“There is no debate anymore. There’s no room for it in my book. We either make this happen. Or literally, more of us perish. People are dying. Someone I love died. This virus is real. If it hasn’t visited your doorstep, it will.
“Oh but, Kamala did this or she didn’t do that. I hear you. I know. And I don’t care.
“Because what she DIDN’T DO is abandon citizens in a pandemic, rip babies from their mother’s arms at the border, send federal troops to terrorize protestors, manufacture new ways to suppress Black and Brown votes, actively disrespect Indigenous people and land, traffic in white supremacist rhetoric in an effort to stir racist violence at every turn, attempt to dismantle most American democratic systems of checks and balance, degrade women all day everyday, infect the Supreme Court with another misogynist hack, demolish America’s standing on climate, actively cultivate and further white supremacist structures and systems across all aspects of American daily life.
“I mean, that’s what she DIDN’T do. So I don’t wanna hear anything bad about her. It doesn’t matter to me. Vote them in and then let’s hold them accountable.
“Anything other than that is insanity. It’s ego. It’s against our own interests. It’s selfish. It’s disrespectful to our elders. It’s nonsense. It’s talking to hear yourself talk.
“This is a matter of life or death. We need all our energy focused. This is a fight for more than can be expressed here. There is no debate anymore.”
—Ava DuVernay, writer, producer, director, 13th
a l l o f t h i s
is what I was saying last week to a Trans Black woman who harassed me on social media.
I keep bringing this up because I am very disturbed by the anti-blackness/anti bio Black queer woman vibe that I have endured by Black Trans women for the last few years — and quite frankly from cis-hetero Black women as well.
I have not publicly spoken about it
b c
the female queer and cis communities do something similar to what Black men do to Black women when we try to get them to unpack their misogyny.
It’s viewed as undermining the ‘cause.’
Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE Black women period but I am having a hard time understanding why verbal abuse towards Black women BY Black women has for some reason been given a pass?
AND then I see white Trans folks signing on to it?!?! I’m sorry ya’ll I’m an old BIPOC queer who has been standing up for people’s rights for decades. The fact that I have spent the last 2 days seeing Black women needing to publicly justify why we
1) Will not personally publicly attack Kamala
2) Why we should have the right to claim this moment in history DESPITE what Kamala’s past has been truly disconcerting.
Why? Because I feel like Black women can’t have anything!
i m e
I have been reduced to perspectives that I have never claimed, judged, and criticized for choosing strategy over recklessness. I’ve been insulted and told that I was trash because I want to preserve Black lives over boycotting the system when we are facing a man determined to make this country into a fascist dictatorship.
We are always cut down to size, made one dimensional – like, we can’t have different points of view simultaneously which is insane bc WE ARE BLACK WOMEN! We are intricate and complicated – we can hold many ideas and preferences at once because we have been forced to do that ever since the slave master raped us while whipping us in the cotton fields.
We are continuously having to defend ourselves – often time from one another. And it seems especially amongst those who have had the privilege to transition – and yes don’t get it twisted – it IS a privilege to be able to live your life the way that you need to out loud – those of us who are in our late 30s and 40s know this was something that was rarely done and now it’s mainstream.
The collective WE (yes Black Dykes and those Black Dykes who eventually transitioned to be FTM) helped to make that happen.
And yet it seems we still get no love?!?
Anyway … the saga continues …
—jasper james
Flommist Jasper James is a multifaceted diversity-trained entrepreneur, multi-instrumentalist/ writer, event producer, and former Billboard Recording Artist. They are also the co-founder of Activism Articulated, and Women’s March Blac, an all-Black branch of Women’s March National Leadership. Jasper is on the ACLU Sacramento Chapter Board and the Sacramento Stonewall Democratic Club (PAC) and is an active member of the ACLU Speakers Bureau. They were also one of only five Black sitting female Presidents in the nation for the Women’s March Sacramento Chapter. Copyright © 2020 Jasper James. Image source.
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