allies and friends
I will expand on this later; it's certainly worth my posting on, and soon. But in the meantime, there is something important to say:
Brownfemipower is a goddamn gleaming lioness.
Siempre la solidaridad, hermana.
Brownfemipower is a goddamn gleaming lioness.
Siempre la solidaridad, hermana.
Labels: feminism, metablogging, trans
posted by little light | 10:15 AM
16 Comments:
Well, your comment on that thread to Heart was *amazing* (and what brought me over here).
I'm so angry and sick over the Twisty thread that I haven't been able to pull together a post on it yet.
Yeah, the thing.
You know where I come from on this. And you find folk that don't scare me.
Someday I may have the guts to write about it, someday. Someday when Twisty and that ilk weigh less heavily on my spirit.
It's so tiring being The Wrong Sort Of Woman.
I've been meaning to tell you, Darkhawk, that the woman who pissed you off so bad That One Time has found forces finally arrayed against her.
I thought you might appreciate knowing that people actually do notice when she steps over the line, and actually do give a damn enough to do something about it. She's being boycotted by a lot of us, for starters, no links, no nothing.
Hells yes.
Black Amazon's no slouch, either. that last post of hers left scorch marks, gleaming golden trails.
Twisty stepped over a line, for sure, but is it the line? Do we really draw it that far out?
We deserve better.
I suspect our personal lines are much closer. I know mine is.
In the days when I was able to do activism, radical women of color were *always* there for me and mine, even when we weren't always there for them. They knew way back then answers that us white folks are only beginning to even barely understand.
It is my hope that one day we can, with the help of radical women of color (some of whom are us) become as good of allies to them as they have been to us for these last decades.
So that all of our youth may live better lives than the ones we're living.
(P.S. It's not about Twisty. It never was.)
I'm with you there, anonymous. (It helps that I am a woman of color myself and, I'd like to claim, radical. I'm often more comfortable in radical WOC activist circles than the trans community, such as it is, truth be told. "Intersectionality" is my Word of the Decade.
We've got to go hand in hand on this. We've got to look after and listen to each other.
It's not about some singular gorgon out there, and never was. But she certainly served as a good reminder of who's really got whose back.
oh yeah, Twisty was way over my line months and months ago, for all kinds of reasons. but sometimes it takes specific incidents for the penny to drop, for various people, for various reasons.
I don't blame you for being more comfortable among other people of color. The trans community is, unfortunatly the *white* trans community by default. Hell, I don't want to be associated with the white trans community because I don't deal well with other white people. I'm not good enough to carry the ally to other white people.
We're hurting, though. Most of us are broken beyond repair. By our own issues and our inability to live in the outside world. I'm not trying to use this as an excuse, but it is so hard to be an effective ally under that kind of pressure.
And there are a lot of us who just don't care. A lot of white supremacy. We have a great deal in common with the white radfems, which is probably why we try so hard to join them in Michigan. Not me personally, I don't want nothing to do with them, but I don't deny that there is white supremacy and racism coursing through my brainspace, messing up my worldview, destroying my friendships with people of color, making me a poor ally.
I'm guilty of assuming you were white, for instance. Just a little thing that tells so much about the bigger things that lurk inside. And often not so much of a little thing.
I mourn that. So deeply.
I'm so fucking lonely. Them who would love me I drive away because of the programming that I cannot unprogram.
Do you know about Kate Bornstein? How she sold us out to the white radfems by claiming she was neither male nor female, to gain their acceptance? And she did and she got let into the little group here in Seattle as their pet tranny who was a good tranny because she was willing to be what they wanted her to be. She wrote about it later on when she realized that it was too high a price to pay.
I'm sure I don't have to tell you any of this. I just need to write it somewhere. I hope you'll accept it as a comment on your blog. That there's something worth keeping in this small confession. I'm just lost and broken and tired and I should be thankful that this is being talked about, but my vision is blurred red with the anger. I like Piny well enough, but I don't want him to be our only voice.
I don't want to end on that note, but I should end.
Thank you for giving the space to comment.
anonymous, you're welcome here any time, and I really value your saying what you're saying here. (I'm a big Piny fan too, incidentally, but not only do I not think he should be our only loud voice, I think a lot of that is that it's an unfair pressure to put on him.) Anyhow.
If you'd like to adopt a name here--even one totally separate from handles you use elsewhere--just so I know that you're the same you who was here just now and can keep track, I'd love to have you around. You seem thoughtful, and it seems like we have a lot in common.
Anyhow. It's an interesting, and common, assumption. I've been watching where I go in people's blogrolls, for instance--do I go under 'women of color,' or 'queer,' or 'trans issues,' or 'politics,' or 'religion comentary'? If they have more than one of these, which slot do I end up in?
More often than not, the transness seems to trump everything else, and it makes it easy to forget I'm brown. Sometimes, in real life, that's an advantage for me--people have it so in their heads that queerness is a white thing, they just assume I'm passing better than I am. It's funny.
And honestly, let's face it: I'm more or less, give or take, half white. I grew up around white people. I was dunked in white culture. I grew up in a town of 50,000 where you only needed your fingers and toes to count the people of color, especially if you left out exchange students. I went to a majority-white college in one of the whitest cities in the country. I make noise about my rural roots.
I probably sound white, if such a thing is possible.
Anyway, the other thing you said, about being broken--that's really telling. I have people tell me, fairly frequently, that their general impression or experience of trans people is that they're all kinda crazy to varying degrees. I usually point out that to live in this world as a trans person would make just about anyone go crazy at least a little.
We're all some kind of wounded, some more than others. This world will make a lot of folk crack, folk of all sorts. Look at how many people at IBTP, for instance, cite as a source for their bile that they were hurt badly in the past. This world grinds and grinds sometimes, and some of us take it out on each other, and some of us take it out on ourselves.
It's miraculous that I made it through my teens, but I would be exaggerating to say I made it through with my sanity intact. Healing is work.
(waving lighter, singing "we are the champions")
I have chosen this name for myself and hope that we can dialogue more. Thank you for the invitation.
I may not comment a lot, I usually don't. Usually, I will start a comment and just close the page without publishing it. I do that a lot.
For sure, I'll be reading your blog, though.
Also, I noticed that you are in Portland, Oregon. I used to live there for two or three years back around and before 2000.
Be fun to compare notes, maybe?
Would you mind if I added you to AIM?
Feel free to add me, DI. I'm not logged on often, these days, but that's that. And no pressure about commenting. I love comments and discussion, but I won't think ill of you if you don't leave me reams, you know?
And hey, if you'll be around to read, I clearly have to finish the five posts I have in draft form right now. Er. Hee.
Maybe I could set up one for the comparing notes on Portland. It has flaws, sure, but I do love this city. I'll miss it when I have to leave.
bfp rocks.
on another note, dead inside says:
"We're hurting, though. Most of us are broken beyond repair. By our own issues and our inability to live in the outside world."
yes, no doubt. i try not to obsess about it though, because it'll just trigger another episode of depression. and there's been way too many of those recently.
I'm in agreement with spotted elephant right now about your comments. Thank you for sharing your perspectives over at BFP. (I came here from there.)
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