What Does 'Tell It Like It T-I-S Is' Mean?

For those of you who read my blog regularly. you'll note that I have the phrase 'tell it like it T-I-S is' incorporated in many of the over 7000 blog posts I've composed for this blog.
 
So what does it mean and where did it come from?

I didn't create it.  I give the credit for it to the 'Father of Black Radio', Jack 'The Rapper' Gibson.' 

I used to read his Mello Yello Black radio and music publication when my Dad was finished with it, and saw it there regularly.  I loved Gibson's no holds barred truth telling style when he wrote about issues inside and outside Black radio world. 

The T-I-S in that phrase I borrowed from him stands for 'truth is sacred'.  It hearkens back to a long history we have in the African-American community of fearlessly speaking truth to power.

As James Baldwin once wrote in Rap on Race in 1971, "I write to bear witness to the truth.'.  

And so do I.   That's one of my goals here at TransGriot.   Yes, I find it interesting that some people can't handle that truth, especially when I am in tell it like it T-I-S is mode.  I do so because to do anything less is spitting on the legacy of the legions of truth telling writers my people have proudly produced and I am an heir to that legacy.  

As a unapologetically Black trans person who has the writing skills to (sometimes) pay my bills, I am feeling the 1972 words of Gwendolyn Brooks when she said, 'True Black writers speak as Blacks about Blacks for Blacks'.

If you're not Black but get the messages that I convey in my writing, then that's all good too.

So now you know not only where that phrase comes from, but where my head is at when I write it.  

Dreams Can Come True For Transpeople, Too

Today I've had one of my dreams as a writer come to pass that when I started my transition back in 1994, seemed to be about as farfetched from happening as the LA Clippers becoming an NBA title contender.

The Clippers are on pace to make the playoffs and I got published at EBONY.com

When I started seriously focusing on my writing in 2001, it has been a dream to one day I would have something I wrote published by two of the iconic magazines in our community, ESSENCE and EBONY.

It's the online version to be sure, but still, it's EBONY magazine and I'm ecstatic it happened.      

A lot of hard work, long hours and effort went into getting myself ready and in position to take advantage of my break when it happened.  Even so I was still stunned when I received the e-mail letting me know they were interested in the piece.

So thanks to everyone who has been blowing up my Twitter feed, Facebook page and e-mail inbox congratulating me for making this happen.   All I did was pick up the torch Roberta Angela Dee carried for our community until she passed on in 2002.  

I'm trying to do my part to live up to her legacy and the standard she set in being an African-American trans writer while adding my distinctive touches to it and expanding the boundaries of what we talk about so that we simply are discussed as writers. 

Janey Mock will and is already exceeding what I do as the editor of People.com   I know when I can no longer carry that torch, we'll be in good hands

One of my writing dreams has come true (take that haters and KMBA) so now I get to move on to the next writing dreams and goals I have in mind.   I'd love to see my writing eventually appear in print in addition to other online sites.  

But today is also a concrete example to my transpeeps that your dreams don't have to die just because you transitioned.   With some determined effort, they can, do and will come true as well.

Black Transwoman Thinking, Composing Posts

Been out and about today running a few errands and prepping for my upcoming trip back home to the 713 for Christmas.

In the process of doing so, getting ready to go home and the general hustle and bustle of the holiday season, I haven't had enough quiet time to solidly think about some issues and write about them.

When I compile posts about various issues, a lot of hard solid thinking, research and fact checking goes into the creative process for me. I have a few in various stages of construction, but they're not quite at the quality level I demand from myself for a TransGriot post.

When I've refined them to my satisfaction, up they will go on the blog as expeditiously as possible.