wish about girls like us as y'all could during the disco era and not think we aren't going to respond to it.   Your vanillacentric privilege will not shield you from the consequences of your transphobic hate speech that you proudly unveiled to the world..


As an African-American transwoman, I'm beyond sick and tired of being sick and tired of your racist and transphobic hate speech that is stoking the white hot flames of anti-trans bigotry and discrimination.  It is not only getting transwomen of all ethnic backgrounds killed, but disproportionately ones that share my ethnic heritage.

Note that despite all your jacked up rhetoric, the world is moving rapidly towards acceptance and integration of transwomen in nations all over the world including Great Britain. 

April Ashley was recently awarded an MBE for her human rights work.  Other transwomen do everything from compete in beauty pageants, walk fashion runways and raise kids to being doctors, lawyers and serving in their nation's parliaments. 

Despite your rhetoric, to paraphrase Maya Angelou's words, and still we trans women rise.

Almost 60 years to the February 13, 1953 day that Christine Jorgensen stepped off her flight from Denmark in New York to the glare of camera flashbulbs and massive publicity, the cold reality is that despite your rhetoric, we're winning the trans human rights battle in Great Britain and around the world.

The wonderful part about that is there's nothing that you three can do or say to stop the inevitability of the arc of the moral universe from bending toward justice and human rights coverage for transpeople. 


TransGriot Update: Surprise, surprise.  Suzanne Moore has apologized for her transphobic remarks and the Observer's editor has taken down the transphobic Julie Burchill piece that she still has not apologized for.  Our British trans cousins were putting together a protest march planned to end at the Guardian and Observer's shared HQ building, which may still happen because of the perception of increased levels of transphobia in the British media 

Stay tuned, the fun is just getting started across The Pond.


TransGriot Note: photos in order from top to bottom are Suzanne Moore, Julie Burchill,  Julie Bindel and April Ashley MBE

Caroline Wozniacki, Stop Hatin' On Serena's Curves

Caroline Wozniacki was doing what she does best on a tennis court and lose to better (and sometimes worse) players than her, but took it to a racist level in Brazil last weekend.  .

During an exhibition match she was playing against Maria Sharapova in Sao Paulo, Brazil she decided to mock tennis star Serena Williams' curvaceous body by stuffing tissues in her breast and butt and waddling around the tennis court. 



Of course, the predominately white crowd thought Wozniacki's antics were hilarious. 

I didn't, and not just because I'm a huge Serena Williams fan.  Michael Arceneaux didn't think it was humorous in this EBONY article and 84% of the people voting in a NewsOne poll at the bottom of the story discussing Wozniacki's problematic stunt didn't think it was funny either. 

And the fact this isn't the first time Wozniacki has mocked Serena that way pisses us off even more. 

Once again this plays into the borderline racist disrespect aimed at the Williams Sisters ever since they have been on the women's professional tennis circuit dominating it and the disrespect aimed at Black women in general for the last 400 years.

To borrow a comment from Michael Arcenaux's article, Black women's bodies are not a joke.  We also take an extremely hard line about any disrespect aimed at Black women in general by white women.

I doubt Caroline will be laughing at the Australian Open next month if she happens to be in the same half of the draw with Little Sis and they are on opposite sides of a tennis court.

Frankly I pray that happens, and Serena pulls out a can of straight set whoop azz for Wozniacki's flat behind.

Caroline, you really need to shop hatin' on Serena's curves because you don't have them, the only way you'll will is pay a plastic surgeon some of your prize money to get them and you don't have a single Grand Slam title to show for your seven years spent as a tennis pro. 

Sorry You're A Vanillacentric Privileged Trans Oppressor

In another episode of Whyte Radfem Womyn Gone Wild, the trans community's least favorite radfem stepped in it when she tweeted this photo and transphobic commentary to Marti Abernathey, the founding editor of Transadvocate while she was at a radfem convention hatefest in Portland, OR last weekend.  

So what's the big deal about it?   Pull up a comfortable chair and grab some snacks because Moni's gonna give you some of the backstory on Cathy Brennan, our community's longtime trans oppressor.

She claims in her online scribblings she's an ally, but her deeds don't match her words.

Brennan is a self identified lesbian feminist, an attorney licensed to practice in New York and Maryland and a partner at Hudson Cook LLP.   She was a liaison to the American Bar Association's Commisssion on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity  in 2008-09, and a self identified member of the National LGBT Bar Association. 

But seguing back to the point about respect that she leveled at Marti in her tweet. 

Why should the trans community have respect for a group of racist white radical feminists who have attacked our humanity and femininity for four decades with deleterious effects on our lives?   

That cry for respect is Romneyesque hollow coming from someone who proudly co-wrote with Elizabeth Hungerford a transphobic paper to the UN Entity For Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.

That paper's submission was timed so the trans community didn't hear about it until after the August 1 submission deadline and couldn't submit our own paper to rebut and eviscerate the Raymondesque lies, transphobic bigotry and typical radfem falsehoods contained in the Brennan-Hungerford one.

But the Transophere still rose up, rebutted and eviscerated it anyway, which is why she and her full of vanillacentric privilege co-conspirator in trans oppression did the UN stealth submission to begin with because they knew it wouldn't withstand the scrutiny nor avoid the stench of intolerance..

She also published the pre-transition names of trans feminine activists who have called out her vile behavior, used her access to the legal system as an attorney to frack with the legal gender change of another trans critic and recently outed to his high school a 17 year transman who called her out online and bragged about it in radfem circles until the backlash hit her azz.

And naw, before you ask, she hasn't apologized for it. 

Oh yeah, did I forget to mention she was on the opposing side when Baltimore County, MD was debating passing trans human rights coverage?  

But she is the first along with her fellow radfems to cry 'white women's tears' when the trans community and our allies call her out on her malicious pattern of behavior.  

And don't even try Dana LaRocca to bring up the 'Cathy helped organize the Crissy Lee Polis rally' talking point.  One broken clock moment doesn't outweigh her decades of damaging work.

In a comment on the Transadvocate FB page, the ABA responded:

"The Business Law Section does not support or condone discrimination nor derogatory comments of any type. We actively work to increase diversity in the legal profession and to promote an inclusive atmosphere for all of our members and for those who attend our meetings. Catherine Brennan is not currently an ABA Business Law Section Liaison to the ABA Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. She served one year in that position in 2008-09.

Sincerely,

Linda"

I know you didn't think that in your vanillacentric privileged world that transpeople (and especially this non-white transperson) were going to simply submit to having their human rights fracked with without a fight?

Did you think you and your friends could continue to frack with this community with impunity and suffer no consequences as you did so? 

My question is where are the feminist (and transfeminist) voices calling out this reprehensible behavior?    And you wonder why feminism has such a negative connotation in the trans community and with women of color in general? 

Trans community, you cannot ignore in the vain hope she will go away someone who has the access to policy making tables that Brennan has and the willingness to use it against us.   It's a dangerous combination when you have a trans bigot willing and unrepentantly able to not only express anti-trans attitudes, but is actively working to inject them into policies that will have deleterious effects upon the entire trans community not only here in the United States but around the world.  

Ignoring Brennan gave her and her racist radfem buddies the impression they could continue to do this oppressive crap to us in the first place.  

New decade, new rules.  You don't ignore bigots that have access to power, you confront them head on and it's about damned time the trans community recognized that

.

Tired Of Me Complaining About Trans POC Erasure? Stop Enabling It

If you non-persons of color transpeople get tired of me calling out the erasure of non-white trans voices in media appearances about trans issues every time it happens, then stop enabling it

I know some of y'all were muttering 'there she goes again' when I wrote the Sunday post blasting that vanillacentric Transgender In America panel on the Melissa Harris-Perry show and frankly I don't care.

I'm just as tired of pointing out the obvious to your clueless behinds. If you're going to claim that the trans community is a diverse one, then it needs to be reflected not only in the leadership of it, but its thought leaders and who speaks for it.

And I'm not the only Black transperson who feels this way as much as you peeps who wish to dismiss this commentary or fling the sour grapes accusation would like to think.   Far too often, we have media erasure incidents like what happened on the Melissa Harris-Perry show Sunday in which the trans talking heads are overwhelmingly white.  We all know there are more than a few non-white trans folks who are eminently capable of speaking on behalf of this community but are repeatedly erased, ignored and frozen out of media opportunities to speak for this community.

And if you think I'm going to be silent about it, y'all don't know me very well do you?

Bottom line is I along with POC transpeople are beyond sick and tired of being sick and tired of being erased from another cable media discussion on trans issues once again. 

If you want the support of cis minority communities and more trans people of color to join the trans rights cause, it is imperative that we non-white transpeople and our cis POC community members see the entire trans ethnic rainbow represented.  

As someone said on my Facebook page in the rant I posted that jumpstarted this post:: 

It's the unwritten rule.  Act like you don't see them or hear them and they will go away.  If no one says anything then we are irrelevant.

We are anything but irrelevant to the trans community and aren't going away.  We are makers and molders of trans history and we must be heard, especially in light of the fact we're taking the brunt of the anti-trans violence and discrimination.

You can decry that as 'identity politics' all you want, but you're doing the same damned thing when only white transpeople are deemed 'acceptable' spokespeople to go on the media talking head shows.

This erasure was even more infuriating because Melissa Harris-Perry is a Black woman as well.  It was a painful reminder to the Black trans community of how we got erased when Oprah finally got around to having transpeople on her show and never put one of her own people on her stage to talk about trans issues .

The bottom line of me going off about this Melissa Harris-Perry show erasure is not only am I tired of it,  I don't want to have to see the trans younglings who are transitioning now at ages 10 or less having to fight the same damn battles we're having to fight when they get to adulthood.

It's also about our POC transkids who not only need to see us and have role models they can look up to as they transition.   They need to also see us front and center fighting those civil rights battles with our trans oppressors and talking intelligently about those issues in the media.  

They not only need to see themselves represented, but know beyond a shadow of a doubt we trans elders are doing everything we can with every fiber of our beings to make life easier for those transkids when they get to adulthood.

Yep, this is about our POC transkids and I haven't forgotten how I felt growing up when I wondered if Black people even transitioned.  White transkids have had the benefit of an over half century old trans narrative that has an overwhelming vanillacentric scent. 

They have numerous examples of trans role models to point to and leadership ranks overwhelmingly dominated by transpeople who look like them while the people taking the brunt of the anti-trans violence and discrimination disproportionately look like us.

The trans human rights movement is making the same critical mistake the GL movement has in terms of the erasure and visibility of its non-white members. If you want support from cis minority communities for our cause, you have to show them that there are people in those non-white communities who are trans as well.  Those non white trans people need to be the ones primarily articulating the message that we exist and transpeople deserve human rights.

I'm talking about balance here.  I'm tired of us being stuck with the 'tragic transsexual' and 'unwoman' memes in this community.  Seeing transpeople of color eloquently speaking about our issues, especially on national media shows is an important part of the trans human rights effort and you white transpeople in a position to keep the erasure from happening need to redouble you efforts to stop enabling it.

If you don't, you can guarantee the next time it happens (and sadly I can count on like taxes and another transperson of color being killed somewhere) will probably be writing about another instance of media erasure.   And when it does, I damned sure will be calling it out.