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In the wake of @TheTinaVasquez's coverage of the outgoing NLG president, people are once again using the racism of white women to excuse transphobia.
You can take those arguments all the way to the garbage scows on the Hudson River https://twitter.com/TheTinaVasquez/status/1347183847843229696?s=19
You can take those arguments all the way to the garbage scows on the Hudson River https://twitter.com/TheTinaVasquez/status/1347183847843229696?s=19
This is the same shit that happened in the wake of Rachel Dolezal's claim that she was "transracial," that is, that she "identified as a Black person."
@1demerith put it perfectly back then https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/12/comparison-transgender-people-rachel-dolezal
@1demerith put it perfectly back then https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/12/comparison-transgender-people-rachel-dolezal
From @1demerith
"I don’t need to pass as a woman the way Dolezal needs to pass as black, for the simple reason that I am a woman."
"I don’t need to pass as a woman the way Dolezal needs to pass as black, for the simple reason that I am a woman."
Compare this to how Dolezal and now Bannan used markers of Blackness and Latinidad in order to claim those races, while those markers of culture are punished when actual Black and Latina people exhibit them (Bannan's accent, Dolezal's hair).
Gender and race are both constructs, yes, so if you're being an asshole you could use that rhetoric to be racist and transphobic.
But race and gender are constructed from different materials and describe different things.
But race and gender are constructed from different materials and describe different things.
(Just a note about being assholes, "woman-face" is a term that anti-trans feminists use to make this specious comparison and boy isn't that just a great signal that your movement is made up of white women.)
See my article: https://www.politicalresearch.org/2019/02/20/racism-in-anti-trans-feminist-activism
See my article: https://www.politicalresearch.org/2019/02/20/racism-in-anti-trans-feminist-activism
So, fundamentally, the difference here starts at birth.
A doctor looks at a baby's crotch and assigns it a gender. Sometimes, the doctor is wrong--the baby's crotch told only one part of the complex story that makes up our gender.
A doctor looks at a baby's crotch and assigns it a gender. Sometimes, the doctor is wrong--the baby's crotch told only one part of the complex story that makes up our gender.
We are all our genders.
That is, a trans woman is and was always female, a nonbinary person is and was always nonbinary. A cis woman is and was always female.
(GENDER ALSO FLUCTUATES OVER TIME SHUT UP I KNOW BUT IT'S MORE LIKE BUTTERFLY WHERE THE CATERPILLAR IS ALSO THE BUTTE
That is, a trans woman is and was always female, a nonbinary person is and was always nonbinary. A cis woman is and was always female.
(GENDER ALSO FLUCTUATES OVER TIME SHUT UP I KNOW BUT IT'S MORE LIKE BUTTERFLY WHERE THE CATERPILLAR IS ALSO THE BUTTE
Race is comprised of wholly different material altogether:
Gender develops in utero (maybe??), but race is determined both way before and way after: in both the DNA passed to the embryo and in how your endemic society views your skin, your hair, your language, your history.
Gender develops in utero (maybe??), but race is determined both way before and way after: in both the DNA passed to the embryo and in how your endemic society views your skin, your hair, your language, your history.
You cannot "change" your race because it is something that is given to you by society.
ALSO I'M WHITE AND ACTUAL PEOPLE OF COLOR LIKE @1demerith HAVE WRITTEN ABOUT IT BETTER SO PLEASE READ HER.
ALSO I'M WHITE AND ACTUAL PEOPLE OF COLOR LIKE @1demerith HAVE WRITTEN ABOUT IT BETTER SO PLEASE READ HER.
And to further hammer this home, most trans people are not "changing" their gender, either.* They are asserting their gender to a world that got them wrong.
*Individual trans people may feel differently
*Individual trans people may feel differently
In sum: race and gender aren't akin.
To say that Bannan and Dolezal's deceit justifies transphobia is to COMPLETELY erase the experiences of Black and Latina trans women.
C'mon.
Follow @TWOCCNYC, @TransLatina_C, @BlkTransFutures, @BTFAcollective and fucking learn a thing.
To say that Bannan and Dolezal's deceit justifies transphobia is to COMPLETELY erase the experiences of Black and Latina trans women.
C'mon.
Follow @TWOCCNYC, @TransLatina_C, @BlkTransFutures, @BTFAcollective and fucking learn a thing.
