If You're Wearing Blackface This Halloween, You're A Racist Jerk

Halloween is coming up this Monday, and already seeing the pics on Facebook and Instagram pic of white peeps wearing blackface 'costumes.

Once again, blackface is not funny, not considered complimentary because of the long history of it being used to demean and dehumanize my community dating back to the early 19th Century.

My people and my culture is not a costume for you to put on for your amusement.

You also know blackface is wrong.  If you choose to ignore this warning for any reason, I don't want to hear any "I didn't know blackface was bad" commentary or other weak excuses trying to justify it because myself and other Black people across the Net have said it and written thousands of words why it's jacked up.

And don't even try to deploy the Wayans Brothers White Chicks movie as a defense.  That's an automatic nonstarter.

Note to white women who wear blackface, If you've decided you're to do so after you have been warned not to and why it's not appropriate, don't be surprised at the backlash you get.  Your white tears will not save you from the backlash that will rain down upon you for your lousy decision.

And heaven help you if Black Twitter gets to those pics you thought were cool or funny.   Those blackface pictures will also follow you around forever.

Just say no to Blackface this Halloween, people. If you do, don't be mad when people consider you a racist jerk for doing so

'Liberal Media', Why Is This Not Domestic Terrorism?

On Saturday a group of armed anti-government terrorists seized a federal building on the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, announced their intention to occupy it and kill anyone who tried to remove them from it, and called for other like minded terrorists to join them in southeast Oregon.

And what is the media reaction to this event?   Cricket chirping silence.

There has also been the laughable and credibility straining extremes that various media outlets like the AP and ABC News took to avoid calling the armed thugs terrorists or this a domestic terrorist incident.

The only reason it is even beginning to get any coverage at all is because people have been all over Twitter and  on social media calling out the blatant hypocrisy of the initial coverage along with the silence of the major networks about it.

Where you at ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FOX Noise?  Where's the video trucks?  The reporters?   Where are the armed po-po's, the National Guard and their tanks, tear gas and armored personnel carriers ready to take the building back and crush the resistance as we saw deployed against non-white unarmed protesters?

Still haven't heard the call for the Oregon National Guard or the local sheriffs to deal with this situation as was done in Ferguson and Baltimore.

And as you probably guessed, the Whiteness and White Supremacy Protection Brigade are rushing out to do their online defense of VanillaISIS and come up with every excuse to defend their actions of taking over a closed for the holidays federal building.

As a matter of fact, I suspected this would happen again after the 2014 Nevada standoff involving Cliven Bundy and friends, and the feds letting them walk in order to allegedly avoid bloodshed.

Guess when it comes to white lives, you'll do everything possible to do so. When it comes to non white peeps, we get no such considerations whether we're armed or unarmed.

Far from dissuading them from taking it to that level again, it has emboldened these vanillacentric privileged domestic terrorists to try it again.  This time law enforcement and the feds need to drop the hammer on these thugs so they never even think about seizing another federal or attempting another action like this again.    

But then again, the media and the conservative movement are desperate to cover up the fact that when it come to domestic terrorism in the United States, the face of it is an overwhelmingly white male conservative one.

We'll see how this latest incident plays out as the week progresses.

Hell Naw I'm Not Supporting Megyn Kelly

One of the major reasons I identify as a womanist is because far too often, I see situations in which white feminists will rush to the defense of any white woman who has been slimed by 'the menz' or call for across the board female solidarity in those situations, but you're cricket chirping silent when it is women of color who are being attacked.

Yeah, that's why that #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen hashtag exists.   We have glaring examples of it popping up and not being reciprocated with depressing regularity

Another glaring example of it popped up in my Facebook feed today when I was sent a link to a Salon article by Mary Elizabeth Williams in which she asked feminists to support Megyn Kelly in the wake of Donald Chump Thump's misogynistic attacks on her, even though she has never declared herself to be one, and sides with a political movement that believes feminists are The Enemy.

I'm damned sure not down with what Trump said about her and it needs to be forcefully called out.  But stand in solidarity with her?  Not no but hell naw am I not going to stand with her. 

Since when has Kelly ever stood with women of color, much less not said anything  that wasn't straight up racist? 

And while she has her broken clock moments every now and then, on balance she earns every penny Rupert Murdoch pays her for being the pretty blonde face peddling that odious right wing agenda.

Her azz had the nerve to say from her FOX Noise propaganda perch that a Black female teen manhandled by an out of control McKinney, TX cop earlier this year 'was no saint'.   She declared that Santa Claus and Jesus were white.   She tried to downplay the racist e-mails discovered in the DOJ probe when Ferguson was on everyone's minds last summer by claiming 'racist e-mails are everywhere'

And yeah, I would be remiss in not pointing out that one of her broken clock moments involved trans people on September 1, 2011.

The transgendered, they go through so much pain and emotional turmoil in dealing with the effects of that disorder or whatever you want to call it and I don’t think they need people piling on and mocking them once they do something that many people consider very brave. But that’s me, that’s my two cents. [emphasis added]

But ever since them, she has devolved on trans issues as her FOX Noise employers shift tactics to attack trans people.

So not no, but oh hell no am I as an proud unapologetically Black trans woman going to support Megyn Kelly's behind, especially when she can't seem to do the same on a consistent basis for women of color and trans women.

Let The Tapdancing About This Latest Domestic Terror Attack Begin

Wednesday night 21 year old Dylann Roof walked into a side door of the historic Emanuel AME Church in Charleston SC and attended a Bible study happening there for an hour/

He then whipped out a concealed handgun and began shooting the attendees, killing 9 people and wounding three before being captured after a 14 hour manhunt yesterday.. 

His stated reason according to one of the survivors, was that "I have to do it.  You're raping our women and taking over the country. You have to go."

And homey was involved with white supremacist groups.   So what do you think the good people at FOX Noise had to say about this domestic terrorism situation involving one of those good conservative Americans?   That it happened because of 'America's acceptance of trans people like Caitlyn Jenner', bellowed Erik Erickson.

Yep, they are in full distract, deflect and 'blamed the victim. mode.  They are also trying to play that tired 'lone crazed wolf' card.

Anything to deflect from the fact that this is the living breathing manifestation of anti-Black hatred they have pushed on right wing talk radio and FOX Noise.    Hate thoughts + hate speech + unfetter gun ownership = hate violence.

So stay tuned to see how the conservative movement tries to whitesplain away this hate crime committed by another white male weaned on their relentless anti-Black talking points?

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.

Why The Lack Of Media Coverage Of The NAACP Terror Bombing?

Back in 2010 I asked the question when is a terrorist attack NOT a terrorist attack?   I asked that in the wake of the predominately white media twisting themselves into pretzels to avoid calling the dive of a private airplane into the IRS building in Austin by a white anti-tax zealot a  terror attack when conservative media was gleefully stirring up anti-government fervor as a tactic to stop passage of the Affordable Care Act.

Now in a time in the USA in which we have heightened racial animus because of police brutality aimed at African-American and our protests against it, an attempted bombing of an NAACP headquarters in Colorado Springs yesterday morning by a white male suspect has gotten little media coverage on CNN or other major news networks.

And when CNN probably because of the building social media outrage finally covered ittoday , they neglected to mention the ethnicity of the suspect, who is a balding while male in his 40's driving a white pickup truck.

I'd be willing to bet that if an IED had gone off across town at Focus on The Family's headquarters building and the suspected perp was a member of the LGBT community, FOX Noise and the networks would have been on that story ad nauseum like pigs at their feeding trough.

But in an incident eerily reminiscent of the Jim Crow era Klan terror bombings aimed at churches and the homes of back in the day African-American civil rights leaders, an improvised explosive device exploded outside the headquarters building of the Colorado Springs NAACP branch on S. El Paso St. in an incident in which the FBI initial investigation is calling deliberate.

Well duh, they damned sure weren't attacking the hair salon next door.

In a statement on the NAACP website about the attempted bombing:

No injuries were reported in what is believed to be an explosion near the Colorado Springs NAACP Branch located on the 600 block of S. El Paso St. The cause of the explosion is still unknown. The NAACP looks forward to a full and thorough investigation into this matter by federal agents and local law enforcement.

But one group it seems to the increasing agitation of African-Americans that seems disinterested in covering this unfolding story is the media.   

And why is that?  Could it be because this is a concrete example of another White on Black terror attack that we can thank God didn't have fatalities attached to it?  

Or is it because you white media peeps are reluctant to admit, that when it comes to domestic terror in the United States, and especially when those terror attacks have been aimed at my people, it has historically had an overwhelmingly white male face..

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.

Happy 19th Birthday, Jordan Davis

Today would have been the 19th birthday of Jordan Davis.  

He wanted to become a Marine with his best friend after he graduated from high school.   He was a kid who dealt with the typical stuff you deal with growing up in your teen years.   He had a girlfriend who stayed on him to pull his pants up, Don Lemon.

He had both a mother and a father in his life.   He was into sports   He wanted to be successful and someday own a Dodge Challenger.   

But because of a November 2012 encounter with a white male who had a problem with the volume of the music he and his friends were listening to in the parking lot of a Jacksonville area convenience store, he will never get to accomplish that dream or any other dreams he might have had. 

Jordan is now dead, his friends are haunted by the memory of having 10 bullets fired at them by an angry white male, and yesterday they witnessed the justice system in Florida fail once again to recognize their humanity.

Once again white supremacy reinforced what Chief Justice Roger B. Taney said over 150 years ago in the Dred Scott v. Sandford Case.  

Oh you're not familiar with what Taney wrote?   Let me refresh your memory as to what the then Chief Justice of the US Supreme court said in his March 6, 1857 opinion in that case.

"...beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations, and so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect."

Any doubts that John Roberts, the current US Supreme Court Chief Justice, the Teapublicans, the conservative movement or other people who share his gender and ethnic background don't harbor the same racist beliefs?  

We know from his jailhouse letters that Michael Dunn sure did and felt comfortable enough to express it.
In one of the letters addressed to his “baby,” Dunn wrote:

The fear is that we may get a predominately black jury and therefore, unlikely to get a favorable verdict. Sad, but that’s where this country is still at. The good news is that the surrounding counties are predominately white and Republican and supporters of gun rights.”

In a letter addressed to his grandmother, Dunn claimed that all Blacks in jail acted like thugs:

“The jail is full of blacks and they all act like thugs. This may sound a bit radical but if more people would arm themselves and kill these (expletive) idiots, when they’re threatening you, eventually they may take the hint and change their behavior.”

In other letters he spoke about the Duval County district attorney trying to deny him the right to a “speedy trial” and all the boys in the SUV with Davis being “thugs.”

Naw Michael Dunn, we know who the 'thug' was in this case.  Just look in the mirror.  You are the thug who has for now gotten away with the murder of a then 17 year old kid who will have no more birthdays because you felt threatened by Jordan Davis' existence in this world.
       
You are the thug who causes nightmares for every Black parent who lies awake at night fearful their son or daughter will be similarly killed by white males who 'feel threatened' with or without a police badge. 

You, Michael Dunn are the thug who stokes the fears of African-American parents they may experience the pain Jordan Davis' parents are feeling today about the loss of their child and that Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton experienced February 5.

Dunn is the thug who has caused fear in our African-American children's ranks that they will be shot to death and unjust Stand Your Ground laws and predominately white juries filled with vanillacentric privileged people will allow the perpetrators to get away with it.    

Happy birthday, Jordan and rest in power.  We will not rest until those odious ALEC inspired Stand Your Ground Kill A Black Child With Impunity laws die and our kids are free to live.

 

When Does Finishing In Third Place NOT Get You An Olympic Spot?

The various trials and selection processes to assemble our US Olympic team are happening as you read this in preparation for Team USA to go for gold in Sochi next month.

In many cases the criteria has been clearly laid our for every Olympic hopeful to know.  Perform at the trials and finish in the top three and you make the team.  In other sports the federation will select the athletes who go like in hockey or the bobsled and luge team.

So what many people are asking is how does a figure skater who finished fourth at the 2010 Vancouver Games, but didn't fall during her more difficult routine at the US Figure Skating National Championships and finishes third get bumped off the Olympic team by someone who finished fourth during the same event in Boston, has no Olympic experience and fell twice during her program?

And yeah, I'm going there.  How do you explain that snubbing US Figure Skating Association, when the skater who finished third was Asian but the one who cratered is a blonde haired blue eyed white female who has been the focus of NBC's pre-Olympic marketing of the games and spoken out against the anti-LGBT laws in Russia?

Can you say vanillacentric privilege?   Thought you could.  

That's the question many people, and especially those of us who are non-white are asking in the wake of 20 year old Mirai Nagasu being passed over by the US Figure Skating Association and named an alternate on the team in favor of Ashley Wagner, the skater who fell twice during last weekend's US Championships that determined who would make the Sochi Olympic squad. 

Unlike the US Track and Field trials and other sports, where the first three people across the line at the trials regardless of past performance make the squad, USA figure skating takes past performances into account and gives them an unspecified weight in the selection process.

Did vanillacentric privilege and bias become one of those unspecified factors that influenced the process?

Wagner was the two time defending US champion entering the TD Garden before that event.  She was a fourth-place finisher at the 2012 world championships and the fifth-place holder at the 2013 worlds.  But she cratered badly during this event and even admitted the pressure got to her.

So if Wagner can't handle the pressure of the US Championships that determined who makes the US Olympic skating team going to Sochi, what makes her and the US Figure Skating Association think that she'll do any better when the pressure is ramped up several more notches and she's in the Iceberg Skating Arena at Sochi with medals on the line.having to compete against defending Olympic champion Kim Yu-Na of South Korea and defending Vancouver Games silver medalist Mao Asada of Japan?  

Meanwhile Nagasu arrives in Boston without a coach, people gave her no chance of making the Olympic team, but when the pressure was on she performed when Ashley Wagner didn't.  As a matter of fact she was the only person out of the top four that didn't fall during this competition.   That says a lot about the mental toughness of Nagasu.

But barring an injury to the other three, Nagasu will not get the opportunity to go for the medal that eluded her in Vancouver four years ago. 

And once again, a bitter lesson of American society gets harshly taught to its non-white residents.  No matter how good the person of color is or they earn their spot through their performance, merit  and hard work, whiteness will find a way to take it from them, hand it to a white person who didn't earn it and then try to justify and spin the reason they did so.

And FYI, here were the scores for the final night of competition.

1. Gracie Gold 211.69
2. Polina Edmunds 193.63
3. Mirai Nagasu 190.74
4. Ashley Wagner 182.74
 
If Wagner couldn't handle the pressure last weekend, that's nothing compared to the pressure and scrutiny that will be on her from now until the Sochi Games are over. 

Wagner has to prove to casual fans who feel like Nagasu was screwed (and I'm in that camp) that she belongs on the team.  There's also a lot of people that will be tuned in February 19-20 ready to pounce if she falls on her pretty behind once again and fails to make the Olympic medal podium.

I have a feeling karma will be making an appearance in Sochi wearing figure skates.

  

Yo Hallmark Channel, Next Year Can We Get More Diversity In Your Christmas Movies?

Yes, Black people fall in love, get married, buy  romance novels, and like watching romance movies, too.   It would be nice to see ourselves occasionally represented in your made for TV romances especially since we persons of colors are part of the 87 million homes that have Hallmark Channel as part of their cable package.
--TransGriot, October 15, 2012, "Yo Hallmark Channel, Black People Fall In Love, Too"

As an incurable romantic, I do like reading romance novels and love a good romantic movie from time to time as an escape because the topic I write about are serious in terms of human rights issues.

Hallmark Channel bills itself as 'The Heart of TV'  and built its cable brand on broadcasting made for TV romance movies it produces along with broadcasting classic TV shows like Frasier and The Golden Girls.  It is part of many cable TV packages and has 86 million viewers.

It also likes to do holiday themed programming.  Its popular and highly rated 'Countdown To Christmas' lasts from the first weekend in November to Christmas Day as the network broadcasts 24 hours of Christmas themed movies. 

From December 26 to January that shifts to the 'Countdown to New Year's Day' which ends with the broadcast of the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, CA.  In February it's all romance all the time leading up to Valentine's Day.

But no matter what the theme, there is one consistent, nagging issue about that themed programming that becomes glaringly obvious in 24 hour rotation.  

The overwhelming whiteness of it.

I noted that in my post last year about it, and I see that nothing's been done to correct the problem I noticed last year.   This year's 'Countdown to Christmas' themed movies probably made Fox Noise and Megyn Kelly smile because they had the diversity of a Republican Party convention.

Black folks meet, fall in love with each other and get married during the holidays, too. As a matter of fact that simple point is what keeps royalty checks consistently flowing into Kayla Perrin's and other Black romance writers bank accounts.

As The Best Man Holiday and its $69.8 million box office emphatically continues to prove, we African-Americans do have universal stories that will appeal to a wider audience and want to see ourselves represented on the small and silver screens..

The same is true of the Latino and Asian community and movies that are performed by an all-Latino or all- Asian cast.   They would like to see themselves represented in the media they watch, too 

In fact when I do discover movies such as Nothing Like The Holidays, which was a Christmas movie released in 2008 with a predominately Latino cast, I see them as a refreshing change, because romantic movies with all white casts are so been there, bored with that.

So next year Hallmark and into the foreseeable future, what I and many non-white viewers of your channel want is so deceptively simple when 'Countdown to Christmas' 2014 rolls around.

Can we get some holiday movies made by you that reflect the diversity of this country?

And when I say diversity of this country, I don't mean an all or predominately white cast with a token Black, Latino or Asian actor in the background for half a second as the white leads are making goo-goo eyes at each other. 

If you don't have the writers on hand to produce those scripts with the (and this is vitally important) cultural nuances of my people, then get writers to produce those Christmas romance scripts who are culturally competent to make it happen and hire directors well versed in those non-white cultures to make them.

So Hallmark, can you do that for your non-white viewers, who are part of the 86 million people who watch your channel?

Transpeople of Color Don't Get The Luxury of Ignoring Race And Class

Sigh.  Once again, Moni's gonna have to break it down for the wallowing in white privilege clueless. 

And this clueless youngling had the nerve to claim in the subsequent comment thread that she's 'anti-racist'.

Peep this comment posted by Jocelynn Veleta on the mixed company Facebook Transgender Alliance FB page.

It was posted on a comment from Black Transmen Resources ironically posted to promote their upcoming BTAC 2014 conference in Dallas April-May 2014.

At first I was going to be nice and not embarrass her in cyberspace until she deleted her initial comments before I had a chance to copy them, ran, called me 'stupid', said I was 'playing the victim'  and cried the usual 'white women's tears' before I got tired of her mouth and unleashed the 50 megatons of knowledge on her azz.  

im offended when ppl add race, ethnicity, or gender restrictions to anything, Trans in itself is enough of a minority i personally don't feel we need to break up anymore... hey maybe its just me; im not trying to be rude.

No, you weren't rude, you were white privileged clueless.

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

We transpeople of color do not have the luxury of separating our race and ethnicity from our trans status. They are inextricably part of us.   And as part of the Black community, we still get whacked by the microaggressive and macroaggressive ways whiteness and white supremacy deleteriously affects us.

Your lived experience as a solitary white trans person doesn't trump (and never will) the lived experience of someone who has taken the brunt of the white supremacist attitudes since birth, much less her people's 400 year history of living in the Americas.

Jocelynn, you may not like the fact that we have Black, Latina and Asian trans groups, organizations and conventions, but they didn't come out of a vacuum.

As Kwame Ture said, 'in order to become a part of the greater society, you must first close ranks.'

People of color face anti POC hatred whether we are trans or not and being trans only magnifies that. And some of the worst manifestations of that anti-POC hatred are in our own TBLG ranks.

What we do have, if the trans community will seize that opportunity, is to lead by example in eradicating racism in its subset of society.

Our little subset of society is infected by the same isms and ills of the parent society, and just because you transitioned doesn't mean you nor transpeople of color are free of that baggage.  Race and ethnicity add to our trans status as bigotry multipliers in terms of the anti-trans hate directed at us inside and outside the TBLG community.   Black trans women have to deal with the same 'ugly black woman' meme and destruction of our images that our cis sisters have had to grapple with for four centuries.  Black trans men when they transition step into being just as hated by society as their cis Black masculine counterparts do and the transmasculine discussion being disproportionately centered on white trans men. 

And when the Teapublicans seek to block the vote of the Black community at the polls, I don't get a pass from that because I'm trans.    

Jocelynn, you aren't even close to being anti-racist if you can't openly acknowledge the point that racist attitudes permeates American society, still affects POC's in the second decade of the 21st century, can't see past your own unacknowledged white privilege and how it has shaped your thinking (as the playing the victim conservacomment demonstrates) and that racism= prejudice plus systemic power.

And before you even part your lips to ever try to bring up the word 'anti-racist' in a conversation, better hit Google and learn the word 'intersectionality'. 

I'm offended Jocelynn when you make such a knee jerk reactive clueless statement on the comment of a Black trans group promoting their upcoming Dallas trans conference open to all, you failing to see how problematic that statement of yours was, and then running when you get called on it.

And you getting your vanillacentric privileged back up, accusing me of 'attacking you' for schooling your barely out of zygote stage behind and you running from the truth isn't going to change one syllable of what I posted about race still mattering in the trans community.     

We do have the opportunity in the trans community to build a society better than the one we left behind but it's going to take honest communication about race relations in our community to do so. 

Honest communications that obviously you're not even close to being ready for or intelligently discuss.
 

Another GetEqual Fail- White Privilege, Black Blaming and Dissing The First Lady

I've been on GetEqual's ass since 2010 about their one sided penchant for protesting this White House but not having the same vanillacentric zeal to protest their Republican oppressors.

I've also questioned at times if anybody in the org paid attention in their government or political science classes.

Once again their lack of vision and bad timing bit them in the behind when GetEqual's Ellen Sturtz interrupted First Lady Michelle Obama at a recent private fundraiser event.  The stated purpose was to call attention to getting the POTUS to sign an incrementalist ENDA executive order that the 1% white gays have been pushing that won't protect the entire community like comprehensive ENDA legislation will. 

And oh by the way, the First Lady doesn't have the power to write and sign executive orders, her husband does.   It's not a good idea to piss off the person who DOES have the power to issue that executive order you'd like them to sign by disrespecting their spouse. 

The only attention it has gotten was on how rude Ms Sturtz was, how problematic the optics were on this and how once again, predominately white led Gay Inc orgs pull these stunts that play well in the white gay community but piss off gay and straight African-Americans weary of the unprecedented levels of disrespect aimed at the Obamas. 

The timing also sucked because African-Americans trans, gay and straight were already pissed off about being blamed by loud and wrong gay pundits for the Illinois marriage equality legislative FUBAR.

Denise Oliver-Velez comments on this latest GetEqual fail in her DailyKos post that features comments from a certain blogger y'all know.

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.

Jada Pinkett-Smith Questions Whether White Women Should Grace the Covers of Magazines Aimed at WOC?

Guest post from Renee of Womanist Musings

Like many women of colour I grew up looking at magazine racks with row upon row of White faces staring at me.  I would be lying if I said that it didn't have an impact upon how I perceived my race and gender growing up.  Things have not changed much and now I find myself wondering how this exact same circumstance is going to effect my niece as she grows up.  As a woman of colour, I cannot divorce my race from my gender.  This is why the row upon row of White women staring back at me from magazine racks continues to impact me. Even when I look past it and validate my own self worth, it does not mean that those I interact with see me as an equal, let alone human.  There can be no doubt that Whiteness continues to represent the idealized form of womanhood.  Sojourner Truth's Ain't I a Woman speech, is still highly applicable today.

On her facebook page, Jada Pinkett-Smith wondered if the best path forward to deal with the ongoing equality in magazine covers, is for magazines created for POC to be more open about having White women grace their covers.

There is a question I want to ask today. I'm asking this question in the spirit of thinking outside of the box in order to open doors to new possibilities. These possibilities may be realistic or unrealistic. I also want to make it clear that there is no finger pointing here. I pose this question with the hope that it opens a discussion about how we can build a community for women based upon us all taking a deeper interest in one another. An interest where skin color, culture, and social class does not create barriers in sharing the commonality of being... women. With love and respect to all parties involved, my question is this...if we ask our white sisters, who tend to be the guardians of the covers of mainstream magazines, to consider women of color to grace these covers, should we not offer the same consideration to white women to grace our covers? Should women extend their power to other women simply because they are women? To my women of color, I am clear we must have something of our own, but is it possible to share in the spirit in which we ask our white sisters to share with us? I don't know the answer and would love to hear your thoughts.

What Jada fails to acknowledge is that these magazines were created specifically because of the erasure of our experiences in the mainstream media. While her approach is well intentioned by allowing White women to grace the covers of magazines that have been created for women of colour, it reinforces the idea that there isn't a single place where Whiteness does not belong.  Historically, people of colour have always been asked to turn the other cheek and hold out an olive branch to Whiteness, even as it works daily to ensure that we remain second class citizens.  This olive branch which Jada suggests, will not force Whiteness to be more inclusive; it will simply reduce already limited opportunities for women of colour.

The truth of the matter is that we cannot pretend that we are simply a community of women.  This is the same argument that feminists have used for years, even as they try to erase the effect that racism has on the lives of women of colour.  It is naive to expect the White owned and run media to suddenly capitulate and work towards more inclusive coverage.  No powerful force in history has ever just handed over power, or even consented to share power and why Jada thinks that this would suddenly be the case, if only people of colour would consent to share our spaces is beyond me.

We cannot treat Whiteness as though it is some benign force, when it wages war against people of colour across the globe daily. The sales of the all Black Italian Vogue show that there is a market for inclusion and still yet these magazines refuse to capitulate.  Clearly, maintaining White hegemony is far more important than the bottom line.  Since this is a fact, I must ask, what reasonable sense does it make to open up the few spaces reserved for WOC to White women? If they cannot be motivated by their own financial best interest, why would our sacrifice cause a moral quandary?

What we need to do is act from a position of strength.  It's already bad enough that in many ways businesses that target Black people, have either been bought out by White run companies, or controlled by White management.  How much of our power can we afford to give away?  We have already seen that as a result of these actions nothing has changed. It's a foolish person who keeps repeating the same action, while hoping for a different result.

When integration occurred, the Black community lost institutions that have been our backbone for a very long period of time. We have seen as a result, less cohesion and less forward movement. This is not to say that integration didn't have positive results, but that it came with a cost. It was a compromise that never should have been made because Whiteness has no interest in the dissolution of its social, or institutional power. While I agree that we need new ideas moving forward, making room for White women is a backward step and nothing good can come of it.

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. 

The Cheapness Of A Black Life

I was going to comment on the latest infuriating instance of somebody 'standing their ground' and it ending up with another Black teenage kid dying, but Renee of Womanist Musings beat me to it.   This post of hers is definitely getting signal boosted.

As the mother of two Black sons, I would be lying if I told you that there aren't nights when I lie awake worried about their future.  I know that this is something all loving parents experience, but how many White parents of White children worry that their child will be perceived of as a threat and summarily shot? The only thing that eases my worries is the fact that we are Canadian and have much stricter gun control laws. The following story really struck a chord with me.

Michael David Dunn, 45, and his girlfriend were in Jacksonville Friday for Dunn's son's wedding when they stopped at a convenience store, Jacksonville sheriff's Lt. Rob Schoonover said.

Jordan Russell Davis, 17, and several other teenagers were sitting in a sport utility vehicle in the parking lot when Dunn pulled up next to them in a car and asked them to turn down their music, Schoonover said.

Jordan and Dunn exchanged words, and Dunn pulled a gun and shot eight or nine times, striking Jordan twice, Schoonover said. Jordan was sitting in the back seat. No one else was hurt.

Dunn's attorney Monday said her client acted responsibly and in self-defense. She did not elaborate.  (source)

Tell me again that all people are equal.  This confrontation started over loud music and it ended in the death of a 17 year old boy.  Of course Dunn felt threatened, he was after all in a confrontation with Black male youths and the message has been sent repeatedly that not only is Black life cheap, but that Black males are always violent and a threat to Whiteness.


Despite the medias constant presentation of the supposed Black male threat, there is nothing more terrifying than an angry armed White man.  Our children are dying in droves and reading stories like this has become a common occurrence, yet the myth of the violent murdering Black male continues to persist.  In fact, the more threatened White supremacy has become by the changing population demographics, the more violent it has become.  White male violence is glorified and deemed heroic, while men of colour are criminalized and deemed a threat to a safe society. This can be especially seen in the dystopian genre, where White men are often cast as all that is standing between humanity and destruction.  We are meant to see White men as the great savior and be thankful for their heroism, even as people of colour die in ridiculous numbers.

Guns and Whiteness are a recipe for Black death.  There can be no question if we look at the history of race relations since the first Black person set foot in the global north, Whiteness has murdered and raped with pure abandon, all while hiding behind the supposed barrier of protecting and civilizing the world. It is not logical to believe for one moment that Blackness represents a threat. 

I don't want to hear the bullshit about how we all bleed the same red blood, when the blood that is being spilled is Black.  I don't want to hear about how there is good and bad in every race, when Blackness is being criminalized and demonized everyday. Ridiculous euphemisms are not going to solve the problem and denying that the combination of Whiteness and guns are deadly, is only further minimizing the ongoing death and violence.

No matter how far we have come, Black life is still cheap and continues to be devalued by the inflation and elevation of Whiteness. As a Black mother, this is more than evident to me.  I often think about the history of Black mothers crying bitter salty tears and the line of coffins holding our loved ones. If anyone has a right to be angry and afraid, it is most certainly not the bitter, racist and entitled White men, who continue to commit these crimes against the very heart of our communities. The racist, angry White male has got to die, so that our children may live.